Ashore in Clayton NY.

WiFi acquired!

I'm now safely ensconced in the library of Clayton NY, as It has the best WiFi in town apparently.

Had a magnificent night watch lat night it started off with a strong wind that made steering really difficult.  I had to turn her over to one of my shipmates, Kelly, because I was rapidly loosing control... sigh.

In my defense I claim lack of practice :-)

I eventually got another trick once the wind had moderated and we set the jibs and spanker which made steering much easier.  It was a beautiful night for a sail, intensely bright stars and Milky Way. The moon came up and added to the wonder.

Hit the sack at the end of my watch and was totally gone until 5:00 ish when we were turned out to help the on-watch bring the ship alongside at Clayton get tied up.

Then we got to go back to bed for two hours till our normal watch call at 7:30.

Spent the morning tieing on the great balks of wood that protect the ship's sides from the wall of the canal locks. I also went aloft for the first time to furl the foresail. Didn't do to bad for the first time in 8 years! When we got off at noon we were allowed to go ashore till an All Hands muster at 4:00pm when we will go over the route for tonight.

The plan is to leave the quay at Clayton around midnight so we can traverse the locks in daylight tomorrow.

We have a had a very curious crowd on the quay all day asking questiions and taking pictures :-)

Fiji is working the crowd collecting pets and scritches as usual.

My hands are a real wreck, the broken blisters are not healing well, because being on the 8-12 watch my hands are in soapy water for most of the first watch. Sigh.

Going to FB and stuff while I have the WiFi, might upload some pictures too.

More later maybe.

Thanks for reading
KJ