A Watery Stairway to... by J.C. Kavanagh

 

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The stairway goes... up and down. Of course it does. But a watery stairway? The kind you find in a canal? Those stairways are called "locks." And yes, they go up and/or down, depending on which way you're travelling.

Let me explain.

Regular readers know that me and my partner, Ian, are heading home after our sailing adventures to - and in - the Bahamas. An important part of this journey takes us through two canal systems: The Erie Canal and the Oswego Canal. 

Our route home through the Erie Canal System and the connecting Oswego Canal systems (in red)

Remember last month's blog when I wrote about the shallow waters in the Intracoastal Waterway? And our physical reaction to it?

Guess what.

The sphincter pucker reflex was exercised yet again.

Between the 17th lock in Little Falls (a great place to dock) and the 20th Lock in Rome, we grounded our boat three times. That means we hit the bottom. Also stuck to the bottom. We were warned about these shallow spots so we travelled through them in idle mode, letting the current move us. Unfortunately, the suggested route through these sections was incorrect. The Lock 19 area was the worst - it took us about 45 minutes to steer through the muddy impasse. Let me tell you, when we were settled hours later, a glass of wine never tasted so good.

Did you know there are 23 locks in the Erie Canal system, rising 128 metres above sea level (420 feet) to the Rome Lock, and then descending 363 feet to the Three Rivers / Phoenix Lock south of the Oswego Canal? That's the up/down stairway. The Oswego Canal has seven locks spanning 38 kms (almost 24 miles).  

Docked for the night at Little Falls.

Me and our non-sailing sailboat (temporary, though).
The mast must be down in order to travel through the locks and under the dozens of short bridges.
It is snugly positioned on our uniquely designed structure.

To enter a lock, you must radio the Lock Master on your hand-held VHF, channel 13. (The regular antenna is at the top of the mast - but not while it's lying on deck!) When the Lock Master fills (or empties, depending which way you're travelling) the lock chamber, the metal doors will open and you proceed into the lock. There are multiple hanging ropes along both sides of the lock - pick the ones you want to 'hang-on-to' and wait till the lock chamber fills/empties. This is the tricky part. You have to hold the boat away from the slick/slimy/icky walls with a wooden pole while hanging on to the rope to prevent the boat from being pushed to the other side of the lock. My position is at the bow and Ian is at the stern because when the lock doors open, he has to jump to the wheel and throttle to put the boat in gear. Believe me when I tell you the current rushing in/out is strong enough to easily move a 20,000 lb boat.

In this lock, we will be moving upward. This is lock 17 in the Erie Canal system. 
At 12.3 metres (40.5 ft.), it's the tallest lock in the entire New York State Canal system.
It takes six million gallons of water to fill/drain the chamber.

And so our adventure continues as we make our way through the Oswego Canal. We hope to be home in Canada sometime next month.

If you ever wondered where I sourced all my watery adventures in The Twisted Climb series, well, I think you've figured it out. While my sailing adventure has been incredible, there are no paranormal activities like those found in the Dream World and the Un-World. 

At least, not yet.

Stay safe and don't forget to tell the ones you love that you love them.

J.C. Kavanagh, author of
The Twisted Climb - A Bright Darkness (Book 3) Best YA Book FINALIST at Critters Readers Poll 2022
AND
The Twisted Climb - Darkness Descends (Book 2) voted BEST Young Adult Book 2018, Critters Readers Poll and Best YA Book FINALIST at The Word Guild, Canada
AND
The Twisted Climb,
voted BEST Young Adult Book 2016, P&E Readers Poll
Voted Best Local Author, Simcoe County, Ontario, 2021
Novels for teens, young adults and adults young-at-heart
Email: author.j.c.kavanagh@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/J.C.Kavanagh 
www.amazon.com/author/jckavanagh
Instagram @authorjckavanagh
https://www.bookswelove.com/shop/series/the-twisted-climb

In Canada:

https://www.amazon.ca/stores/J.C.-Kavanagh/author/B01H0Q9GLA?ref=ap_rdr&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

In the U.S.

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Summer Reading

Find my books here

Do your summers slow down? Do you go to the lake, the mountains? the seashore? Do you listen to audiobooks while tending your summer garden? Summer reading holds a special place in my heart. 

