Day 11: Newark to Fairport

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August 20: Chores at Newark, a drone flight, and a short ride, too late in the day.

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I was up early Friday morning, as I suspected I might be. But I was prepared. My shower bag and laundry were all ready to go. I added the sheets and pillow cases off my bed, grabbed everything, and headed for the bathrooms. Outside, it was still very dark.

Shower and Laundry

The dock had a great bathroom setup. There was one locked door that led into a hallway with a ladies’ room, a men’s room, a shower room, and a single washer and dryer. Everything was clean and in good condition. No one else was there.

I got a good hot shower first, dressed in clean clothes, and then stuffed all of my laundry into the washer. It was about five days worth, so it wasn’t really that much. I did make one mistake, though: I included the blue microfiber towel Capt Paul had provided with all of my clothes, including my new white socks. When they came out of the washer, they weren’t bright white anymore. Oops.

I should mention here that these weren’t coin-operated laundry machines. They were the same kind you might have in your house. Free. The whole marina was free: docking, power, bathrooms, showers, laundry, and even pump out. I honestly believe the washers should have been coin-operated; I can imagine them getting a lot less use/abuse if you had to add a few dollars in quarters to get laundry done.

While I waited for the washer to finish, I sat on a bench outside the bathrooms that overlooked the canal and caught on up Twitter, checked my email, and checked the weather. I knew my companions were still asleep on Nano; none of the lights were on. I didn’t want to wake them by coming on board and then leaving a short while later to put my laundry in the dryer. So I stayed put until the washer was finished, put everything in the dryer, and returned to Nano.

The dock at Newark before dawn on Friday morning.

Breakfast

Capt Paul was awake when I got back to Nano. I made my coffee right after he made his. (The coffee maker is loud and I don’t like using it before wake up time. That morning there was no official wake up time so I let him make his coffee first.) By this time it was after 6:30 AM; the restaurant across the street would open at 7 but I didn’t have high hopes about the quality of its coffee.

I headed over to Erie Shore Landing at around 7:15 AM. (Paul, put off a bit by “bakery” in the restaurant’s signs, went in search of breakfast elsewhere.) The place had standard bakery displays filled with baked goods, along with a breakfast menu of egg sandwiches and breakfast burritos. It was deserted. It took a good five minutes for someone to come up front and, when she did, she was dressed like a baker, right down to the little white hat.

It was clear that I knew the menu better than she did — I’d been studying it for five minutes after all — by the questions she asked when I ordered. Then she admitted that she’d never taken an order and was the only one there.

Insufficient staff has been a recurring theme in restaurants all along our route. They just can’t seem to find people to work. My theory is that if you make employment attractive enough with good pay and good working conditions and maybe even some benefits you should be able to get people to work for you. But what do I know?

Anyway, I assured her I was in no rush — I had my iPad along and could read while I waited — paid for my order, and then went to wait at a table by the window. My food eventually came while other customers came and went and a second employee appeared. Sadly, the food wasn’t very good; my egg sandwich was dripping with oil from the fry pan she’d probably used to cook the egg.

Chores

By the time I’d finished breakfast, it was time to get my laundry out of the dryer. I fetched it, dumped it on my bed to fold later, and set off with a shopping bag to buy some groceries. We were completely out of fresh fruit, including the berries I like to put in my morning cereal and drinking water. We also needed ice. There was a Save A Lot supermarket about two blocks away and I figured I’d buy what we needed there.

I could tell that supermarket was not for me almost as soon as I entered pushing a full-sized basket. The air conditioning was off. The place was nearly empty. None of the produce looked very fresh. Just about every product was an off brand I’d never heard of.

I had put three things in my cart when I decided I could do better. There was a Wegmans supermarket about a mile away. It was a nice day and I really did want some exercise. So I just left the store and started to walk.

The walk took me down a residential street a block off the main street. It was just warm enough to work up a sweat. On arrival, I found a small cart and went into a giant supermarket that was downright chilly from air conditioning.

I shopped. It was difficult to not buy things we didn’t need. If you don’t know about the Wegmans supermarket chain, it’s a little like a Whole Foods but without the focus on organics and “natural” foods. They had everything we could want or need — and yes, prices were a bit higher than at Save A Lot.

I filled my cart, checked to see if Uber could send a car, was satisfied that they could, and checked out. Then I waited outside for Uber to actually connect me with a driver.

Suddenly, no drivers for any type of Uber were available.

I tried Lyft. They claimed they could send a car, but it would cost $35 for the ride. (Uber had ranged from $9 to $15.)

I tried Uber again. No cars available.

The ice in my cart was melting.

I called the Chamber of Commerce office by the dock to see what they could recommend. There was no taxi service as a Chamber member, but they gave me a number anyway, telling me to call back if it didn’t work.

I called. I got a machine. I called back the Chamber.

And they sent one of their people to come get me. Talk about service above and beyond what’s expected!

She picked me up, helped me load the groceries into the back of her car, and drove me back to the dock. Then she helped me carry all that stuff down to the boat. And then she wouldn’t take the money I offered her. I insisted. She told me to donate it to the Chamber. I told her that she could donate it.

