After yesterday's grind we wanted a short day. We considered staying where we were, but it turned out we could do a short travel day and stay at a nicer place. Because of the way the lockmaster had mis-handled the last lockages at 17, there was a large group of boats stopped at this small town. Since we did not want a long trip, we decided to wait for the second lockage, as full locks make for slow transit.
A bunch of boats set off for the next lock around 7:30 while we relaxed and enjoyed our coffee. Just after 8, we started up engines and set off with Pelican and Wastin Away. We only had to pass through two locks, and since we were only three boats the lockages went quickly.
The water levels and flows were really high in the Erie canal. We saw lots of the canalligators along the way, especially near locks as the cycling tended to concentrate them.
The illusion of being in a giant model railroad continued into the Erie canal. There is so much transportation built in a narrow corridor. We keep passing under railroad and highway bridges.
Along the way we made a pit stop at Ilion marina to get pumpouts. They could only fit one boat on the service dock at a time, so the other two hovered while each boat got pumped out. Wastin Away was first on the dock, and while they were hooking up the hose, a local kid with a set of bagpipes started playing. Wow! Ceremonial pumpout pipes! The marina owner told the bagpipe kid to stop playing, I don't know why, but the kid was good and we wished he had kept going.
Wastin Away being treated to the ceremonial pumpout pipes. Just another random thing you would never have predicted on the loop.
Shortly after getting pumped out we arrived at our destination for the day, the Portofino restaurant. The three of us got tied to the dock, and we were joined a few hours later by Thyme Away. We had a great afternoon visiting with the crews of the other boats, before having some docktails on the grass beside the canal wall. The restaurant had a live band on the patio, so we went over and had dinner. It was enjoyable, but the band was way too loud for our taste. They were good, but should have turned their volume down by at least half.
Dinner on the patio at the Portofino restaurant. Crews of Thyme Away, Pelican, Wastin Away and iFloat. The food was good, and so was the music, but the music was waaaaay too loud.
After dinner we had Little Beers.
Passed a couple of work barges along the way. These were tied up to some dolphins and seemed to be involved in dredging operations. Lots of cleanup crews here removing logs and repairing facilities.
After dinner, Pam fixed up a set of Little Beers for all of us, and we had a nice after-dinner visit. As it turned out, the topic of conversation was the weather, which is a popular one for boaters, but this was the first weather discussion we have had since entering the Hudson.
Occasionally along the way iFloat turns into an aircraft carrier, usually with dragonflies. Here we had some bee come in for touch-and-go landings.
We were approaching lake Oneida, which has a 30 km fetch and so can be a dangerous lake if it is windy. The forecast for the next day was for light winds in the morning, with strong winds and thunder storms rolling in shortly after noon. We all agreed that we were not going to attempt to cross the lake, but instead would plan two short travel days and hunker down after the second day to wait out the weather.
This part of the canal was a long straight section many km long. Kind of boring, as other than the occasional canalligator the scenery never changed and auto did the driving.
In the morning, I went over to talk with Mike and Pam on Thyme Away while I had coffee, and discovered that they were going to attempt to cross the lake today. mmmm. Not a good idea in my opinion, but they were confident and willing to try it. The rest of us were going to stop short of the lake, so we waited while Thyme Away left so they could lock alone and transit the next three locks quicker.
We had to sneak beside this dredge along the way. Tight squeeze as the water on the starboard side was shallow. He shut down the dredge as we passed. It made a cool sound as it re-started as we could hear all the sediment being pumped through these giant pipes set along the shore.
The locks in the canal are protected by these flood control gates. Here you can see Pelican going under one.
Wastin Away, Pelican and iFloat left the docks about a half hour later and locked through smoothly. About an hour after passing the lock, we came to the first decision point on our trip, Rome, N.Y. There was a free wall here with many mixed reviews online. When we got to the dock there who did we find but Thyme Away. Turned out they discovered after they left that they were low on fuel, and there were no marinas in the area that sold diesel. So, they stopped at the free wall and Mike contacted a local fuel company to get fuel delivered by truck. So much for their plan to cross the lake today.