Our grandson Des stays with us over the summer. What fun finding a book we can read together each night before bed. Since he loves animals, especially monkeys, I'm thinking The Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls might be a good fit this summer.

Mom helps Des get his first library card.

I look forward to sharing great tales we used to read with his mother, her sister and brother, too--the Little House books, Anne of Green Gables, the novels of CS Lewis and Madeline L'Engle. 

Do you read a different kind of book in the summer?  What plots intrigue? Wedding weekend drama? Rich people behaving badly? Maybe you're ready for an alien invasion, a richly tapestried historical novel or a generational family saga? Perhaps friends forever tale is more to your liking? Or a good story of summer love?

Whatever your choice, I wish you hours of delight. And maybe a little strawberry shortcake for dessert!

My Amazing Research Trip: Day One by Susan Calder

Please visit my website www.susancalder.com for information on me and my writing

In May, my husband Will and I travelled to Karlovy Vary, Czechia, to research my novel-in-progress, which is set in that spa city on the brink of World War One. A few months before the trip, I emailed the Karlovy Vary Municipal Library and the Karlovy Vary Museum, explained my project, and asked their advice on how to prepare for my four-day visit.    

Librarian Kateřina Krieglsteinová recommended that I search the library's online catalogue and send her a list of books that interested me so she could have them ready when I arrived. My first morning in Karlovy Vary, she presented me with a stack of twenty-one books, none of which are available to me in North America. 

Will and I poured through the books and quickly dealt with a half dozen either because we could grab the pertinent information easily or we decided the text was too dense to explore during our limited time. Most of the books were written in Czech. While my maternal grandparents immigrated to Canada from (then) Czechoslovakia after WWI, I don't speak the language. 

Translation apps are a godsend and old photographs speak thousands of words.   

Kateřina let me take the remaining books to my hotel. Somehow, in the midst of my other research and touring, I managed to peruse them all during my next three days -- who needs sleep? I took over 250 photographs of text and historical pictures that portray the city during the era of my story.  

After lunch that first day, Will and I met with historians David Čech, Jan Nedvěd, Lukáš Svoboda, and Lukáš' dog in their office in an apartment building separate from the Karlovy Vary Museum. We spent almost two hours talking about life in Karlovy Vary (aka Karlsbad in German) during the Golden Age of the Great Spa Towns of Europe. Eleven of those towns including Karlovy Vary are now a transnational UNESCO World Heritage Site.  

At the end of our productive talk, I thanked the historians for giving me their time. They said it was part of their job to assist anyone interested in the town's history. I further imposed on their generosity by leaving them a bunch of additional questions. Since my return home, David has sent me detailed replies that will make my story more authentic. 

Next, we checked into our spa hotel and scurried back to the library in pouring rain for my 5:00 pm informal talk with library readers. Kateřina had arranged for a translator and created posters in Czech and English to promote the event. 

 

We agreed on a question-and-answer format. Kateřina posed questions, the translator restated them in English, I replied, and the translator repeated my answers in Czech for Kateřina and the audience. I'm afraid I made the translator's job difficult by rambling on rather than pausing in the middle of my answers. Being translated is an acquired skill.     

To my surprise, Kateřina had purchased two of my novels online for the library. I donated a third book, and now my novels live overseas in the Karlovy Vary Library. One attendee had already read my latest novel, A Killer Whisky, and had purchased one of my earlier books, which she asked me to sign. 

I was also surprised to learn that the Karlovy Vary library is administered by the city's Tourism Information Centre. Kateřina told the tourism director about my project, and he invited me to his office for coffee. He explained that their main markets for long-term spa visits are Czechs, Germans, and Russians living in Germany. When my novel is published, he would like to arrange for a Czech translation to encourage interest in longer stays. Would I be open to this? 

Wow! I'd assumed I was writing this book for my usual English-speaking-largely-Canadian readers.  Translation would extend its reach. I said I'd do my best to make this happen.  

  

Teplá River, Karlovy Vary

On their website, the Karlovy Vary Library posted a nice writeup about my speaker event  with a photo of me and my interpreter. You can read it in English with their pop-up translation app.  

