Thursday, July 25: 70 Miles on the Erie Canal - No Easy Day!

Date:                           July 25, 2013

Day on the Cruise:      101

From:                          Ess-Kay Yards (Marina), Brewerton, NY
                                       
To:                              Lyons, NY Town Wall

Statute Miles:              70.2 SM

Time:                           8.50 Hrs

Cumulative Miles:       2,163.9 SM

On Board:                  Susan, Chuck, Maggie, Trooper, Peanut

Tonight we are in Lyons, NY tied up to a high concrete wall on the side of the Erie Canal. We have traveled 220 miles since we entered the Canal from the Hudson River.

Lyons, NY

We are tied to the Wall. Note the Lock just to the West!

Today's trip was too far and too long for this waterway! It was "no easy day", that's for sure.

We were going to be off the dock at Ess-Kay by 7:45 to get to the Lock when it opened at 8. I woke up with a start before dawn with the realization that the manager at Ess-Kay had not charged us for 126 gallons of fuel that we took on when we arrived on Monday. Long story short, we waited until the office opened at Ess-Kay at 8:30, settled up on the fuel, got a pump out, then got away from Ess-Kay at 9:15. So much for close planning!

The section of the Canal between Brewerton and Lyon is the one that I most dreaded because there did not appear to be any good docking facilities available until Lyon, which is 70 miles from Brewerton. Our best day on the canal we averaged a bit under 7 mph, so we were looking at a very long day at best. The late start from Ess-Kay Made the trip almost undoable. We also thought we had five locks to get through before Lyon. The Canal closes at 6 PM.p

So,we started out with the idea that we would go as far as we could and knowing that we might have to tie up to some dock and use our generator for power overnight. Our friends Dan and Sandy on "some R lovin'" left about 45 minutes before we did headed in the same direction. We left Rick and Leila on "Sun Gypsy" who are headed into Canada. We hope to see them again in Michigan.

Fog on the Canal this morning

Beautiful morning in Brewerton

Right after Ess-Kay, we passed Winter Harbor Marina in Brewerton. This is the marina that has huge indoor heated storage facilities for boats and a lot of people leave their boats here for the Winter and then pick up the Loop in the Spring (May) when the Canal opens. We passed our friends Michael and Leslie's boat "How Lucky Again" that will be left here over the Winter while Leslie recuperates from getting sick on the Loop trip this year. We also passed Steve and Meredith at Winter Haven who were on "Free at Last" and are headed into Canada. We yelled at them as we passed and blew the horn!

First Lock of the day. WE are going down in this one.

View out the front door this morning. A beautiful, cool morning.

Going under a bridge with the bimini top down

An hour after we left Ess-Kay, we passed the Oswego Canal that cuts North about 20 miles to Lake Ontario and the crossing to Canada. We are closer still to Lake Ontario tonight here at Lyon! Very close to Canada. The junction of the Erie and Oswego Canals is at a place called Three Rivers. We entered the portion of the Erie that runs through the Seneca River. We also entered the Western half of the Erie Canal when we passed Three Rivers. Lots going on here!

Here we are at the junction of the Oswego Canal. Turn right and go 24 miles up to Lake Ontario and Canada. We turned left and headed for Buffalo. WE are now on the Western portion of the Erie Canal

Looking North up the Oswego Canal

About 22 miles from Ess-Kay we went through the Lock at Baldwinsville, NY. This Lock bifurcates the small town with the town buildings on each side of the Lock. There is a Wall at the West side of the Lock where you can tie up for the night, but it was too early to stop. We pushed on.

Following a tour boat into the Lock at Baldwinsville

In the Lock at Baldwinsville with a tour boat

The Lock splits the town.

Lock building

We are also in the Lock with a sailboat going to Buffalo. They would also spend the night on the wall at Lyons.

Coming up in the Lock and seeing Baldwinsville

It was very difficult to go the speed limit in our boat. Mile after mile of feeble docks or floating docks with small boats tied to them that our wake would roll. The Canal became very shallow and very narrow, and this is a bad recipe for our boat and speed and wake creation. So, after trying to run at a high RPM and waking some boats and docks that I should not have, we were forced to run slow and get off and on the throttle as we passed docks and moored boats. Sort of like the ICW. Only thing missing were the "Manatee Zones" - ha ha

A packyderm by the Canal

Crossing Cross lake

Crossing Cross lake

Some more animals by the Canal

Lots of these types of establishments today

Have to go slow by these places

The old (and I mean old( Richmond Aqueduct near Clyde

Remains of the Richmond Aqueduct

Remains of the Richmond Aqueduct

The Erie Canal is narrow and very rural in this stretch

During the early afternoon, we got past the civilization pretty much and hit a barren stretch of the Canal. I did manage to pick up speed during this time and I ran between 11 and 12 mph where I could.

In Brewerton we lowered the Bimini top to give us an air draft of about 13'-3" so that we could get under some low bridges on this Western Part of the Canal. Well, we finally found the "low bridge" that we had been looking for. We left the Lock at Clyde, NY and saw the low railroad bridge ahead. As we entered this Lock, a sailboat coming out of it East bound warned us about the bridge. The lock master said we had less than 16 foot clearance under the bridge. I lowered my seat that sticks up above the 13' clearance on our boat, and a chart plotter that also sticks up. We approached the bridge very very slowly, almost at a standstill, and yes, it was low. We just "bumped" the throttle to maintain momentum and ghosted under the bridge. We had to duck but we cleared OK. I actually raised my arm and could just touch the steel as we passed under. How exciting!

Approaching the lowest bridge we have seen to date

Can we male it?

Low Bridge, everybody down!

With room to spare

Good bye low bridge! Glad we lowered the Bimini!

We arrived at Lyons at 5:40. They have a high concrete wall on both sides of the Canal just before you enter Lock 27, so we didn't have to go through the Lock in order to tie up for the night. The wall at the North side of the Canal has the power and water, so we tied up on this wall. There were already two boats on the wall. The wall is higher than the boat, so there is a challenge getting on and off. We put the pet ramp over to the wall from the top of the lower cabin, so it is easy for Maggie to get on and door the boat - easier than for Susan and I!

"Blue Moon" tied to the wall at Lyons, NY

"Blue Moon" in the distance on the wall with two other boats

Tucked in for the night on the wall at Lyons, NY

We ate dinner at a restaurant in town near the wall that I picked up from another blog. It was good. After dinner we walked around the downtown area. The courthouse has a neat dome and the town square is a park with a band stand. The weather is cool and clear and the night sky is gorgeous.

They had beautiful murals painted on buildings in downtown Lyons

Street scene in Lyons

Bank right downtown

The old bank building

Bandstand in the town square

Courthouse and dome

The dome on the courthouse really stands out

This is the fire department where you check in to stay on the wall...........for free!

Flowers in Lyons

Hanging basket in Lyons

This little display was in front of the American Legion

Flowers along the wall in Lyons. There is that sailboat that was in the Lock with us at Baldwinsville.

Day lilies at the end of their day

This is the sailboat with which we locked through in Baldwinsville. Notice how the sailboats have to unstep and carry their masts on the Erie Canal to clear the bridges!

Looking at the Lock at Lyons. We will go through this tomorrow.

Neat little tug on the wall at Lyons.

Tomorrow is a much shorter day. About 30 miles to Fairport, NY.


Thanks for Reading!