Oswego Canal – Erie Canal

Poor Vita has been turned into a power boat. Her mast is on deck, and her sails are all bagged. The good news is that she is handling it far better than her Captain. Not that I have anything against a nice diesel trawler, but something about a sailboat says freedom like nothing else, and its hard to see something free with its wings clipped. Not long though, a few more short days and she will be soaring with the birds once again.

We finally got to leave Oswego on Tuesday, 21 Aug 13. The crew at Oswego Marina were amazing. Laurie and Bernie, who pretty much run the joint were an absolute hoot. Friendly, helpful, and figured me out right away. Definitely going back there on the way home.

I wanted to take a minute to tell you about our other crew member, Ray. No, Serena did not pick up a cabana boy, just yet. Ray is the name that we have given our Raymarine X5 autopilot. He is an invaluable asset, steering long periods, and saving us from sore shoulders. However, we have found that he is not to be trusted at all, and must be watched all the time. He has little quirks that we are figuring out as we go, and if you tick him off, he’ll up and do a 360 on you. He likes to stray a little at a time, like he’s falling asleep, so you have to wake him up and give him a little course correction. Then he has this thing about meals, if you open the pot drawer, he starts jumping around widely and throws the boat into a tail spin, forgetting the reason he is even here. But we love him none-the-less, and appreciate his tireless duty. (read; I installed the autopilot compass too close to the pot drawer.) There were a few people who told us before we left, that we should tie Ray to the chart plotter so that we could lay in courses and let Ray do his thing. But the picture below shows why we do not let the two of them talk to one another. Between Ray’s little idiosyncrasies and the GPS not having a clue where its going, our cruise would be over all ready. Same reason we don’t put a GPS in the car. Nice reference, but it doesn’t make up for good ol’ human eyes.

We did the Oswego canal in one day. Its only 24 miles long, and stopped along the upper wall of lock 23. It’s a beautiful spot. Lots of wildlife, but the mosies chased us indoors at dusk. The lockmaster gave us a tour of the power station that used to run the lock when it was installed. The power comes in through the transmission lines now, but most of the old gear is still able to operate. Flashbacks to Serena’s childhood when her Dad worked on the power stations in Campbellford.

We left lock 23 on the Wed and did the stretch across Onieda Lake. It’s a big shallow lake, and has a reputation for being a real bear. But for us yesterday the winds were light, and she was more like the teddy variety. We stopped in Sylvan Beach on the other side for Wifi, and ended up staying the night. We met a fellow named Joe who runs the visitor centre, and owns an ice cream shop; I love ice cream. He was kind enough to run me all over hells-half-creation to find 30 weight oil for Vita’s oil change. I offered him something for his time and gas, but he would have none of that. So, we figured if the people here are this nice, we need to stay around for the night and provision. Groceries, beer, pop, water, etc….

Today we are headed out yet again. We start going down river towards the Hudson this afternoon, after we find some wifi in “Rome”, NY, so we can post this update. We passed a dredge this morning leaving Sylvan Beach, which was kinda neat. Its like a big vacuum sucking up the mud out of the bottom of the canal, and it was tight, but they made room for our little boat to get by.

All along the canal are these little remnants of the original canal system. It was a lot smaller back then, accommodating smaller barges towed along the shore by horse teams. I hope they always keep this system up and going. It is an interesting piece of history, and a grand way to see NY state. To this point most of the politics has stayed out of it, but if it ends up like Ontario’s canals, it will become a liability, and possibly slowly disappear, which is sad.

Vita and crew continue on down the Erie Canal system. We still miss our morning coffee on the bench at the CFB Trenton YC, but life must forever move forward. For us that means to where there is no snow.