Thyme Away tied up to the free wall in Rome waiting for a fuel truck to fill up their tanks.
Our group of three decided to press on and went through the next two locks smoothly. At this point we were at another decision point. The lock wall here was isolated, but very well protected from weather. We could see black clouds forming in the sky, and we knew that our next stop was going to be a bit more exposed. So far no rain was heading our way on weather radar so we decided to go for it and cruised the last 8 km to Sylvan Beach at the east end of lake Oneida. The free wall here was not well designed for mooring, they only had steel rings to tie up to. The wind had also started to blow, making for a bit of fun, but, with the help of a couple of sailboaters who were already on the wall, we all got tied up securely.
It wasn't just logs we had to dodge along the way, this drum was floating just at the surface. Although made of plastic, it would not be good to hit as the mass of water inside could ruin your day if you hit it.
Louise finally managed to get her ducks in a row.
It really looked like we were about to get nailed with rain, but the black clouds blew over and we enjoyed a sunny afternoon on our lawn chairs in the park beside the boats. We had some great laughs, especially after Ted served all the ladies margaritas. As the afternoon wore on, the canal wall filled out with boats from the last lock.
Nobody in our group ordered king crab legs for dinner. In fact, I wonder if anyone ever does.
The town here was kind of interesting. It looked like it was stuck in the 1950's, and they even had an old county-fair-style amusement park. Around supper time we saw lots of custom cars arriving at the canal side restaurant. Pretty cool to see these guys cruising around revving their engines.
Liked the way the town did trash collection in the park. This guy drove around with a loader and dumped the contents of all the trash cans into the bucket. He told us that the whole town only has 5 employees, so they have to come up with creative ways to do things.
The sky finally got black and we got hit with a thunderstorm just after supper. By this time the winds were blowing really strong, and they continued to build into the night. Overnight the boat was continually shoved around by the wind, which seemed to max out around 2 in the morning. When we woke up it was still blowing and gusty.
Nasty waves on lake Oneida. The buoys you see were part of the race course for the seadoo event scheduled for the next day.
Mike and Pam got their bikes out and asked us to join them on a ride around town. Ted had his bike out as well and joined us. The town was pretty small, and it did not take long to see it all. On the way back to the boats we went along the beach and watched the surf. The lake is 30 km long and the west wind was blowing directly down the lake making 2 to 3 foot waves which were stacked about a second apart. Glad we were nowhere near that water. They were having sea-doo races at the beach the next day, and so a couple of sea-doos were out on the lake setting up the race course markers. In the park all the racers were getting set up. Lots of trailers, 4-wheelers and sea-doos.
The sun came out in the early afternoon so we set up our lawn chairs under a tree in the park and hung out watching the fleet arrive. The place really filled up over the course of the day. Mati Hati was one of the last boats to get here. We were really glad to see them, as we had separated in New York.
Louise arranged a dinner at a local restaurant for all the loopers on the wall. There were 18 loopers spread over 5 tables, we took over the patio. I think we overwhelmed the waitress a bit, but the food was tasty and the company was great.
Louise arranged a dinner for all the loopers staying at Sylvan Beach. We took up most of their patio.
Back on the boat we stayed up a bit later than usual as I had to run the generator to recharge our batteries, and did not want it to run all night. During dinner, we could notice the winds dying off, and by the time it was dark there was no wind at all.
Next morning was calm and sunny, and we enjoyed our coffee for a while. Today we were just crossing lake Oneida, so it would be a short travel day. We set off at 7 am with Thyme Away and Pelican. As we went across, we could see the fleet behind us, as everyone at Sylvan Beach was moving.
The fleet arrived at Brewerton and we got in contact with the marina there, Ess Kay yards. We were told they were busy with a boat launch, and that we should slow down a bit. We slowed and arrived about 45 minutes later. They were indeed busy, but we managed to get fuel and into our slip pretty smoothly.
