Never a Dull Moment , Especially on the Erie Canal

The summer and heat returns after a soggy, rainy and windy 3 days here in Oswego. Speaking of weather uh hum....I will only re-live the lake crossing one more time (huh!) as I feel my weather resources were more than marginally compromised due to the LOCATION of the weather buoy in Oswego. Where was it located you ask? Location: behind the marina wall, in marina-type waters, gathering lake weeds, not in it's usual home in the some-what open lake near the shore of Oswego, We hear from Bernie, from the Oswego Marina, that he and his wife were shocked to see us come through the stormy weather on that Friday night/Saturday morning.

"We checked the weather buoy on the Oswego shore, and our search pulled up the Oswego, East Weather Buoy", I tell him. How were we to know that the weather conditions of 'FAIR, light winds 9 mph, and light rain' was communicating from this weather buoy in a what-was-thought to turned off?

Bernie tells us that he brought the buoy into his sheltered harbour after it was drifting badly out in the lake, as it came loose from the cement block on the bottom of the lake. He was shocked to know that from our knowledge, it was still transmitting information!!! He had contacted the department who monitors these buoys and had assumed they had turned this one off - apparently not so! Bernie laughed as we relived a few moments of  our crossing, as we had relied on the forecast from this sheltered marina instead of the weather buoy on the west shore of Oswego. 
How were we to know???!!!


 Ok, that out of my head, we have learned to look beyond all respected resources in the future. Next time, if we are in doubt, we will actually make a live-to-person phone call and ask, "how is the weather?"


Tuesday, Sept 15 : The rainy weather has passed, clear skies ahead for several days and the summer heat is back. With our mast securely tightened to the boat, wet sails unfortunately, folded and in the v-berth below, we buy our 10-day canal pass for $50 and head east on the Oswego Canal, passing Bill and Marilyn's boat, "Grand Caper".


We headed out mid-day and our final stop is at Fulton, NY just 5 minutes before the locks close for the day.
Deja Vu sits along the wall. Crickets and the low roar of the dam beside us are welcome sounds.

We are thankful for the courtesy key to the showers
at the locks. We take a 10 minute walk to Fast Trac gas bar for
a few essential supplies: cold beer and junk food.

Wednesday, Sept 16: Pancake breakfast with REAL Canadian Maple Syrup -and  yes that's Nutella.
Morning walk to "Dollar General "for a few items then off to Brewerton, just before Lake Oneida, about 2 1/2 hours.

We love the scenery along the canals. Many, many lovely cottages and huge homes with waterfront dockage, line the shores.

Fishermen are enjoying the extended summer weather fly-fishing along the rivers edge. 

A Sandhill Crane is fishing too.

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Red markers to the left, green to the right. Watch your charts, depth meter and eyes ahead for any fallen trees or floating ones too!

Here's a barge that we share the narrow canals with along our route.

 Our route will change from the Oswego Canals at the Three Rivers Junction, where the Oswego River, Oneida River and Seneca River connect. 

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At the junction we wave and say hello to a man swimming alongside his friend in the dinghy. He yells out, "Water temp is 76F".  Ya gotta love that!

This is how most locals get around in the canals.

Diesel price: $2.59/U.S, gallon

We had just called in to the Brewerton Boat Yard to stop there for a pump out then onto the wall to stay the night, when Tony sees a sign for diesel and pump out station on our port side called "Winter Harbour". With a quick check of traffic in front and behind, I make a quick turn to port and we stop here at the fuel dock to check in.

Tony checks our route for tomorrow as we enjoy a lovely warm sunset at the dock in Winter Harbour.



HUGE power boats line the transient docks, including MAGIC MOMENT, a 77 foot yacht that is for sale, a steal at $450k U.S.  After securing our dockage for the night, we ask for a view of the beast, but of course, it's by appointment only.

With a free courtesy car (air-conditioned mini-van) for 1 1/2 hours, we drive just 15 minutes into Brewerton to Wal-Mart to get some fresh produce, chicken and some cold hoppy-type drinks!

Thursday Sept 17: Foggy morning, just 10C, warming to another steamy 30C day. Summer heat is intense during mid-day to end of day. I really hadn't planned on wearing my summer dresses this journey, hoping the flannel shirt (thanks Taylor) was going to be my go-to each day. Drinking lots of water and anticipating the cool breezes in the early morning to keep us cool.

7:32 am, Winter Harbour, just west of Lake Oneida.

Going through the locks is hard work! I am steering us into the locks, Tony and I have to time the right moment for him to grab the right cable or ladder at the bow, then I have the stern cable or ladder to grab, while working the gears....boat hooks bent, hand and arm muscles strained, slime and sludge on the boat and us too...we are giving each other thumbs-up when we finally have Deja Vu stable for the ride up in the lock. It's impossible to take photos during this time, as you can appreciate, wish I had a Go-Pro!

We are leaving Winter Harbour (9:12 am) heading towards Lake Oneida. Now we'd heard about his lake from not only fellow sailors but our resource books too, "Boaters should always check the weather before heading into Lake Oneida. In high winds, the east end of the lake can be much rougher than the west end. Wave heights can reach 6 feet. There are many shoals and submerged obstacles".  Bob, our 'fellow sailor', who traversed this lake in 2012, writes on the borrowed resource book I just quoted, "15 knot winds east, 4-6 waves on the nose".

