Erie Canal

6/24/08

Now we start our journey on the famous Erie Canal. It was opened in 1825 and was the engineering marvel of the 19^th century. Someone had earlier proposed digging it to Thomas Jefferson and he just decided that was “crazy talk”. Anyway, Gov. Dewitt Clinton decided it was a fantastic idea and got the ball rolling on it. In 1817 the state authorized $7 million for construction of a canal 363 miles long, 40 feet wide and four feet deep. It turns out Clinton was right and the effect on the economy of New York and the development of the western states was dramatic and immediate. The canal was improved and enlarged two more times, once in 1835 and again between 1905 and 1918. It was originally set up for commercial traffic but now is just for recreational boating. It now averages 125 feet in width, with a depth of at least 12 feet and 34 locks. Lock 2 is the first of five locks, collectively known as the Waterford Flight which will raise the boat 169 feet in elevation in less than two miles. This is the highest set of lift locks in the world, twice as high as the Panama Canal. I could go on forever, but I won’t. If you want to know more, you will just have to Google it.

Lock #1 is at Troy, NY. It is a federal lock and not officially part of the canal. Our first stop is at Waterford. Deb and Frank are also here. It seems like we are following each other around.

6/25/08

We left Waterford at 7. That is when the locks start operating. We went from lock 2 to 13 today. They are just a few miles apart. The lock lifts today ranged from 11 to 25 feet. Even though these are not always as tall as the ones last fall, they still are a lot of work. The locks are older so the engineering of water entry is not as smooth. That means the boat gets kicked around a little more when the water is coming in. The other difference is with the mast on the deck, we have to be extra careful not to let the bow swing to close to the wall or we would not have a mast for long. We need to hang on to ropes and push off with the boat hook at the same time. Needless to say our arms were tired by the end of the day. We got to the town dock at Canajoharie. We had put aside some emergency food last year when we left so we broke that out to get rid of it before we got home. So it was an easy Dinty Moore night.

6/26/08

We stayed at Canajoharie an extra day to rest up and avoid bad weather. Most of the rail and vehicle traffic passes through the Erie Canal corridor so we had plenty of noise all day and night. I would say we have seen a train at least every half hour since we left New York. They love their trains in this state.

 Like most small towns, this one has some quirks. The main store downtown is an Italian butcher shop with great homemade sausage. The quirky part is that he also sells used furniture. This is not a combination you see every day. Also the geese at the dock looked different than the ones we usually see. Someone said they were tame geese that do not fly (the kind you have for Thanksgiving). I wonder if the townspeople come down in fall to collect their dinners or not.  They also have a nice art museum that features the works of Winslow Homer donated by the owners of Beech-Nut baby foods. The company was founded in this town.

6/27/06

4 locks to Ilion dock today. Not too bad. We are finding that there are no full service marina’s on the canal. Most towns have set up a dock wall that you just slide into and pay a nominal fee. (about $8.00). This is nice for us because it would be hard getting into and out of slips with the big overhang on the mast. Some have services like electricity and water and showers and some do not. We continue to have the trains blasting past us all the time. They certainly are loud. Some say they sound like, oh, I don’t know, tornado’s? A large sport fisherman pulled in about 10PM with a new owner on a delivery trip. Seemed tentative at the helm.

6/28/08

We are in Sylvan Beach today. It is the end of the eastern portion of the canal and just before Lake Oneida. 4 more locks today, 2 up and 2 down. This is a typical touristy beach town with a carnival and beach shops. The amusement park is one block away.

The interesting thing on our way was that the sport fisherman we saw in Ilion tried to get the lockmaster to wait for him even though he was miles away. He apparently told him that the lock should hold as we were “only a sailboat”. They did catch up to us later in the day and saw that the owner could not handle his new boat. It took him forever to get close to the lock wall.

6/29/08

We are still in Sylvan Beach. The weather is blustery so we will wait it out, hey why not. We heard that our friend Tim on Liberte` won his division in the Queens Cup last night. Of course we are also proud because Matt and Erik were on board to participate.

6/30/08

Today we crossed Lake Oneida. It is only about 20 miles across so it was a pretty easy and short day. We got to Winter Harbor Marina and spent the day provisioning etc. We ordered pizza with Deb and Frank. They are heading home to Georgian Bay so will divert off at the Oswego Canal to Lake Ontario while we continue on the Erie Canal to North Tonawanda.

