You may remember the phrase “Trapped Like Rats” from our last post, when we were again held hostage by the Erie Canal Demons.
So we have an interesting story from Lock #20.
We became pretty good friends with lockmaster John, who takes his orders from bosses in the NY Canal System. John was actually the guy who texted me the photos of the tree falling on the house that killed the twins. He is a great guy.
Early morning reports for the potential opening of Locks #20/21/22 yesterday (Tue-24) were not very promising. Lock #22 still did not have power.
So due to the intense heat (95f & humid), no power at the lock wall & BOREDOM – we decided to go to the movie theatre, kill 3 hours of time, sit in air conditioning, and watch the new Mission Impossible Movie.
Prior to departing for the Theatre at 11:30am, I texted John and asked if he could text me, if there were any changes in status for the locks, John agreed.
So, we head off to the movie at 11:30am, the movie starts at 12:30pm, the movie ends at 3:15pm. At 3:30pm, 15 minutes after the movie ended, I receive a text from John advising that he now has the go-ahead to open lock #20 & that power had been restored to Lock #22 (what timing !!!).
We were back from the movie by 3:50, Engine’s warm by 4:05, shoving off the wall by 4:10pm, and in the Lock #20 by 4:30pm. The fastest departure that I have been a part of 😃.
We debated how far to travel after blast-off, wanting to get thru all 3 locks. But shortly after a couple of calculations, we realized that we could not make it to Lock #21 by the closing time of 6pm (remember trawler speed of 8mph, & 19 miles to Lock 22). But we wanted to get as far as we could go, and we did go 18 miles, all the way to #21, and tied up on yet another Lock wall for the night.
Today (Wed-25) we made it thru both locks #21 & #22, across Onieda Lake, and we are currently in Brewerton NY- one stop away from Lake Ontario 😃 😊 😀.
As the band “The Who” said in the movie Tommy ; I’M FREE – I’M FREE, and freedom tastes of reality !
Only 1 more Erie Canal Lock, and 8 Locks on the Oswego River, then we are done with locks – Oops, I forgot about that little one called the Welland Canal (8 locks).
Enough of the Locks. Today is 6 weeks to the day from our departure. As we stated in the last post, we have changed our plans from going into Canada on the Trent Severn Waterway, to coming back via Lake Erie. We are all bummed about not doing the Trent Severn & Georgian Bay, but that would have been another 2 weeks on an already well behind boat trip.
Here is a pictorial view of our trip, 6 weeks to the day. Note – this is just a Google maps recreation of our “approximate route” thru the eastern half of the United States. In spite of the issues with the throttle & the Erie Canal Locks – it has still been a heck of a trip.
As we mentioned in the last post, we will end with;
1) Lake Ontario to the Welland Canal
2) Welland Canal to Lake Erie
3) Lake Erie to the Detroit River
4) The Detroit River to Lake St Clair.
But let’s go back to Onieda Lake & the town of Brewerton NY.
Oneida Lake is the largest lake entirely within New York state, with a surface area of 79.8 square miles (ref – Lake St Clair is about 430 square miles). But since we were traveling from the far east end (Sylvan Beach) to the far west end (Brewerton), it sure seemed like a big lake. It was good to get that fresh water inland lake smell again.
Sylvan Beach was a cool little boat town right before we got onto Onieda Lake, but I didn’t snap any photos.
I did remember my photographic blogging duties when we got across Onieda into Brewerton, another cool little boating town. Photos below from the Onieda River coming into Brewerton.
That’s enough for tonight.
Tomorrow we’re off to Oswego NY (our entrance to Lake Ontario).
7:00am rise & 7:30am departure.
32 miles & 9 Locks – lock #23 on the Erie Canal & 8 Locks on the Oswego River.
Nitie Nite 😴
Mike, Deena, & Jerry
gettinlooped2017.com 