Mahi Mahi- The Oswego Canal & Lake Ontario; Oswego NY

Hey Blog Followers,

Today was a great day & we are now finally done with the New York Canal System.

23 Locks on the Erie Canal & 7 Locks on the Oswego Canal.

We had a great ride today, but it was not without drama, luckily the Mahi was not involved.

Drama #1 – We were the 4th vessel into Lock #23, it was our first lock of the day. We were in the back of the lock on the starboard side. About 5 minutes into the water level drop, we heard & watched a woman from the boat in front of us on the port side of the lock, yelling – stop stop stop !

The woman had either attempted to temporarily cleat the lock drop line to her boat, or the lock line (that you usually hold with your hands) became entangled on the cleat. The water level was going down and the stern of the boat was being held up by the lock drop line. The boat started listing heavily as the water level went down. Several of us in the Lock were yelling to cut the line. It seemed like forever, but finally the husband arrived with a knife, cut the line, and the port side of the boat dropped heavily back down into the water with a heavy splash. The line was under so much tension that it sounded like a gunshot when he cut the line. Photo below is an old photo just to remind you what a drop line looks like, normally you just hold on to the drop line during the locking process. This was not the woman who had the issue today.

Many lessons here, but a couple to mention. 1) Don’t cleat the drop line, especially when the water level is going to drop, 2) If you do use the cleat for leverage to help hold the drop line, make sure that it is still slipping every few seconds, 3) always have a sharp knife at the ready and know where it is at for quick retrieval, 4) when you cut the line, make sure that everyone else is clear from the spring back from the line under tension.

Luckily nobody was hurt and the expensive Azimut boat seemed ok.

It was frankly amazing that the cleat did not rip out of the gunwale of the boat.

Drama #2 – We were in the 3rd Lock on the Oswego Canal. We were all secure, the boat behind us was secure, and our 3rd traveling partner for the day, a 40ft sailboat named Pursuit, was just entering the lock on the Starboard side. The sailboat had been in 2 locks with us previously, but this time his one & only engine apparently stalled as he was coming down from a higher engine speed to idle. The sailboat almost hit the Mahi, almost hit the exit door of the lock with his lowered mast, and did bang hard into the starboard side of the lock wall. Luckily nobody was hurt & the sailboat appeared ok.

Further down the road at Lock #5 on the Oswego Canal, we were treated to a very different bridge, immediately after the lock. I’m not sure what you call this type of cantilever drawbridge, is it still called a Bascule Bridge – IDK ?

After Lock #8 on the Oswego Canal, we entered the City of Oswego.

As luck would have it (not Jerry or Deena), shortly after we arrived at The Oswego Marina, the sailboat that lost power (Pursuit) joined us at Oswego Marina. They docked on the opposite side of the canal at the marina, because they are now also entering Lake Ontario, and it’s time for them to “raise the mast” on their sailboat.

I had never seen this process, so it was very interesting for me, maybe boring for you ?

It was a very long process taking about 2 hours. Oswego Marina has the device that sailors need to perform this task. It was a triangular structure with a cable/pully system – anybody know what is called (Brian Agar) ?

Here are several videos showing the process. There are five 45sec videos. I gave up video taping because the process took so long – silly blow-boaters, to much work 😃 😀 😄.

Ok, have you had enough sailboat mast video. See, I told you – buy a Power Boat, preferably with twin diesel engines for a whopping 2 miles per gallon.

That’s all from Oswego NY, off to Rochester NY tomorrow, about 60 miles. The waters are predicted to be “so-so” for wind/waves, but we wanna get to the Welland Canal for Monday’s Upstream transit (Upstream = Lake Ontario to Lake Erie).

I know it sounds backwards, but upstream means up in water level, not in North/ South terms.

There will be more to come on the Welland Canal, we’ll explain the entire process in a few days. Both, what they tell you to do (before) & and what actually happens to us (after). I’m very excited about this opportunity that Jerry & Deena have given me.

Adios from the Mahi Mahi,

Mike, Deena, Jerry.