7/2/08

We tied up west of lock 26 yesterday. It was very pastoral and quiet. Today we got to Fairport. It is a suburb of Rochester so much more urban and busy than yesterday. They have a wildly busy ice cream shoppe. They must be efficient because there is a continuous stream of people going in and coming out but no long lines. They also have the start of the bike trail here that follows the canal. We rode on it for a while and it was great.  Carolyn was making fun of us for being in a new place every day. She made the comment that we have to get out of town fast before we pick up an accent. From here they also have charter boats that you can use to go through the canals. They look pretty much like the ones we had years ago in England.

7/3/08

Happy Birthday Deanna! We went through 4 locks today again. We arrived in Medina low on diesel fuel. We have gone through a bunch of small towns and small marina’s but they only sell gas. The lockmaster was trying to help us locate some but could not. So he gave Rolf a ride to the gas station to get a jerry can to tide us over till we find a marina. The lock operators have been friendly and helpful to a fault. All of them have been great. It seems the thought is that with the fuel prices this year the canal is not busy at all. We don’t know how they keep it operating with the few boats that go through. Our $37.50 ten day pass surely does not do much to contribute to upkeep.

Medina is very interesting because we are on an aqueduct. It runs over the river which is about 70 feet below us. It is very spooky to look over the wall at a waterfall running under the canal.

7/4/08

We are now in an area that has lift bridges as well as locks. We need to have all the bridges opened for us even though the mast is down. They are only about 2 to 3 feet off the water. Today we had 5 bridges and two locks. The lockmaster stopped by the boat this morning on his way to work and asked us if we were ready to go. So he went ahead and had the bridge open for us when we got there. Service with a smile. This is a lift bridge in the open position. It is interesting that they have stairs and a walkway to use when the bridge is up

We got to Tonawanda where we will have the mast put back in. It is another derelict place. Rolf is worried that the crane doesn’t look safe.  The owner told us he would do the mast tomorrow morning so we are sitting on this rickety dock till then. He was marginally sociable this morning but tonight he came by shouting and flapping that we were asking too many questions about his ability and equipment. We also went down the dock to talk to another sailboat who just had their mast removed and said he did ok. When Rolf told him that he asked the other boat how it went and the guy said he did a good job he just blew. Instead of taking it as a compliment he was incensed that we would even ask. Then he started shouting that he would not do the mast till Monday and we should stop bothering him. We can’t leave tonight because it is the fourth and everything is booked up so we are stuck here for now.

7/5/08

So Mr. Sunshine showed up at the boat at 7 this morning and said we had to leave his dock. Yesterday he said he would be too busy selling fuel on the holiday weekend to deal with us and today he said we had to go across the way to the other wall so he could work on a different boat. So Rolf said we needed fuel first and he wouldn’t sell it to us till 9. Plus he overcharged us for the pleasure of the docking. So we got out of there and headed to Buffalo. We found a marina that had room and would do the mast on Monday or Tues. My first impression of the new marina was that the dock was even worse than the last one but they put us in a nice slip and since Mr. Sunshine kicked us out so early, we even had time to get a rental car before noon. We went to a nice area of Buffalo (yes there is one) and had a good day after all.

7/6/08

Since Niagara Falls is only about 11 miles from Buffalo, we took our rental truck and headed up there. I have not ever been there and Rolf has not been there since he was a kid. It is certainly as awesome as the pictures you see. It was 90 degrees so we were a little wilted but we took it easy and stayed under the trees. We got some great pictures of course and were herded in onto the Maid of the Mist tour boat with hundreds of others. It was a great ride though. Beautiful scenery and a great day

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7/7/08

We spent the morning putting our mast in at the marina. They did ok although it got dropped in a little fast and grazed the table a little. Oh well, that can be sanded out. Also the mast was set on some wires but we are still figuring out the damage. Also there was a guy that had just purchased a Tartan 40 he was getting ready to put in. Turns out he is from Egg Harbor. Grew up in Green Bay and has lived in Egg Harbor for about 15 years. He will be heading the same direction home so we may run into him again. They we went through the last lock on this trip and headed to Erie Basin Marina. Finally we were able to fill the fuel tank. We expect to be weathered in here a few days and then open water here we come.