SYLVAN BEACH AND OSWEGO, NEW YORK

Wednesday, June 24

Locks are open! We took off early from Little Falls, thinking we would make it a long day and get as far as Sylvan Beach on Lake Oneida. Well, it was a bit too early — we got to the first lock about 7:30 and found out it did not open until 8:00. We tied up to the wall and had a second cup of coffee while waiting for the lockmaster to show up. As we were going into the lock, two more boats which had been several days at Little Falls came up the river, so the three of us locked through together, a pattern which repeated itself all day at the following locks. The day was fairly uneventful, all of us trying to make up time from being stuck for a few extra days. We cruised between locks at about 7-8 knots, since there is a speed limit of 10 mph on this whole section of canal. We did reach a high point - literally - in that the last two locks of the day were going down instead of taking us up. It was a little odd at first after so many lifting locks, but the lowering locks are actually easier to traverse, mainly because there is less turbulence within the lock as they let water out versus letting water in. We covered a total of almost 60 miles, a long day considering the five locks we went through had major height differences of at around 20 feet.

We finally pulled into Sylvan Beach about 4 PM, found a spot and tied up along the long public wall which was fairly crowded. We walked around the town, checked out the amusement park, the beach, the restaurants and… well that’s about it. We were invited over to the boat “CORKSCREW” (owned by winemakers) for cocktails, then sauntered over to a nearby restaurant for a basic, but very good, meal of haddock and fries.

Thursday, June 25

We were poised at the east end of Lake Oneida, about 40 miles across the lake from the continuation of the Erie Canal. It had been quite windy yesterday, and there were significant waves on the lake, but this morning the wind was light, so we took off around 8:30 AM to cross the lake. After several days of either inactivity, or low speed cruising, I wanted to rev the engines up a bit, so we crossed the lake at our “high speed” rather than at “trawler” speed. Doing so, we passed several of our friends who were traveling much slower. We made up for the quick crossing, however, by stopping by Winter Harbor, both for fuel and to introduce ourselves to the staff who will handle our boat for winter storage here in Brewerton, NY. I was very impressed by their facility and look forward to having the boat stored in a heated, indoor storage area next winter. We will bring the boat back this way in the fall, after cruising Canada for a few months, and drop it off to be stored until next Spring. We are considering listing the boat for sale while it is stored (it is incredibly difficult to maintain a boat the way I would like to when I live 3000 miles away), but if it doesn’t sell, perhaps do some more cruising in the Northeast next summer.

Continuing on our journey, we reached the Three Rivers Junction and headed north on the Oswego River to the City of Oswego. This is the area that had such high water last week that the locks had to close. Even though the water flows had decreased the past several days, there was still an awful lot of water going downstream and flowing over the dams next to the locks. We even had one short stretch of “whitewater” leaving one of the locks, making me think I should have been in my whitewater kayak rather than a cruising boat. The average downstream current was so strong (1.5-2.5 knots) that we covered the distance to Oswego surprisingly quickly, going through six “down” locks and docking at the free wall in Oswego by about 4:30 PM.

A Heron, sitting on the divider between the canal and the river

We were invited to another boat for cocktails, so I was going to clean up a bit, but as I was about to go into the shower, we heard a strange noise in the boat which sounded kind of like a pump going on. We had heard this same sound before, a week or so ago, and never did figure out where it was coming from. It was a distinct growling/gurgling noise, seeming to come from behind the bulkheads (walls) of the boat, but we couldn’t figure out what it was. We turned off all of the electricity at the control panel and it still made noise. I took off several access panel to get behind the bulkheads, but couldn’t find the source of the noise. We finally gave up and went off for cocktails.When we got back, we heard not just the one noise, but a second one as well, similar, but at a different frequency. I looked everywhere in this boat and could not figure out where the noise was coming from. Trying to figure out what was common to the previous time we heard it, we decided it occurred only when we were tied up next to a lock. The first time, we were tied up in Waterford at the start of the Erie Canal locks, and now, we are tied up between two locks on the Oswego Canal. To check my hearing, as well as my sanity, I walked over to the other boats tied up near us and asked if they heard the noise also. Not only could they hear it, but they said they had not heard that same noise since Waterford! Apparently, something either mechanical or electrical in the lock mechanism causes this noise, and it travels very efficiently through the water and the hull of the boats. One more little bit of wisdom gained during this trip.

The weather forecast dictates our next move. We plan to leave Oswego, which is on the south shore of Lake Ontario, and cross the lake north into Canada to start the Trent-Severn Waterway, making our way up to Georgian Bay in Lake Huron. The crossing for Lake Ontario is about 55 miles of open water, so we want the best conditions to do that. A cold front with rain and winds is forecast for this coming weekend and the first of next week, so it appears that our best chance to make the crossing will be tomorrow, with light to moderate winds from the south-east forecast and no rain. We had wanted to explore Oswego a bit, but, since we will be coming back this way in the fall, we have decided to take advantage of this weather window and head north tomorrow. We'll explore Oswego on the return trip. Onward! The second time we have taken this boat outside the US into a foreign country…


Notes from Elaine

We have met quite a few friends on this trip. Boating is unique in that boaters eventually run into each other a number of times. That is the nature of the beast - there is a limited number of waterways so it is no coincidence that we end up going to the same places. There are also common stopping places (marinas, municipal dock walls, anchorage spots) so we end up docking together. This is even more pronounced in canals with locks, as you all end up on the same schedule. We talk.
We compare travel notes. We help each other with the lines when arriving or departing. We all meet at 5:30 in the evening for sundowners. Sometimes we even all go out to dinner together.  The next thing you know, we are all traveling together until the next big fork in the road, where every one goes their own way. Kind of a bittersweet style of traveling.