Even after the Hurricane the Erie Canal was damaged badly and we did meet several boaters who had to take alternate routes because they could not use the Erie Canal last year. We are happy to report that the Erie Canal has been re-opened and is a great system to travel in by boat.
This was the sign that greeted us as we entered the Erie Canal.
We stopped at the visitor center in Waterford New York and spent the night there. We picked up our permit to travel the Erie Canal, walked around town, and had the worst pizza ever! The second picture is the old canal system at lock 1 in Waterford.
This is the boat sitting at the top of a lock (second picture), we will be going down in this lock, but the view at the top is great. The first picture is looking down at the gates which are at the end of the lock. You can see they are tall and impressive especially when you think about all of the water they are holding back.
They also have control gates along the locks, they control the amount of water flowing through the canal. The other picture is a boat going into lock 7. This boat is larger than our boat, but you can see that the chambers in the locks are large.
This next picture is one of the sailboats along the Erie Canal. They all put their mast down in order to travel under the bridges which are fixed (they do not open) and are about 20 feet high.
When you purchase your permit you can tie up to the free walls along the canal. We tied up at this Lock (I think it was number 12) and it was quiet and secluded. After super the volunteer fire department showed up. They brought all of there equipment and practiced drafting the water from the canal to the trucks. It was great entertainment!
This is one of the many dams along the Erie Canal.
We also encountered this bridge which was located in the lock. As you travel westbound you can only enter the lock to this point as the bridge is fixed and only 2 feet tall! After the lock drops the other 20 feet then the boats can go under it.
After we traveled the eastern half of the Erie Canal, we entered the Oswego Canal. Some of the boaters go through the Western half of the Erie Canal and then travel Lake Erie. We choose to go the Oswego Canal and then Lake Ontario. At the town of Oswego there is a wall to tie up to. Here is a picture of our boat (the last one on the right). As you can see, many of the boaters use the walls.
The next set of pictures is the river in Oswego which runs parallel to the canal. The last picture is the view of the last lock in the Oswego canal, looking out toward Lake Ontario.
We also hiked up to the Fort at Oswego. Even though the fort was closed the day we were there, we took as couple of pictures.
This last picture is the lighthouse at Lake Ontario. We made a successful crossing of this large body of water (of course, we watched the weather for a favorable day).
As we crossed Lake Ontario we entered into Canada. Of course, all citizens must check in with customs even when you travel by boat. The procedure is to hoist up a quarantine flag that is yellow, then the captain is the only one allowed off of the boat. He will either go to the customs office, or in this case, use the designated phone to call customs.
The captain calling in to customs.
Well all went went with our call to customs as we had all our paperwork in order.
We also had a bit of bad luck at Lock 13. (hmm). As we entered the lock they had a construction crew working on damage to the dam. The dam is located right next to the lock. The gates next to the lock were open and causing a lot of turbulence. Erwin has been handling boats for 50 years, but the current and the wind slammed our boat into the lock wall. The lock master felt as bad as we did. We suffered some damage, but it only scrapped the fiberglass. The teak cap rail did not come out so good. We will be doing repairs after our return to Michigan. Here is a picture of the damaged side and the side that is good.
We will be traveling in Canada for the next few weeks. The first adventure will take us through the Trent-Severn Canal system. Stay tuned for the next chapter.
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