So my little shopping expedition had a happy ending. But I’ve learned my lesson. I won’t be going to the supermarket again unless I know for sure that I can get the groceries back to the boat without depending on the kindness of others.

Killing Time

I’d hurried back so we could leave by 11 AM. You see, we’d been told that the next lock, Lock 29, was only opening at the top of the even hour for westbound boats. That meant we’d need to be there at 10 AM, noon, 2 PM, etc. to get through. It would take us about an hour to get to Lock 29.

Capt Paul had us leaving early every day; the fact that we were still in Newark at 11 AM on a travel day was very unusual. So I assumed he’d want to make that noon locking.

But I was wrong. He didn’t want to leave until 2:45 PM to make the 4 PM locking. So I suddenly had more than 3 hours to kill.

I spent most of that time searching for some “lost” money. The previous day, when we’d had to pay cash for fuel, I figured I’d pay from my cash stash. I’d brought along $800 cash (and my passport) for the trip, all tucked away in a zipper pouch. The problem was, I couldn’t find the zippered pouch. I figured it was on the bottom of my stuff in one of the places I’d tucked my stuff. The only way to find it was to move all my stuff and check all my bags. I couldn’t do that with Dianne in our shared space, but with her elsewhere, I had plenty of room and could do it right. I could also fold my laundry and put it away.

So I got to it. And, to my horror, I could not find the zippered bag with my money.

But I did nearly organize all my stuff and put it away in the storage area I’d been allotted,

I began sending texts. Had I left the little bag at my brother’s place when I visited? He said he’d look. Had it left it on my kitchen counter? My house sitter wasn’t there, but promised to look.

I couldn’t imagine myself being careless enough to drop it somewhere and the likelihood of it being stolen from the boat was very slim. So I didn’t worry about it. It would turn up. Or at least I hoped it would. Losing $800 was painful, but losing my passport would be a real headache.

By this time, it was around 2 PM. I’d been wanting to fly my drone for more shots of the boat and canal and with very light wind, thought it was a good time. So I pulled out the drone and fired it up. I flew it around the area and took some shots, focusing on where Nano was docked. A patio boat motored through, eastbound, and I got a few shots with it in it, too.

Nano is at the close end of the floating dock in this photo.

Off to Fairport

Capt Paul and Dianne were prepping the boat for departure, so I put the drone away in a hurry and got to work. We still needed to pump out the boat and figured we’d use the free pump out station at Newark. So Paul repositioned the boat and I fetched the Chamber lady to enter the required code to turn it on.

The pumping went quickly enough. We put everything away, said goodbye, and cast off. It was almost 3 PM.

Although I’d been tracking each day’s journey with the Nebo boating app on my phone. I completely forgot to turn it on for this trip. But it was short — or at least it should have been short.

Just as expected, it took us about an hour to reach Lock 29, 10 miles away. We called the lock keeper at 3:50 PM. He said an eastbound boat was coming and he wanted to save water by letting him lock down before he let us lock up. That wouldn’t have been so bad except that the other boat didn’t show up for 30 minutes. By the time he got into the lock and was locked down, it was after 4:30. Then we got in and were locked up. We motored out exactly an hour after we’d arrived.

Then there was another lock about three miles farther along. And then another eight or so miles to Fairport.

We arrived around 7 PM. And there was no space left on either side of the canal for us to park.

Fairport

Fairport was recommended to me by one of my Twitter friends, who works on a tour boat there. I’d suggested it as a stop and several people we’d met in Newark also recommended it.

But I’d wanted to get there early enough to walk around and see what the town was like. Instead, we’d arrived at 7 PM on a Friday night when locks to the east of Newark were closed. So not only was this popular town crowded with the usual Friday evening boaters, but it had the folks who were planning to go east on the canal and thought Fairport was the last good docking spot for them before being stopped by the canal closures.

We finally found a spot to park on what was obviously a private floating dock at the very east end of the south wall. We tied up and plugged in. I hoped that a boat would pull out by the time we finished dinner and that we could move into a regular spot, but that didn’t happen.

We went to a Mexican restaurant on the north side of the canal. Without reservations, the only seating was at the bar. I ordered a grapefruit-based drink another customer had raved about and watched our very busy bartender, who was working alone, make drink after drink for the crowd. The owner of the place was there and he chatted with us while we waited for our food. I had some really good pork belly tacos.

View of Fairport, looking west just after sunset from a bridge over the canal. Every parking space was taken at the docks.

We walked back on that side of the canal and crossed over a bridge closer to Nano. We were in the boat less than 15 minutes when a man came down the dock and told us it was a private dock for kayakers. We promised to be out of there early the next morning. He didn’t seem happy, but he did let us stay.

Of course, not having tied up at the town dock, we had no idea where the restrooms were. Good thing Nano has a head.

I never did meet up with my Twitter friend. Her tour boat left as we were arriving and returned when we were tucking in for bed.

I will say one thing about our spot: it was quiet. I was asleep not long after my head hit my pillow.