New York State Canals

Thursday September 16^th : We took our masts down, Mom and Dad needed the crane, while Sal and I could do it by ourselves on the dock – another advantage to a smaller boat. We were almost done when it started to rain, and continued raining for the rest of the day. Our first lock we went through was Lock 8 of the Oswego canal. Dad gave us some first time instructions and both boats went in together. We stopped along the wall and held on to ropes attached to the cement walls as the lock filled with water, bringing us to the top. The gates opened and we were successfully through our very first lock. We tied up along the wall, as we wanted to get some supplies in Oswego before heading further south. Most of the locks went smoothly for us, except the second day, when we went through lock #5… This lock is known for its bad turbulence (we unfortunately did not know this before hand, or we might have been a little more prepared, anyways) Sal had a hold of the rope at the bow of the boat, and since there were no ropes or poles at the stern, I tried to hang on to the ladder, unfortunately, when the water came in, and I had to move up to a higher rung on the ladder, I was not able to hold due to the turbulence of the water, and had to let go rather than risk falling in the water…so the stern swung out, and luckily Sal was able to hold on. I tried to reverse into the wall, but was unsuccessful. Sal hung on, and I held my breath until the lock was filled, and then the lockmaster threw us a rope and pulled our stern in, so we were once again facing the correct direction. Other than that little mishap, the locks went very smoothly.

Since we had our mast down, we had the motor on all day long. A typical day we would wake up around 7ish and be ready to go around 8am. We would motor all day until around 4ish and then tie up at a dock or just before or after the lock. We would have tea time on my parents boat and then do a little work on the boat or relax until dinner time. We would normally go to Chautauqua for dinner, sometimes bringing a dish, but always helping afterwards with the dishes. We averaged about 40 miles a day and by the evenings were so exhausted that we would sometimes go to bed before 10pm!

We went through the 7 locks on the Oswego Canal, then crossed Lake Oneida and went through 23 more locks as part of the Erie Canal. After the first day of rain in Oswego we had beautiful weather for the rest of the trip (other than some very cool nights). We reached Waterford which is just before the final lock yesterday (Sept 22^nd) and were able to shower, do laundry, have a fast-food meal and stock up on fresh food. Today we left the canal system and entered the Hudson river. We now have to be concerned with tides and currents and more boat traffic, but it is nice to have our mast up and be able to sail again.

Highlights of the canal system included seeing two bald eagles, free coffee on the dock at Phenoix at 7am, finally getting to shower after quite a few days in Waterford and having Mr. Summer’s 4 grade class come and check out our boat after we finished putting the mast up in Albany.