Erie Canal to Lake Ontario

While we were waiting in Waterford, we met up with some sailing friends we first met in the Bahamas in 2007.  Kenny & Kathy Walker have a beautiful new 48' American Tug.  They treated us to hors d'oeuvres and drinks on their boat deck.  Their boat is also their home and is appropriately named No Zip Code. 

Moving ahead to Amsterdam, the NY State Canal Corp opened the canal one day earlier than predicted on Tuesday, June 16th.  We headed up the canal towards Little Falls, NY.  Many of you have probably seen the Erie Canal from the NY State Thruway.  Well here is the opposite view.

Other parts of the canal are completely removed from civilization.

As you approach the Little Falls lock, the highest on the Erie Canal at 40.5 ft, the first thing you notice is the "guillotine" gate on the east end.

We expected that the only excitement at this lock would be going up the 40 ft wall.  Under the heading of "No One Expects the Spanish Inquisition", as we reached the top of the lock and were preparing to cast off, a 35 mph gale and deluge blew through.  We could barely control the boat in the narrow lock and both of us got beat up...we did save the boat however.  We couldn't have been any wetter if we'd jumped into the canal.  We couldn't see the gale coming because we were rising from the bottom of a 40 ft hole.  The lock tender, at the top, could see and did nothing to warn us.  He is off our Xmas card list.

After the lock beating we rested for the night at the city marina.  The nice lady that runs the place picked up Susan in her car at the grocery store and saved her a long walk back.  Continuing westward, we stopped at both ends of Oneida Lake (see map previous post).  On the east end we had a great Eye-talian dinner and the on the west end we bought a new starting battery for our diesel generator.

After Oneida Lake, we turned north into the Oswego River for the final run to Lake Ontario.  The Oswego River & Canal was the section closed for a week due to high water.  If you look at the turbulence at the bottom of the dam,  you can tell water is still screaming over the dams on the river.  Last week, two guys in a kayak drowned getting too close to one of these dams.  I heard they won a Darwin Award.

We finally got to Oswego on Lake Ontario on Sunday, June 28th.  Too late for the family reunion and about 3 weeks behind schedule.  The weather gods just said no.  Susan & I walked around a bit and she took this shot from the bridge above our boat.  We are tied up in the canal between the last 2 locks.

Our plan is stay here for a few days to re-provision, do laundry, yada, yada and visit our favorite Italian restaurant...Canale's.  This is all made possible because my brother Mark lives here.  After that we head across Lake Ontario for Canada.

P.S.  Some of you may have noticed a theme running thru the trip...Italian restaurants.  It's all Susan's fault...she makes me go.

Delaware Bay to the Erie Canal

Faithful readers (both of you) may be wondering where we've gotten to since the last post.  We left Delaware City Wednesday, June 10, and had a smooth Delaware Bay crossing entering the Cape May Canal around noon.  We passed by Cape May and went back out into the ocean bound for Atlantic City.  Here is a shot of some casinos from the ocean.

 We anchored for the night behind Harrah's (seen below).

After Atlantic City we traveled up the NJ Intracoastal Waterway to the northern end of Barnegat Bay.  From there, back out into the ocean for the run to NYC,  The Verrazano Narrows bridge is very impressive from the ocean.

On our way thru NY harbor we saw the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Freedom Tower.

At the northern end of Manhattan we passed under George & Martha.

We cruised up the Hudson past the Tappan Zee and anchored near the cliffs on the western side across from Sing Sing prison.  We felt perfectly safe here since no one ever escapes from NY prisons.

The next day we stopped at Half Moon Bay Marina in Croton-on-Hudson where our son, Jeff, met us by taking the train from Brooklyn.  We enjoyed a nice dinner at an Eye-talian restaurant in town.

Underway again the next day, we continued up the Hudson passing by the Orange County School for Wayward Boys (aka West Point).

After a nice anchorage near Hyde Park, we continued north past Albany to Troy where we started passage thru the locks of the Erie Canal.  Pictured below is Lock #2 at Waterford, NY.  There were seven boats in the lock.  The boats lengths range from 36-48 ft and 30,000 - 60,000 lbs in weight.  It gets exciting with all of the jostling around inside the narrow locks.

We passed thru 9 locks on our first day in the canal.

                                Curse of the weather gods redux

Due to heavy rains in upstate NY, the Erie Canal and Oswego Canal were closed on June 15th.  The pic below shows the heavy water flow over one of the dams.  At Troy, NY, the USGS reported the peak flow over the dam at 30,000 cubic feet per second.

As a result, we are stopped in Amsterdam, NY.  I just realized this discussion is  becoming a geography quiz on upstate NY, so I'll use this map as a visual aid.

Amsterdam is located on the Erie Canal under the letter "L" in the word "CANAL" closest to the Hudson River.  Our original plan had us on Lake Ontario in Oswego by June 21 for a family reunion.  We did make the first day cookout because my sister picked us up in her car on the way.  Shown below are my siblings Mark and Patsy with Susan and me.  If I look grumpy it's because my boat was supposed to be anchored in the background instead of stuck in Amsterdam (I suspect several of you are thinking...grumpy?...looks normal to me).

Rumor has it that the canal will reopen Wednesday.  Whenever it does, there will be a waterway scramble because hundreds of boats are stuck between the Hudson River and Oneida Lake (north of Syracuse).  Stay tuned.

Underway at Last

We finally got underway Tuesday, June 2, from Wormley Creek Marina in Yorktown, VA.  The marina lies just south of the famous battlefield.  Our friend Deb was kind enough to drop us off on Monday with our final load of stuff.  The captain and admiral are shown below just before departure.

The morning's trip up Chesapeake Bay was very nice until we got to the mouth of the Potomac about noon.  Then the "Lying Ba@#$%ds" at NOAA (epithet courtesy of our friend Jacki...I couldn't print what she really says because my grand kids might read this) got us when the wind & waves picked up to the point that we declared victory and withdrew to the protection of Point Lookout, Maryland.  

We anchored three nights in Smith Creek and spent one night at the Pt Lookout Marina.  It rained nearly the entire time we were there.  The captain talked Susan into going ashore in the dinghy for lunch.  He is shown below in his foul weather (bozo) suit.

 

When we got underway again Saturday, we had been away from Yorktown four days and covered a whopping 65 miles.  We had a great travel day Saturday and made over 100 miles to the northern end of Chesapeake Bay.  On the way we passed under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge at Annapolis.

We anchored in Still Pond and Susan got a shot of sunset that shows one of the reasons we do this (yes indeed we were drinking wine at this time).

Sunday morning was good again as we transited the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal with Cape May, New Jersey, as our destination.  There are several very high bridges over the canal.  Since ships up to 830 feet long use the canal, the bridge height makes sense.

As we turned south in Delaware Bay the weather gods did it again.  After some bashing, we turned back to Delaware City and tied up at the city marina.  Several other boats joined us because of the bad weather.  We will likely be here three days when the next break in the weather is forecast to occur by NOAA.  If you are thinking that, re the weather, I am Charlie Brown and NOAA is Lucy tempting me to try again...guilty as charged.  

Delaware City dates back to the opening of the canal in 1829.  Most buildings close to the canal are very old.  We had a nice breakfast at this small cafe.  The hotel was built in 1830.

We hope to leave on Wednesday morning and would like to reach Atlantic City.  Stay tuned.