Oh, Canada

Just after publishing the last blog entry we received the good news that the engine parts we were waiting for were on the way from Brazil and would arrive on Thursday, June 26. We used the waiting time to finish some boat projects, provision the boat, get Zipper to the vet, and explore a little of the area around Brewerton. The weather kept other Loopers in the marina as well, so it was an opportunity for socializing. One of the best parts of this trip has been meeting other cruisers--and then running into them again "down the road".

Dinner at the Waterfront Tavern: Ann Adams, Marian
Warlick, Lon, Pat, Gerald & Cheri Wallace, Mike Warlick,
Ken Shanley

Brewerton Lighthouse

Fort Brewerton earthworks c. 1759

Arctic King  Brewerton

Lon prepping CARIB II to leave Brewerton

On Friday (June 27) we left Brewerton, passed through the last section of the Erie Canal that we would travel on this trip, and entered the Oswego Canal to head north toward Lake Ontario. Like parts of the Erie Canal, the Oswego Canal consists of a "canalized" river, in this case the Oswego River. The canal was about 24 miles long and contained seven locks that served to drop us 118 feet in elevation. The canal ends at the city of Oswego, NY on Lake Ontario.

Approaching Lock 7 near Oswego on the Oswego Canal

Oswego lighthouse

CARIB II on the wall at the
 mouth of the Oswego River

Reaching the milestone of completing the New York rivers and canals meant that we were back to having to deal with another "big water" crossing-Lake Ontario-to reach the Canadian waterways. And so I was back to being obsessive about the weather. But I didn't have to obsess too much, because the rains of Wednesday and Thursday were followed by fair weather with light winds--and we had an absolutely perfect day today for our crossing. We buddy-boated with Ken Shanley and Ann Adams (on M/V Charis) which added an additional level of security to the crossing.

A flat Lake Ontario

Our "boat buddies" on Lake Ontario: Ann and Ken 

Zipper's new favorite cruising location

Fifty miles and 5 1/2 hours after leaving Oswego we were cruising inland Canadian waters and two hours after that we were in Picton, Ontario.  After an easy, telephone check-in with Canadian customs we did a quick walk through downtown Picton and are now settled in for the evening.

Beautiful tugboat in Picton, Ontario

Scooperman's Ice Cream Parlor Picton

We will cruise tomorrow to Trenton, Ontario, the starting point for the historic Trent-Severn Canal. We're going to spend a couple of days in Trenton and are looking forward to seeing how Canadians celebrate Canada Day on July 1.
  

Waiting for Brazil

On Sunday (June 22), as we departed Ilion, NY and headed west, we left the Mohawk River and entered a man-made section of the Erie Canal that runs nearly parallel to the (now) too narrow Mohawk River. This was waterway with straight banks and very little current--in short, the canal experience we had been expecting. We went through four locks--two took us up and two took us down.

Triple bridge reflections on the Erie Canal

Smooth cruising

As we cruised we had to be ever-mindful of a natural phenomenon that is a distant cousin of the crab pot, but equally dangerous to boaters, the dreaded "canalligator."

"Canalligator" off the starboard bow

We saw occasional hints of the history of the canal. The original Erie Canal went around Oneida Lake to the south, but the present Erie Canal was designed for self-propelled craft, so it was routed right through the Lake. To preserve the industries along the old route, a junction lock near the town of New London was built around 1918 to allow access to a section of the old canal. When navigation was no longer possible on the old canal the lock was converted to a dry dock, and a huge crane and other massive machinery was installed at the site. The site is now abandoned.

New London Junction Lock (c. 1918)

We arrived in early afternoon at our destination for the day, the town of Sylvan Beach on the eastern shore of Oneida Lake.  It was a "hopping" place on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Many, many pontoon boats plied the canal and the creeks flowing into the canal, and the beach itself was incredibly crowded--not only with people, but with watercraft rafting just offshore. 

A Sunday afternoon on Sylvan Beach

Reunited with our former "lock
buddy" tugboat "Cheyenne"
in Sylvan Beach

What's the Scoop?

Lon enjoying a Sylvan Beach treat

On Monday morning (June 23) the Erie Canal "canal experience" gave way to the Erie Canal "lake experience".  

Leaving Sylvan Beach via Oneida Lake/Erie Canal

Eighteen miles later we entered the Oneida River on the west end of Oneida Lake, and are now at the Winter Harbor Marina near the town of Brewerton. Our original plans were to spend two or three nights here, but it is now looking as though we will have to extend that, thanks to some less-than-stellar customer service by MTU Brazil. We need oil and fuel filters and, unfortunately, the American distributors of MTU engine parts (a Mercedes marine engine) and supplies do not deal with parts for Brazilian-made MTU engines. After a long and convoluted ordering process we were expecting the filters to be here at the marina when we arrived, but no such luck. It's been a very frustrating experience trying to deal with a long-distance, foreign supplier. We are now "waiting for Brazil" before we can complete the Erie and Oswego Canals and continue into Canada.

