West on the Erie

We got to Waterford, NY, the entrance to the Erie only to learn that the canal was closed at Lock 18 until the middle of this week, that is tomorrow. We arrived at Waterford on Thursday, May 17, tied up to the Visitors Center floating dock, where they offer two nights free dockage including power and water. Every night after two is $10.00 a night. What a bargin! We stayed 3 nights, gave them $20.00, $10.00 for the third night and a $10.00 donation.

On Sunday we moved up to the Cresent Boat Club, and met with a retired police officer who had a canvas shop in his garage, to do some minor repair on some tabs on our starboard side curtains. We actually did the repair work until 9:30 PM Sunday night, and they reinstalled the side curtains on Monday morning. We were plugged in with power and water so Claria did some laundry in our washer/dryer on the boat. We left a about 2:00 PM and motored west on the canal to Amstgerdam, where we tied up to the town park wall. We plugged in for the night, but couldn't find anybody to pay and the phone numbers in the cruising guide didn't work. There were three of us there for the night, and we all said "Thank You", and left.

Today, Tuesday May 22, we traveled further west, and are anchored just below lock 16 for the night. There are quite a few boats that have bunched up here, at local marinas, tied up to the lock walls, or anchored out. Weather was beautiful today, the scenery on the canal is beautiful as we go through the mountains in the Mowhawk River valley which makes up the Erie in this part. We have traveled west in the canal 71 miles, probably about 45 miles as the crow flies, gone through 14 locks, and are currently 322' above sea level. When we get to lock 17 we go up 42' in one lock, that ought to be interesting.

This corridor through the mountains has railroad tracks on the north side of the canal and Interstate 90 on the south side of the canal. At one point we had an east bound and west bound train passing each other at some 60 MPH each, looked south to see traffic going east and west, looked up to see contrails of planes going east and west, as we motored along at 9 mph. What a great way to travel!


View looking west as we motor along!

Friday, May 25, and we are tied up to the canal wall in Brewerton, NY, at the west end of Oneida Lake. On Wednesday we moved up to the lower wall of lock 17, in Little Falls, NY, a very friendly little town. The Canal finally opened up on Thursday at noon and we were among the first four boats to go up 42' in the first lock through at about 12:30. Two notable boats were with us, the first a 90' Burger, TO FOUR owned by on of the Fisher family of General Motors which was being moved by it's crew from Florida to Michigan for the summer. The other boat was Hunter's Child II, a 50' version of Hunter's Child that Steve Pettengill solo raced around the world. Steve was on the boat and is moving it to the Great Lakes for some summer racing. We followed Hunters Child II through the next few locks. As we came out of lock 19 there was a shallow area at the upper end of the lock, and as Hunter's Child II tried to pass through with their 8' draft they got stuck. They backed off and tried again only to hit bottom again. So Steve radioed us and asked if we could try to pull him through. So we maqde up a bridle and he tied on a bow line. He hit again, and at idle speed on ODYSSEE we brock his bow line. It snapped back and under our boat, and you guessed it got around our port prop. We are right in the channel of the lock exit. Claria took the weel, radioed the lock master who was bringing up the next load, to tell him of our situation and advised him to hold the opening of the lock until we had the rope cleared. I set an anchor, put on my dive gear, took my shearing knife, and went under the boat to cut the rope clear. Well the lock mast didn't hold the opening of the lock and there were some very impatient Carvers and SeaRays in this load who wanted to go, irrespective of the fact that I was still in the water. All the radio discussion had been on channel 13, so all those boaters were aware of the situation. It only took me about 10 minutes to clear the prop, but we still had an anchor to pull, and these boaters were furious and rude, and were passing us with close clearance. Claria was furious, requested that they let me reboard the boat before passing to no avail. Luckily nobody got hurt and no contact was made between boats, but these jerks were just stupid. Thats probably why they have Carvers and SeaRays! Two boats did hold back of the six that were in that lock load, a Grand Banks and a Canadian trawler. When we got to the next lock, that lock tender held the rude boaters in the lock until we got there and then locked us up, so in all their hast, they didn't gain any ground. That lock tender came to talk to us as did the Canadian trawler owner, thanking us for trying to help Hunter's Child II. When we arrived here this afternoon, another Canadian boat owner who had heard the whole thing on the radio, came over to grab our lines and to pass on their appreciation of what we had done. We now have some new friends from Montreal.

Last night we spent the night on the wall at Rome, NY. This morning we went to Fort Stanwix, the fort the British put up to protect the water route. Near Rome are head waters of the Mohawk river to the east and Wood Creek to the west that are the natural waterways that are used to form the Erie Canal. This is truly an interesting waterway that was an important thorofare in history.