Connections Abound!

Several days ago I (Kathie) mentioned that we were meeting other cruisers and other “Loopers,” and that’s continuing to happen. Yesterday, we traveled in tandem with Kaos, Legrace, and Seaquel yesterday, going through locks together.

Seaquel started one lock behind us, and Kaos was kind enough to initiate holding the next lock so we could all travel together. Kaos later sped ahead to make more miles and we three others continued at a slower pace; when Legrace and Seaquel stopped for the day and we pressed on, we passed Sun Cat tied to a wall as we continued on to Little Falls NY.

Docking is always the toughest part of a boater’s day. We are usually pretty well organized, having discussed how we will approach the dock and what we will each do, and assembled and placed equipment such as fenders and docklines where we need them. We are always geared up, and yesterday there was a cross wind that made docking a bit more difficult. The young lady running the “canal center” was there to take lines and a gentleman from a nearby boat stepped out to help. He disappeared (it was dinnertime) and we didn’t see him again until this morning.

Link to Mapquest for our position last night

The Winnie W is behind Karma at the dock.

Turns out, Karma with a Florida home port on her transom, carries Hardy and Annemarie, who previously lived in our North Carolina community. They are still members of one of our home yacht clubs, FHYC!

Here's Hardy and Annemarie proudly holding up their FHYC burgee!

We discussed our cruising speeds and decided to travel together, locking through at the same time (efficient for both lockmasters and cruisers). We have posted photos of them, their boat,
and “locking through” together. You can see Anka, their Portuguese Water Dog, on their boat in the lock, ready to help!

We look forward to meeting more new friends and soon-to-be-friends from “home.”

We hope that you are all doing well!

Kathie and Doug