We had some issues with shore power. Our boat runs on 240 volts, and they only had 30 amp outlets here (120 volts each). We need two out-of-phase outlets (red/black) and the two outlets on our dock we on the same line so no bueno. Rich suggested to Louise that I run an extension to another dock and voila, power now worky.
I really liked the decor in this place. The stores looked like an old-time boat yard, and they had nice touches like this spread around the office and store areas.
Over the rest of the morning the looper fleet arrived and filled up the marina. They even had a couple of boats docked on the gas dock. They had those boats leave the dock and return at closing time. The people at the yard did an excellent job working to get everyone in. I was impressed with this place.
Big group of loopers at the BBQ put on by Ess Kay yards. They made burgers and hot dogs for us, while loopers supplied all the fixin's.
Paul of Pelican tried to get a courtesy car, as he needed to pick up a prescription. The car was fully booked, so the owner lent him her van. Paul took Louise, Trish (Mati Hadi) and Brenda (Blue Moon) to go shopping and get some provisions.
The yard put on a barbeque for us with burgers and hot dogs. There were over 30 loopers at the festivities. During dinner, I walked around their work shops and checked out all the various tools they had.
Rainstorm at sunrise on the water.
Overnight we had some heavy rain. One of our favorite things is to listen to the rain on the boat when we are in bed. Very relaxing sound. It was still pouring rain when we got up in the morning, and it turned out that the power was out in the marina. No worries, we fired up the generator to make breakfast, as did all the other boats around. Since we were not travelling far this day, we decided to wait out the rain before leaving. While we were waiting, Pelican had trouble with their fresh water pump - it stopped working. Paul had difficulty getting in and out of his engine room, so I went over and replaced his fresh water pump for him. Turned out he had just received a spare water pump the previous day on an Amazon order he had sent to the marina. When these pumps go bad, it is always the pressure switch. The pump motor is still good, but the switch will not operate. I told Paul about this so he could keep the old pump as a spare, and just order a replacement switch.
Lock E-23 was our last lock along the Erie canal.
We set our around 9:30 for a very pleasant day of cruising. The water was flat calm, and we were the only boats in the locks. We have found over the years that many boaters do not like to travel in the rain, and so rainy days make for easy travel and locking. We arrived at our planned destination, Phoenix, N.Y. around 11 to find the docks full, so decided to press on to Fulton. Of course the wind and rain picked up just as we arrived which made for nasty docking, but we got it done and set.
First lock of the Oswego canal.
During our travels on the Erie canal, we have regularly checked the Erie canal website for notices. Well, today they closed the section between locks 16 and 22 due to high water and loss of electricity. Our first lock of the day was lock 23, so we were lucky. There were two weather windows opening soon on lake Ontario, so we were expecting the herd to come stampeding through, but now we will have Oswego to ourselves and not have to play dock-space-hunger-games.
The Oswego also had high water levels. This photo shows what should be a retaining wall that is normally above water, but is now about 2 feet under.
The afternoon the rain burned off - literally. The temperature was over 33 degrees C and it was 100% humidity. Hot and sweaty. We put the generator on early to get the AC running. Our AC has been running fine since the incident at Coeymans, so I have left it alone (not broke don't fix it). We visited with Paul and Jill on their boat and played jokers.
Our weather window to cross to Kingston was going to be in 2 days, so our initial plan was to stop just short of Oswego, then go to Oswego the next day to stage to cross. However, we were so close to Oswego at this point that we decided it would be better to go all the way to Oswego and wait there for the two days. This would put us closer to downtown, and also outside the locks so we would not have to worry about any lock breakdowns.
At the exit of the second lock there was a concrete wall that is marked on the chart as being above water. On the day we passed by the water was about a foot over this wall making a waterfall and a major current perpendicular to the channel. We had to power up to get through.
The first lock of the day was no problem at all until we were leaving the lock. The water level was high here and was spilling over a retaining wall creating a strong current at the outflow of the lock. We throttled up as we came to this current, but still got swung around quite a bit as we went through the swirly water.
The first lock on the Oswego also has a lift bridge. Two years ago this thing broke, closing the Oswego for several weeks. As a result, we had to bring iFloat back to Canada through lake Champlain.
