Crossing the Erie Canal

Well we finally made it past Lock 2 on the Erie Canal!  We got to Waterford, NY on Wednesday and went up the the Lockmaster's office to buy our canal permit.  All of the old Lock 2 Yacht Club Canal Corporation employees were there, including the crew of the two Canal Corporation boats that were trapped with us last year.  This is the week that NY fourth graders study the Canal so the boats were doing educational tours, including carrying the kids through Lock 3 to experience a lock.  It was nice to see everyone.

Wednesday night, just for old times sake I guess, we had a big thunderstorm, with penny-sized hail and so much rain you couldn't see 10 feet from the boat.  But Thursday morning was beautiful and we locked through Lock 2 to the cheers and good wishes of our old friends.  The other boats in the lock must have wondered why we were getting such a great send-off.

Fortunately, the trip through the Canal has been relatively uneventful. There is still a lot of debris in the water.  Yesterday Jim had to use the boat to ease a big log out of the way before we could enter a lock, but mostly you just have to be alert and steer around them when you see them. We saw a bald eagle flying along the river I was so busy watching I forgot to take a picture.  You don't see eagles that often, but they are impressive when you do.

Our strangest experience was the group of Amish folks who came to look at the Canal. As we were locking up in one of the locks, a small RV pulled up, the door opened and Amish folks began to pour out. It looked like a clown car in the circus, every time you though there couldn't be any more room in the vehicle, more people came out.  About 15-18  folks, adults and kids, came over to the lock and stood there staring at us as our boat rose from below the lock walls.  One man was talking to them, explaining the history and use of the Canal I think, but they were all staring at us as if we were some exotic life form, which I guess to them we might have been.

We're leaving from Utica today, headed to Sylvan Beach, site of a Oneida Lake amusement park, But the park won't open until next weekend, so we're counting on finding space at the dock tonight. Tomorrow we head to Brewerton where we will stop for a week to fix things. (Someone once said "everything on your boat is broken, you just don't know it yet." Sad but true.)  More later.  Maybe I'll start remembering to take pictures.