25 May 2013 | Crescent motor club
25 May 2013 | Shady harbor marina
19 May 2013 | Catskill, NY
18 May 2013 | Ossining, NY
18 May 2013 | Morgans marina, NJ
Oswego to port ontario
07 August 2013 | Home
Heading out Friday for port ontario and sandy pond. Looks like we're going to have great weather and waves for the trip. Wish us luck!
Home turf
03 June 2013
Tim
Hopped back on Friday night and continued our push west from lock 20. This section of the river is so incredibly deserted. If you look at it on google earth it is arrow straight. The water is almost totally still because it is basically a swimming pool whose water level is maintained by lock 20 in Marcy and lock 21 about 6 miles east of Oneida lake. It is the top of the mountain so to speak. The canal flows downhill from this point in both directions. The overheating issue reared its ugly head late Friday night and I could barely keep the boat running without the alarm going off. We dropped anchor for about an hour while I tore things apart and cleaned them out......again! It's different now though. The fresh water sea pump is squealing above 2000 RPM's so we just have to crawl along. Good thing this happened here where we have no current to fight rather than back in the Hudson....we'd have never made any headway. We limped into lock 21 and tied up for the night. I found a rebuild kit in sodus at a yanmar dealer....I'll need to do that as soon as I get home. Saturday morning we made sylvan beach and it was great to feel like we were home. Well, it was great for me...I swear my wife has gypsy blood in her veins...she never wants to be home...or in one place for very long. She will make a great transient boater when we retire. While hanging out at the sylvan beach dock chatting to a couple in a killer donzi, bob and les strolled up. We had a nice dinner and went to harpoon eddies for some good music. (Sorry we missed you guys mindy and glenn!) We headed out Sunday morning into the lake and got our first chance to start cleaning this thing up a little bit. The trip across the lake took forever being RPM limited. At times, when the wind was against us we barely made 3 MPH. We got across though and stopped into mom and dads to show them the boat. We barely fit between the docks and I got a chance to pull off the wind vane that got broken on the lock wall. We're at the phoenix lock now and I tore the sea pump out to take to the dealer and see if they can figure out why it's squealing. Hopefully that rebuild kit will put it to bed. I have to talk to the guys at phoenix marine today about welding up the broken aluminum extrusions on the roller furling. that is the last of the hurricane damage that needs to be fixed besides some cosmetic scratches here and there. Next weekend we should be able to get the mast put back up in Oswego then watch out....stay clear of those two in the blue hunter out on Lake Ontario.....they don't have any clue what the hell they're doing! :)
Got lucky!
30 May 2013
Tim
Below "notice to mariners" sent to me today.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
MARINERS BE ADVISED THAT THE ERIE CANAL AT LOCK E-7
.Mariners are advised that the Erie Canal from Lock E-7 in Vischer Ferry to Lock E-19 in Frankfort has temporarily closed due to high water and excessive flows associated with heavy rainfall.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
We made it to the downstream side of lock 20. If we had given up at lock 19 like we had discussed, we'd be stuck. Got lucky. We head back to the boat tomorrow afternoon to finish up the trip this weekend. For once we will be going WITH the current.....and it should be a strong one with all this rain and the rain predicted for the weekend.
Fonda to top of canal!
27 May 2013
Tim
(Mom, you have to copy and paste the links listed in the text below into your browser to get to them....they're not "clickable") just copy and paste into your search engine and you will get to the picture.
We headed out 7:30 from Fonda headed for lock 13 in Randall NY. All day today the locks that we went through are the ones that were wiped out a couple years back during those nasty floods that swept down through this section of the canal. What's unique about these locks is this section of the river from around Fonda nearly to Utica is drained in the winter time and is nothing more that a stream you can barely kayak down. Each lock has a large moveable dam next to it to keep the level up in the summer. What this creates at this time of year is a washing machine effect as you pull into the lock. See pic...
http://www.tug44.org/erie.canal/lock-13/
The water was gushing over that wall to the right creating about a 4 or 5 knot current and lots of waves. During the day we motored past "The Herkimer home". Out in the middle of nowhere sits this beautiful plantation mansion right on the river. Read the below. Johan Jost Herchhcimer was a German American hero....this is also a good example of how immigrants names were mangled as they passed through Ellis island....
http://www.littlefallsny.com/HerkimerHome/Page1.htm
We didn't stop but I put this on our list of stuff to do on boring spring or fall weekends.
We went through lock 17 in little falls, NY. Lock 17 is the highest single lift in the entire canal system and it is what connects the Mohawk River to the canal. 40.5 feet of lift....it's an unconventional lock also in that the bottom half is a giant 20 or 30 foot tall solid steel door that does not swing open like others but rather Lifts up and down through the use of a very large cement counterweight. See the pic below in the link. You see the door down below and the white counterweight above it. Then above the door is a 20 foot cement wall that makes the whole downstream end of the lock tower above the river. Because the door lifts straight up, you get the honor of being drenched by it dripping when you pass under. I will post some pics of it from inside on Facebook when I get a chance but here is the official pic from the NYS barge canal site.
http://www.tug44.org/erie.canal/lock-17/
We made it to the downstream side of lock 20 today where bob and les picked us up to come home and daydream at work all week about going back! (Thanks guys!). The entire trip up to this point has been upstream. Once we pass through lock 20, it is downstream 18 miles to lock 21 and then one more mile to sylvan beach. Friday night after work we make the run to lock 21 and Saturday night we spend the night in sylvan beach celebrating being back on home turf. Sunday we will make the run across Oneida lake and dock the boat in Phoenix. That week we will hopscotch it up to oswego and home port in international marina at wrights landing. Anyone who would like to stop down Sunday night to see us and our new floating cooler please stop down!
Tarps are down!!
26 May 2013 | Fonda ny
Tim
We took the tarps down this morning and had a decent breakfast. The sun finally peaked out from behind the clouds. We left a private yacht club located between locks 6 and 7 near colonie ny. Dorice and I finally figured out how to lock this monstrosity. It is definitely a team effort. I'm amazed after having driven every size and shape of boat since I was 12 years old what a learning experience this boat has been trying to handle and dock. Imagine a three story 13000 pound building laid on its side and strapping a 27 HP egg beater on the back and try to dock it. There is absolutely no helm or throttle response. You give it full throttle in forward or reverse and it goes "huh?" Oh, you want me to move....you pack a snack, hang out for a minute and the thing starts to move! It's a rudder, not an outdrive so if you're not moving, turn the wheel all you want, nothing happens. Anyway, we have a system down and we look like we know what we're doing and haven't crashed into the wall or anyone else. We made 6 locks today and parked at the canal maintenance facility right under the bridge that crosses the river in Fonda. Yes, the one we cross over going to lake George. I remember as a kid getting off the thruway and dad saying "buddy, you can take that river all the way back to our house". Well pop, I'm doing it! A couple steaks and a glass of wine should help get us through the 35 degree night they are forecasting......and people say I'm crazy for wanting to move to The Caribbean!!!
Thank you god for this rainless relatively cloud free morning
26 May 2013 | Colonie
Tim
We awoke to a dry mostly sunny morning. Thank god! We're rested up and warmed up and dried off (mostly). I think dorice stopped shivering about 1 or 2 this morning. we had heat in the cabin last night for the first time and that was nice. We're ready for the 60 degree weather the weather man says is coming our way today. As soon as we finish a hearty breakfast were outta here! Shooting for somewhere around lock 12 through 15 would be nice.