Ilion to Rome, NY

An easy segment with a few spots under 5 feet. The Rome free city dock has no power, the shower and RR is half a mile away. This is the first time using our new suitcase all-in-one Pecron 4,200w lithium-battery/inverter to power the boat instead of a shore power pedestal on a dock. It also has multiple MPPT inlets for solar panels, an automatic transfer switch, auto detection of any charging etc etc. We simply plugged the pedestal end of our boat power cable back into the boat through a window and into the Pecron with a 30A RV adapter. It's about the same size as a Honda 2300, but with no gas or carbon monoxide risks, plus perfectly silent. Importantly to us, it requires no modifications to the boat electrical system and can be easily removed for more home backup power in the off season. There is no such thing (yet) of a true drop-in lithium replacement battery with an inverter, BMS, etc but this is as close as it gets at this point. Now we can transfer the biggest 12v energy hog (the fridge) to either the Pecron overnight or the totally independent boat Group 31 x 3 batteries plus solar or engine alternator recharge. Dinner, fans, fridge, breakfast + all the usual 120v loads brought the Pecron down to 40% of capacity. It recharged in 90 minutes to 100%. If you don't want to plug in the whole AC panel there are four 20A outlets you can use. You can also recharge it underway by 12v lighter plug (limited to a slow 150w rather than 1800w) but at a max 6MPH on these canals one thing we got plenty of is time.

https://www.pecron.com/products/pecron-e3800lfp…

Lock 17 is unique in using a giant guillotine instead of the gates originally designe"d by Archimedes. Mr Locke is wrongly given credit for that, but on the other hand imagine what a pain it would be on the VHF;
"Archimedes 45, Archimedes 45, this is Cat O' Mine, downbound."
"Archimedes 45. Just wait for the damn green light."
"Archimedes 45, Cat O' Mine copies wait for the damn green light."

This is also one of the few that REQUIRES a portside tie, so it only holds half as many boats unless some agree to raft. As (always) the smallest boat we requested rafting and Ella B agreed to host us. To make things more interesting, there is a huge log in the chamber blocking most of it. It's been in there for three days, and the lockmaster says he's thinking of charging it rent. The inrushing current sent it banging into multiple boats but no damage.Read more