Time To Tackle The Erie Canal!

July 8 - From Kingston, we traveled about 42 miles with Tom and Vicki Blaser on Grand Baron to Shady Harbor Marina in New Baltimore, New York.  It was a good place to get fuel (our first refueling since Annapolis) and a pump out, but there was not much there.  The marina had nice docks and clean showers, always a plus!

July 9 - We cruised 22 miles to Waterford Visitor's Center and a free wall to dock for the night.  Beyond the free wall is the start of the Erie Canal.  In fact, from the wall, the first lock is visible.  The wall quickly filled up with boaters who were planning on starting on the Erie Canal the next day.  

                                                      Waterford Visitor's Center

A little history about the Erie Canal.  This year is the 200th year of the Erie Canal.  The Erie Canal was North America's most successful and influential public works project.  Built between 1817 and 1825, this 363-mile-long canal was the first all-water link between the Atlantic Seaboard and Great Lakes.  New York Gov. DeWitt Clinton relentlessly promoted its construction.  Skeptics just as forcefully derided it as "Clinton's Ditch, but in the end Clinton would be vindicated.  The canal advanced Euro-American settlement of the Northeast, Midwest, and Great Plains, sometimes at the expense of Native populations.  It fostered national unity and economic power.  It made New York the Empire State and New York City the nation's prime seaport and seat of world trade. 

Originally 4 feet deep and 40 feet wide, the Erie Canal cut through fields, forests, rocky cliffs, and swamps; crossed rivers on aqueducts; and overcame hills with 83 lift locks.  The project engineers and contractors had little experience building canals, so this massive project served as the nation's first practical school of civil engineering.  Some laborers were Irish immigrants, but most were U.S.-born.  For eight years of wet, heat, and cold, they felled trees and excavated, mostly by hand and animal power.  They devised equipment to uproot trees and pull stumps and developed hydraulic cement that hardened under water.  With hand drills and black powder, they blasted rocks.  Their ingenuity and labor made the Erie Canal the engineering and construction triumph of its day.   

Knowing all the history, we began our trip on the Erie Canal on July 10.  The first 5 locks came one right after the other.  The name for the first 5 locks is the Waterford Flight because they are close together.  There was barely time to take a break after exiting one lock before another one was in front of us.  Most of the locks were small - 7 to 10 feet up.  On our first day, we traveled through 10 locks and planned to spend the night on a free wall just above Lock 10.  

It takes approximately 30-40 minutes to go through each lock if there is no waiting.  When we got to Lock 9, we did have to wait. We radioed the Lockmaster, but he said he was at Lock 8 (where we just left) and would be at Lock 9 as soon as he could complete a task on Lock 8 and drive to Lock 9.  We probably waited 30-40 minutes for Lock 9 to be opened.  Once the Lockmaster arrived and opened Lock 9 for us, he assured us that he had called ahead to Lock 10 to tell them we were coming and that they would wait for us.  The locks close at 5 p.m.  Because of our delay at Lock 9, we were running a little behind.  We got through Lock 9 and hurried as fast as we could to Lock 10.  

We arrived at Lock 10 about 5:10 p.m. and we were unable to get a response from the Lockmaster on the radio.  He obviously did not wait for us.  As we were trying to figure out what to do, another Lock employee showed up and he offered to open the Lock for us and lock us through.  He said the daytime Lockmaster was gone for the day.   There had been so much rain in the area for the last few weeks and the Erie Canal was actually closed part of that time because there was too much water to handle.  When the lock is closed at 5 p.m., all of the flood gates over the adjoining dam are opened to let as much water through as possible.  What we didn't realize when we started into the lock was that, because all the flood gates had been opened, there was a great deal of turbulence in the water in front of the lock.  Grand Baron entered the lock first and at one point ended up cantilevered on a cement structure.  Their fender saved them - but it gave up its life in the process (crushed). Most of their boat was ok but they did sustain some damage on their starboard side; largely to the engine room air vents.
 
Next was our turn to enter the lock.  The water was like a whirlpool in front of the lock.  The captain did all he could to keep the boat under control, but the force of water was too strong.  We ended up smashing into the lock gate and only sustained damage to our port side rub rail, (and pride).   Nancy was on the bow of the boat when this happened and the only thing she could do was hang on.  Once we were inside the lock everything was calm, although we were still shaking by the time we finally exited the lock and tied up on a free wall for the night.  The lock employee who opened up the lock for us had us file incident reports, but we are sure we will never hear any more about it.

                             Inside Of Lock Wall That We Hit While Entering The Lock

Damage to Tug LeeLoo's Rub Rail - Notice The Yellow Paint From The Lock Door

After our night on the wall after our experience with Lock 10, we did not encounter any more bad experiences.  Most of the Erie Canal was remote and lovely.  Along the way, we could see ruins of the original canal.

                                         Mohawk River Portion Of The Erie Canal

We stopped at several small towns including Canajoharie, NY and Sylvan Beach, NY.  Each town had a free wall for us to tie up to.  (The captain is really happy about all the free walls!)  Canajoharie is a little town where the Beech-Nut company was started!  Sylvan Beach had an old-time amusement park.  Each town had its own "flavor" for what it was known for. 

                   Tug LeeLoo Waiting For Lock Doors To Open (Just Beyond The Bridge)

                                           Work Boats Along The Erie Canal.

                                               Waiting For The Lock Wall To Close

We spent five nights on the Erie Canal.  We never worried about going aground - there is a lot of water on the Erie Canal right now!

From the Erie Canal, we went to the Oswego Canal.  A much newer and cleaner canal.  Our first night was on another free wall in Oswego, New York.  There were many other Looper boats waiting on the free wall to cross Lake Ontario and go into Canada.  The weather had been very windy and, similar to Lake Michigan, you have to have a good day to travel.  In fact, because of the weather we spent a second night on the Oswego wall.

July 24 - We are now in Canada and will be entering the Trent-Severn Waterway tomorrow.  There's too much to describe in one blog entry.  Clayton, NY, touring Boldt Castle and Singer Castle, going through customs in Gananoque, anchoring out in Kerr Bay on Amhurst Island . . . there's much to talk about!  We will try to catch up the next time we have internet!