As you can imagine we have checked and checked again all our resources for weather prior to THIS crossing since we don't have a mast with sails to assist on this run, We want a calm crossing with our mast tied to our deck.
No rolling seas for Deja Vu please!!






We have great luck as forecasts repeat the winds are 6-8 knots from the east, changing to the south by mid-day, full sunshine, high 30C.

Our motor across was so lovely, calm and we felt we deserved this calm, calm day.

Who lives HERE? Wow.

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Calm, glassy waters greet us at the entrance to the Erie Canal on the other side of Lake Oneida. Sylvan Beach is said to be a resort town, but with possible economic times as what they are, we see a forgotten amusement park, somewhat busy marina-type park but no signs of resort-like living here.
A few boats in, a few boats out, then as Tony is off the helm and I am on, I see it > the steel-like barge in the canal. The canal ahead I see does not look like the charts, severely narrowed by this machine. As I hail to Tony to grab the binoculars, we are close and realize it's too late to turn around in this narrow passage. It is indeed a dredger, sucking mud from the bottom to clear the channel for deep-keeled boats such as Deja Vu. Ah, but even with our VHF on Channel 16, we heard nothing from the dredger, until we were upon it. He yells out, "Turn hard to starboard NOW!". Too late.
Does YOUR Catalina 380 turn on a dime? Duh, NO!.Before we knew it...vrrrrrrr, stuck!  Apparently in just 4 feet of water. Gee great. Draft is 6' 10", hmmm, bet the rudder is in there too! Ugh. With Tony at the helm and the team of men on the dredger, lines attached to their steel barge and our stern, we agree on their help to pull us out. After 10 minutes of stress and worry about slamming into their steel boat, I make a call to the TowBoat US (similar to CAA). Within minutes we've arranged for a boat to come to us to assist to pull us into deeper water so we can continue down the canal.
Picture this: 5 men on the dredger, pulling our line, Tony shifting hard from reverse/neutral/forward then again, trying to rock the boat free from the bottom sand and mud. Finally after too many shifts on the poor motor we are loose enough to back up and take that HARD to starboard turn around the dredger. I call off the TowBoat US (year membership just $140, so worth it!). Once again I wanted to snap some pics but this was NOT the time. I wave and thank the men and even throw kisses to the guys. We offer to throw them a few beers for their help and just PRAY they don't find a way to bill us. Quick pic as we leave this mess.

Look closely to the right of the dredger, slightly left and in front of the red marker.
See that small white post? That's where we hit bottom.

We are frazzled but thankful for the release from the bottom.
When do we get to relax? lol
Since travelling the canals we've learned just how important it is to have two sets of eyes We are always "ON", no time for reading books lol, checking emails lol, just looking ahead, reading charts and our depth meter. I prep sandwiches and fruit, cheese and cracker snacks prior and along the way too.

We are now in the Erie Canal and as the title of this post says, there is never a dull moment here! We continue through very narrow channels, calm pollen-laden waters with fallen trees along the shore, fish jump and we hear the squawks of Kingfishers in the trees. It's 2:30 and after going through 2 more locks, we grab the grassy wall just after Lock 21 in New London, NY and set up for lunch and stay here for the night. We get to tie up like the big boy ships on a huge cement post on the lawn. We take this time to spread out our wet head sail on the lawn as the summer temps continue to heat up us. Our table cloth and towels pinned to the back bimini add some relief from the sun as we relax with a cold drink. Tony checks the oil, pumps out any water from the bilge- everything looks good! Now to rest and watch that sun set.

Large head sail drying in the late day sun. Temperature hits 33C.

We LOVE this chart book, Bob. Thanks!

Trees on the shoreline are changing colours.

We just came up this lock, approximately 25 ft height, upstream.

Me, behind the fence, breaking rules once again. Lock 21 at New London, NY.

 An early photographer (me) catches THIS sunrise at 7:20 am on Friday, September 18th, New London, NY.  With a busy day ahead we continue on the Erie Canal towards our next stop at Little Falls, just before Lock 17. But we can't forget the exciting obstructions we encounter along the way: silt at river/dam openings, trees freely floating, spillways, guard gates, dredgers, barges, tug boats and even cruise ships that join you in the locks!

Water depth is just 2 feet below our keel. We are passing this to our starboard side. 

Leaving the lock downstream.

Just came from under this guard gate.
We keep in the centre of our channel and ease back out in the main channel.

We pass a tugboat pulling this barge on our port side.

Here is a canal cruise ship with which we shared the lock.
Then he turns around ahead of us and comes back to do the route again.

Here is the exact view we have from the cockpit.
Mast and spreaders and saw horses included in the view. Another guard gate ahead.

Landscape begins to change, as we travel farther east.

Our route from Oswego, across Lake Oneida to just 2 locks (red circle with X) east of Utica, in the county of Herkimer.
We go down Lock 17, 40 foot drop tomorrow, Monday, Sept 20.

We will stay in Little Falls for a few nights, as a storm system from the west crosses us and leaves behind some winds that we aren't too keen about in the canals with a mast on top of our deck. Cooler more seasonal temps will follow, finally a true September.

Love is when Tony brings up the 12 volt fan and plugs into the helm outlet in the cockpit, suctions it to the table and blasts it on high towards me, AND offers me another cold glass of wine.

Love you all xo
Sailor Christine