Erie Canal

We passed another milestone today - 2000 miles. We are now over halfway to our goal of reaching St. Paul, MN by autumn (assuming the floods on the Mississippi River are done by then!)

Oops--checked the mileage just a bit too late

The past three days on the Erie Canal have been a bit of a surprise. I hadn't done much reading on the Erie Canal before we got here, but all of the photos of the Erie Canal that I recall seeing showed a typical canalscape--a narrow artificial waterway and picturesque canalside towns. Not quite what we've encountered so far. The present canal runs through the Mohawk River from just outside of Waterford to the town of Ilion (which is where we are this evening). The river was relatively wide near Waterford and has narrowed as we've moved west.  But river cruising it is, complete with current. The original canal of the early 1800's was very narrow and very shallow, and improvements were made continually in the years after its completion.  The modern Erie Canal dates to the early 1900's, as mule power was replaced by engine power. Much of the original old canal no longer exists.

Erie Canal/Mohawk River

Original side cut canal now
 used for water overflow

We have adapted our expectations and have enjoyed the unexpected river cruising. It's very green and very peaceful, except for the trains which run rather frequently on tracks quite near the water. Wildlife sightings are limited, but we've seen a few herons, as well as ducks and Canadian geese.

Current and Next Generation Golf Course Fertilizers

One of the main points of interest in traveling rivers and canals is going through the locks that allow us to change elevation. So far on the Erie Canal we have "locked up" 17 times--9 locks on Thursday, 5 on Friday, and 3 today. Yesterday's locks were probably the most challenging.  Significant cross-currents at the entries to some of the locks threatened to grab the boat and push it places it really shouldn't go--like hard into a lock wall. Lon did a great job of driving CARIB II safely into the locks so that I could set the lines to keep us secure as the water rose.

Lots of current created by
 the water over the dam

Lock 14

Pat holding CARIB II against the lock wall

Inside Lock 17

Our "lock buddy" in Locks 16-18: 84 feet of tugboat

Hurricane Irene in 2011 and flooding last year caused significant damage to many locks on the canal. At several locks repairs were ongoing.

Lock repairs underway

Several of the towns along the canal have built very nice areas for transient boaters and we've specifically sought these out for our overnight stays.

St. Johnsville Marina and RV Park

In walking through the towns and villages it's apparent that they've seen better days--such as during the heyday of the Canal when it was full of commercial traffic. Like small towns everywhere they are trying to reinvent themselves. Hopefully bright spots such as the Riverlink Cafe in Amsterdam (where we had a great dinner on Thursday) and the Bridge Street Bakery and Cafe in St. Johnsville (breakfast this morning) will survive the tough economic climate and help to breathe new life into their towns.

The towns were doing a good job in one important area . . . .

Ice cream in Ilion

Ice cream in St. Johnsville

Pat and St. Johnsville
 cone

It promised to be an interesting combo in Waterford.
Unfortunately, the ice cream parlor no longer existed.
Guess the awning was too expensive to replace.
 

Turning Point

We had very relaxing and enjoyable cruising days on the Hudson River. The weather was beautiful and the scenery very green, sometimes hilly and sometimes not.  We were able to see West Point from a different perspective . . .

West Point classroom buildings

The "$500,000 View":
West Point's
 "Million Dollar View"
from water level :)

 . . . saw a number of interesting lighthouses . . .

 . . . and had pleasant stays at Norrie Point Marina (June 15) and Castleton-on-Hudson (June 16).

Evening at Norrie Point Marina in Mills-Norrie State Park

We also saw the industrial side of the Hudson as we passed Albany, the New York State capitol, but that didn't last long.

The Port of Albany

The passage up the Hudson River was extremely easy. It's deep, the channels are well marked, and we didn't encounter much boat traffic, either commercial or pleasure.  What did surprise us was the significant tidal nature of the Hudson. Even as far north as Troy, the river has 5-foot tides. We tried to time our cruising to take advantage of the currents, but that wasn't always possible.  On Sunday we had current pushing us along at a good clip, but on Monday we were cruising against current most of the day, which slowed us down considerably.

Yesterday (June 17) we pulled into the harbor of Waterford, NY, a historic village at Lock 2 of the Erie Canal (Lock 1 is the Federal Lock on the Hudson River at Troy).

Old Champlain Side-cut, now
 a spillway for the
Erie Canal

Pat in front of Lock 2

The village of Waterford has beautiful docks for transient boaters in its harbor.  They offer the use of these docks for up to 48-hours, charging only a nominal fee for electricity.  It's hard to pass up a bargain like that, so we took advantage of their offer and used the time to explore this "oldest incorporated Village in the United States", do laundry, buy groceries, and take care of boat cleaning and maintenance.

CARIB II (second from left) in Waterford Harbor

Deer on Peebles Island

Biking to dinner at The Angry Penguin 

Vandenburgh House (1876)

General Samuel Stuart House (1802)

We are at what we consider a significant point in our journey. Up to now we've been moving generally north, but tomorrow we enter the Erie Canal and start heading west. We'll be interested to see how canal boating in the U.S. compares to the canal boating we've done in Europe.