Historically we have been in a rush the past two times we have come through the canal. The first time we had left a 6 month old baby Max with Grandma & Grandpa while we brought the Allmond back from Sea Bright, NJ and I only had so many vacation days. That trip took 16 days. While the boat was much slower averaging around 5kts.. there were also days included for dealing with the mast while we put it up and down. We did bring it back in the springtime and would often run until the locks closed at 10pm often tieing up for the night in front of the first lock we would travel through the next morning. When we came through with the tug Annabelle was coming back from her exchange year in Denmark before we would make it home and would be staying again with her grand parents until we got there. Additionally Amy was leading a trip with their Girl Scout Troop to England that would leave four days after we arrived home. The tug moved quite a bit faster averaging around 8.5kts. We were also better at reading and planning for the tides which made it possible to ride the tide all the way up the Hudson River in one day. Looking back that trip was only 6 days. This time while we ran longer days than most people (other than delivery captains) we completed the leg from NYC to home in about 12 days. I would guess our average speed was around 7knts.
I remember really enjoying the trip the first time. Everything was new to us the scenery was beautiful as always but we did run a lot of long days. The trip with the tug was a bit different while we enjoyed the trip it was not new, we had been through a lot of locks and bridges over the year we had been living on it making us a well oiled machine by the time we got to the canal. I don't recall the trip feeling rushed but on the other hand I think we were all about ready to end our Great Loop and get back to land life and reengaging with friends. This time I felt like we took the appropriate amount of time. We stopped in a few places to see what they offered, had a couple of rest days along the way and it was just a nice trip overall. Having done this trip three times now I don't feel like we have seen it all yet. Each time we have done this trip we have stopped at a lot of new places along the way and there are still more of those to be done. But with that said I don't think I would actively look to make the trip through the canal anytime soon and I really hope to never do it again with a mast on deck. While this time the mast was fairly easy to maneuver around it did really limit the driver’s visibility. This boat was also fairly wide and frankly we should have had three to four more fenders. In the past we had used big rubber fenders and they did a great job for us. This time we had five inflatable fenders that came with the boat and we were worried about them popping while dragging up and down the rough concrete walls of the locks so we tried using fender boards for the first time which essentially turned our five fenders into three. While the fender boards worked they introduced their own set of problems. Towards the end we stopped using them and hoped the inflatables would not pop. We got lucky in that area. I think when we leave the Great Lakes and head though the St Lawrence & Welland locks I will have a few more fenders on board and this time I will drill the fender boards differently ensuring the lines holding them don't rub against the concrete lock walls.
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