Waterford, NY (Gateway to Erie Canal) to Brewerton, NY; DATES NEEDED and more text


We met some new Loopers, Jill and Sterling, and they graciously invited us to join them in their rental car to run errands the next morning. On our way off the boat, Phil
dropped his cell phone in the Erie Canal, which was about sixteen feet at that point, and after repeated tries with the net, we had another errand to run to the Verizon store.
If any of you are used to hearing from him, he no longer has your number if you haven’t been called since July 3rd. Some numbers he retrieved off a list at home, but lost a
lot of them. So give him a call if you haven’t heard from him. We had a really funny day, driving though upper state New York. We, of course, had no map and so we
got lost, not once, but four times! At one point, we passed a sign that said
Waterford was four miles, drove about four miles and saw another sign that said Waterford was six miles! As a result, we got to see a lot of the country-side, which was very
pretty. Some areas, with much laughter, we got to see twice! We had a good time and ended up back in Waterford for a late lunch at Kielty’s Irish pub.  The owners were
playing golf and the brother, Liam, from Ireland, was running the bar and restaurant. We had such fun. Liam had us fix our own drinks because he said he only knew how to
pour Irish whiskey. We got back to the boat late in the afternoon and played canasta, Jerry, Cristina, Phil and I.

We saw several really interesting things in Waterford.   One was a small steamship called the African Queen. If you remember the movie, it actually looked like Humphrey
Bogart’s boat. It was in Waterford because there had been a steamboat festival there. One hundred-thirty-five steamboats attended! Who would have thought there were
that many steamboats left in existence!?!?  
There was another steamboat, the Urger,
which belongs to the Erie Canal System. The Urger was built in 1901 as a fishing tug on Lake Michigan. She was often called into service by the U.S. Lifesaving Service for
rescues because of her seaworthiness. She was sold to the New York Department of Public Works in 1922 and in the mid ‘30s had a diesel engine installed and is still in
use today. All the Erie Canal system boats are painted dark blue and yellow. We saw several on our journey.

Another interesting sight was the diversionary canal. When an eastbound boat comes through the locks and they let the water out, they need an alternative place to let it
run into until it goes into the main canal.
We walked up the path to the top of the first lock, saw the diversionary canal and watched boats, locking through eastbound and westbound.

The Waterford Flight to Ilion, NY

The Waterford Flight is what they call Lock 2 to Lock 6 in the Erie
Canal.  In those five locks, our boat was raised 169 feet in two miles! Going through the locks was fun. There were ropes hanging in each lock for you to grab and cleat
loosely to hold the boat against the wall of the lock. We had three fenders on the port side which was where we were told to hold the boat.
In some of the locks, the walls were so pitted and rough, we were careful not to let the boat get too close to the walls for fear we would lose a fender. There are some
segments of the original Erie Canal which are no longer used, but are still visible. It was interesting to see them. We also saw what the Waterway Guide calls “a spectacular
private residence reminiscent of a castle on the Rhine River”, sitting about three miles west of Lock 7 and high above the cliffs on the north shore. Called “Llenroc” (Cornell
spelled backward), this huge five-story home has 30,000 square feet, 15 fire places, 10 bathrooms, an indoor pool and a bar with two portholes that look underwater into
the pool. It is quite a show place. We don’t have a clue as to who owns it… We arrived above Lock 12 at Fultonville and tied up along the wall at the Fonda terminal, just
west of the Fonda-Fultonville Bridge. We played canasta and had a great time, although the guys won!

The next day we left about 7:20. We faced our biggest lock to date, Lock 17, at Little Falls. It provides the largest single lift in the system at 40.5 feet. This lock has an
unusual door. Instead of a swing door, this lock has a guillotine door, which raises and lowers rather than hinging. The only other lock of this type in North America is on the
Ottawa River in Canada. It is like driving into a deep box. We saw houses built to the edge of the Erie on one side and a beautiful waterfall on the other side. We arrived in
Ilion early about 1:30 and decided to stay for the afternoon and night. We did the usual, washed, worked on the boat a little and walked into town for dinner.

We left the Ilion Marina about 9:30 the next morning. It was a lovely day in the Erie Canal, but when we reached Lake Oneida, the wind was really blowing from the west,
directly across the lake toward our boat. We had been told that the west wind was the worst for crossing. All the boats that had been with us the night before were tied up on
the west end of Lake Oneida at Sylvan Beach, known as the “Atlantic City of Northern New York”. They saw us coming and began to try to make room for us to tie up and
were shocked when we just motored on by and entered the Lake! We were a little shocked ourselves, but we had to get to Brewerton that night because Cristina and I were
leaving the next day from Buffalo, about 200 miles away, and we were going to go to see Niagara Falls before we went to the airport! So across the lake we went, Cristina
lying down and the other three of us hanging on for dear life. It was really rough with huge waves breaking over the bow of the boat. Once we got about 15 miles out from
the eastern shore, it calmed down some and was okay. Of course, it was rough once we got near shore on the other side! It is not a big lake, only 25 miles long, but it is
shallow and open and, let me assure you that what they say about the westerly wind is true!

We arrived at Ess-Kay Yards, Inc. about 5:15. As we started to back into our slip, Phil discovered that the starboard engine transmission would not shift and, therefore,
could not be used to help steer the boat. It was, of course, windy, so we went in bow first and got tied up.
Travel Log