The entrance to the next lock was blocked by a big canalligator. This thing was telephone pole size and was floating right across the entrance. There was an opening on the starboard side, so I came into the lock on that side. Big mistake. The lock guide wall had big gaps in it with an outflowing current, so we got sucked towards the starboard concrete wall. So, we had a choice, hit the log or hit the concrete. I went for the log, and put it into reverse as we approached, but the contact was still a bit stronger than what I would have liked. Worse, the bow rode up over the log, and so I had to reverse to avoid getting the log under our hull. Did I mention the suction on the side? Hit a pretty high pucker factor for a minute until we managed to push the log far enough out of the way to enter the lock. Getting out of the lock required negotiating between this big log and another, slightly smaller log. We went really slow and Louise used a boat hook to push the logs away from the hull.
We had to engage beast mode and push this log out of the way to get into the lock. Unfortunately, instead of rotating, the log got pushed perpendicular to iFloat. Had to maneuver and keep a close eye to ensure it stayed away from our prop and rudder. At one point Louise used a boat hook to push it away.
Exiting the lock, we had to slip past two big canalligators to get out. The black one in the middle was partly pushed under so we had to drift by it.
After passing the last lock we tied up to a concrete wall that was run by the local Hotel as it was very inexpensive. But, we saw another wall with power that looked like it was run by a restaurant. Just as we were trying to figure out if we could go there or not, Ted texted Louise to ask if anyone was at the wall that had power. She answered that iFloat was the only boat there and was run by the local Hotel. So, we untied and moved ahead to this wall with shore power and got set in for the day. Nice to have AC as the temperature was over 30 degrees C at this time outside.
Pelican ended up going to the nearby marina. Jill called them to check that they had his reservation. Back at Ess Kay yards, I thought he had not been able to get a space. When she called today, they confirmed that she had a two day reservation. Well OK! The marina was packed full, so it took a while to get them sorted into a slip they would fit in, but eventually they were set. Then a second boat named Pelican showed up claiming to have a two day reservation. mmmmmm. Seemed like Paul scored the other boat's reservation by having the same name as this other boat. Well, possession is 9/10 of the law, the marina had to play some Tetris to figure it out.
Later in the afternoon Wastin Away and Just a Dream showed up and tied up with us on the hotel wall. They had both been delayed at lock 7 when the hydraulics that control one of the lock doors broke. The staff allowed them to go through, but Just a Dream got a fender caught on the way through the gap and damaged one of their big fenders. When we heard about the breakdown we were glad we had decided to go through as we did not want to be stuck when our weather window opened. Ted made various fruit drinks for everyone, and we spent the afternoon on the stern deck of Just a Dream visiting with the other crews.
Just a Dream ran into some power problems here on the dock. This is actually very common in marinas. Because they are kind of "industrial", many marinas receive 3-phase power. Without going into all the physics, this results in 240 volt systems getting only about 208 volts. This brownout can create issues with electrical systems on a boat. Things like air conditioners have low voltage cut-offs so these devices will shut down if the voltage is too low. On our boat we do not have issues, but Tony on Just Dream could not charge his batteries on the shore power. I thought this was strange, as we have the same brand of charger as he does, and our charger will run on voltages as low as 65 volts. Anyways, he had to run his generator every few hours to recharge.
Saw some snails on the dock at Oswego. We recognized them immediately as they were the same species of snail that our kids used to play with when we lived in Montreal.
First thing the next morning, Louise went in early and paid for our slip for a second day. We were on a first-come-first-served dock, and she had seen some people sniffing around for space for a super yacht. Time to secure our space. With that done, she went off to do laundry while I did a full engine inspection in preparation for crossing lake Ontario the next day.
With our chores done, we both relaxed in the afternoon, Louise inside in the AC and me up on the flybridge enjoying the 33 degree C weather. Later that day, we prepared the boat for the lake Ontario crossing, as we planned to be up at 4 am for a 5 am start.
Boat name of the day: Pelican and (the real) Pelican
