Erie Canal - part 3

Newark

Newark dockmaster's office and a FREE washer and dryer for boaters to use. People at the 2 previous stops had told us about his luxury.

Murals painted depicting "olden canal days" on every surface of the lift bridge.
 

The next morning , the 23rd, we were up and ready to go by 8:00ish.

We had a long long day, through 5 locks and then a 30 mile stretch by a wildlife preserve. We saw so many herons, sorry they blend into the landscape. They would take off and fly by the boat. We probably saw 25 at least. We also saw lots of different ducks, hawks and maybe an eagle.

 

 

 Cliff and Betsy's picture.

A true house boat.

Saw this worker's legs hanging down and we chuckled.

ruins of an old aqueduct

This is my view as I sit in Baldwinsville now. This is a popular tie up. We have met sailors from India, Poland and North Carolina. There is a nice park right outside our boat for Oliver and he met 3 new dogs last night.

 

Finally caught up. We plan to take off tomorrow to continue East.

Erie Canal Part 2

I will try to catch the blog up with where we are now, but pictures are not cooperating uploading. Here is an overview of where we stopped.

August 14-15, Tonawanda
August 16, Middleport
August 17 Holley
August 18-19, Spencerport
 August 20-21, Fairport. The locks start up at this point.
 August 22, Newark
August 23, Cooper's Marina
August 24, Baldwinsville

This is Culvert Road. The only road to go under the canal. It was built in 1823. The road has obviously been resurfaced a few times. It was weird to go over a road. Unfortunately the picture doesn't show how far down it really was.

Oliver is bored.

 

This is near the town of Albion where a 60 foot sinkhole caused damaged to the canal and closed it for 2-3 weeks. Albion is also the home of George Pullman. He got the idea for sleeping cars by seeing the packet boats on the canal.

 

 

This was the town of Holley. It was a great place to walk on lit paths and around a park and to a waterfall. The lift bridge operator was right at the boat when we pulled in to give us information and welcome us. At night there was a concert by the "Who Dats". They were pretty good. We met a Canadian couple that had the "eh" at the end of every sentence (I loved it) and a man from England that solo sails in the summers out of Detroit. His name is Ian and he now lives in the south of Spain. We met him at many ports or passing.

 

 

Spencerport - this is the museum I checked out after Ollie's walk. Can you imagine that tail in a museum! This was the depot that moved a couple of times.

 

 

Fairport was our next stop. This is a very popular spot. The town is known for its preservation of old homes and buildings. It is also known for the only lift bridge that is on a incline and has a tilt.

 

We were treated to a classic car show and concert there also. This band was more into jazz.

 

 

Ollie is not sure about this mule carved from wood.

Also in Fairport, I was walking by the tour boat at the docks and looked up and everyone was in pink. I asked if it was associated with breast cancer, I mentioned I survived and they said come on board. I declined since I was not in pink, was coming back from a run and they were shooting a video for the "pink glove campaign" to win $10,000 for their areas cancer center. I did put on my pink hat and take pictures as they went by for the video.

The dockmasters office is located in the old train depot # 22. Retired men are the dockmasters and all and the 2 we met were very talkative and informative. One was a retired teacher.

Where's my boat?

 

Here are some pictures of the canal as we traveled these past days.

 

 

More later.

 

Erie Canal Part 1

From Tonawanda we had 18 miles until we would reach Lockport and our first big locks. These are the only adjacent locks on the Erie Canal and each lock drops us 25 feet. These used to be a series of 5 locks. We also had to purchase our canal pass and stickers. People are watching us and taking our picture. The lockmaster helped us on the first one and the second we acted like we knew what we were doing. I am smiling but it takes work to keep us off the lock walls as we descend and hold the line.

Here is Dale when we are done.

The western part of the canal is unique. There are no locks until Rochester. We pass many small towns. Each town has a wall with tie ups, some charge a fee and others do not. Each town also has a lift bridge that you radio to and they lift. Usually 2 towns share a bridge tender, so after they let you through, they get in a car and drive to the next one you will be going under. They are all really nice and will help you tie up sometimes. Some walls come with water and electrical and others do not.Many have pretty gardens nearby or gazebos.  Everyone is so nice. In Middleport, I was searching for a store and asked a couple of locals. They offered to drive me, but I don't just go with strangers so I declined and mentioned it was mostly bananas I wanted. That evening, the gentleman and his daughter brought us some bananas. In Spencerport, we spoke with a couple who used to sail and their son and daughter-in-law. Next thing you know, we were invited to dinner and rides. It is really small town hospitality and history thrown in to the mix. The pace of the canal is slow and calm, only 10 mph wake at times. There are not many boats. We are traveling with a solo sailor from England much of the time. He now lives in the south of Spain and sails here in the summer. Another couple we met were from St. Augustine, and others from Sarasota that come up for the summer. These are just a few examples. We found out we clear the guard gates and the bridges with a couple feet or more to spare. The depth is always 13-15 feet. We see more herons than I knew existed. When they fly by they are huge. Here are some pictures from our travels East.

Me navigating, kind of scary.

We passed Orangeport, then Gasport, named because some Polytech Students (Reneslaer) discovered natural gas there in 1826.  The first night we tied up at Middleport. Orangeport is a 4 corner town. They used to have the train depot, but Gasport was the recipient of it when the gas was discovered. Story goes the men of Gasport came for the depot building and were pelted by eggs from the women of Orangeport. Not sure where the men were! I leave you with Middleport pictures.

Unstepping the mast

The first picture was taken by Dale when he had climbed up the mast to get our antenna and instruments down.

Here are the pictures of the crane being attached, the mast coming off the deck and the mast put on sawhorses for us to wrap and ready for it to be put on the frames on the boat.

It was a hot humid day and Oliver finally found some shade under one of the worker's trucks.

That night we got the mast ready to be put back on the boat. What a job! We had to move one set of spreaders so we could put the dodger and bimini back up and wrap and mark all stays and tension wires, etc.  Tuesday morning they put it back on the boat in the frames and we secured it.

We were ready to go.

WE followed the Niagara River to get diesel and a pumpout before we turned off to the Erie Canal. This is the sign at the turn into the canal.

Since we had a busy day, we spent the first night at Tonawanda at Gateway Park. We were treated to new sights and a concert (first band good, second, not so much) on the north bank.

More Canal to come when I have patience for crazy computer connections.