 

    

 

A Crab Tale - By Barbara Wackerle Baker

 

https://www.amazon.ca/stores/author/B0BMTM18PW

Barnes and Noble 

The first evening of our vacation on the west coast of Vancouver Island we went down to the docks. A man and three kids (two young girls and a teen-ageish boy) stood peering into the water. Two plastic five-gallon pails, a backpack, a small speaker playing catchy dance tunes and a variety of traps attached to ropes were lined up behind them.

You know me, I have to ask. “What are you guys doing?”

“Crabbing.” The man swings the rope attached to his trap back and forth in the air before he releases it into the waves.

“Cool. We’re from Calgary so,” I point at their paraphernalia, “this is new to us.”

And away he goes.

“The kids and I usually come down after supper.”

“Not when it’s raining,” his young daughter pipes in.

“I stand corrected. Except when it’s raining.” He tips his head at her. “We turn on the tunes so the girls can sing and dance when they get bored and Colton and I see what we can catch.

He points his thumb at his son. “We dance less and crab more.”

The older girl laughs as she drops her trap into the water. “That’s because they’re horrible dancers.”

“Crab lesson number one. Only keep male crabs.” The Dad puts his hand in the bucket of water and pulls out a crab. “You tell their sex by flipping them over. See this?” He points to a lighthouse looking shape on the crab’s underbelly. “He’s a male. That’s his pointy penis.” 

 

Both girls put a hand over their mouth and giggle.

“I don’t have a female one to show you, but their undersides look more like a beehive.” He puts the crab back in the pail. “You can only keep Dungeness crabs that are six-and-a-half-inches or larger and Red Rock crabs that are four-and-a-half-inches or more.” He holds one up. “This one’s a Dungeness and he's keeper.” 

 

There’s an excited whoop from Colton at the other end of the wharf. 

“I got a big one.” He plucks the crab out of the cage and there’s a screech - from Colton not the crab. Colton rushes towards his dad with the crab securely attached to his thumb. 

“Stay still or he’ll pinch harder,” Dad says as he grabs the pail of water full of crabs and sets it in front of Colton. “He’s got you good.” 

“It hurts.” Colton bites his bottom lip. 

Dad supports the underbelly of the crab and lowers Colton’s hand into the bucket. When the crab hits the water, it lets go and scurries under the other crabs. Colton waves his hand in the air, and I go over to check out his wound. Four deep crescent shaped cuts bleed as he squeezes the tip of his thumb. 

One of his sisters brings a bottle of antiseptic. “This is gonna hurt.” She smiles. 

“Jerk.” Colton closes his eyes. 

“Be nice.” Dad shakes a finger at them. “Both of you.” 

Colton bites his bottom lip again and winces as his sister pours on the pain. 

“Don’t put it in your mouth,” she says. 

He rolls his eyes at her and walks away. 

“You have to grab them like this.” Dad demonstrates proper crab grabbing technique. “They’re fast and aggressive. It’s easy to get pinched.” 

 

“There’s Sunny,” the youngest daughter shouts as she hip hops across the wharf and points in the water. 

 

We all stare ... and as if on cue - a long eye lashed seal pops their head up as they glide by and then ducks under the next wave. 

“That’s a great name,” I say. “She’s lovely.” 

“I don’t know if it’s a he or she.” The girl shrugs. “I just like the name Sunny.” 

Crab facts you may not know: 

• female crabs must molt their hard shell before they can mate. The male crab hugs and protects the female for days until she sheds and then stands guard until her new shell rehardens. Now that’s a true knight.

• crabs have eyestalks that swivel in all directions. When they hide under the sand, they use their eyes like mini periscopes.

• the majority of crabs skuttle sideways and dig into the sand butt first, so their head is close to the surface to feed and watch for predators.

• the purple shore crab is common and can grow to two inches wide. It comes in every colour except purple – insert WTH emoji.

 

I sigh. I’m not sure which I enjoyed more – the crab trivia or the interaction with the family. A delightful start to our holiday. 

 

Baker, Barbara - BWL Publishing Inc. (bookswelove.net)

Barbara Baker Author Page Facebook 

 

Summer of Lies by Barbara Baker — BWL Publishing

What About Me? by Barbara Baker — BWL Publishing

Jillian of Banff XO — BWL Publishing

The Essence of Andy Clitheroe- by Naguib Kerba

 https://www.nkerba.com/the-essence-of-series/the-essence-of-andy-clitheroe

Website:  https://www.nkerba.com