Wednesday, May 20, 2015
The marina was blissfully quiet, this morning, and we woke to cloudy skies and the temp at 43. In the Bahamas, we were looking for places below in the boat to store the heavy blankets and comforters to get them out of our way, but today, we are glad to have them on the bed! We enjoyed our breakfast omelets and hot coffee as we relaxed in the toasty warm salon. The boat furnace might get more use on this northern leg of our trip. With all the boat prepping done and warm hugs goodbye to Kim at Ess-Kay Marina, Dream Chaser pulled from the dock and headed east to Lake Oneida. We are retracing our route (from last July) on the Eastern Erie Canal back to Waterford, NY (near Albany).
Steve is captaining from the lower/inside helm and has given up his shorts for jeans and a fleece.
As we cross the 21 miles of Lake Oneida, we have 16 mph winds at our tail and the 3 ft chop has turned into 4-5 ft rollers. The stabilizers guarantee an easy crossing. Love those stabilizers!
Oneida Lake is the largest body of water on the Erie Canal. It does not have a speed limit, as if, we need to worry about that. If you are new to our blog, you need to know that we travel in an 42' Ocean Alexander, which is a great trawler with top speed of 12 mph. Our normal cruising speed is 8 mph. Dream Chaser is slow, but a perfectly designed traveling boat! Our earlier posts give more information on Dream Chaser and the beginning of our adventure on the Great Loop.
The original Erie Canal passed to the south of Lake Oneida until 1917 when the canal was enlarged and moved. This redesign and relocation allowed larger canal boats to access the canal for movement of people and goods. On the east end of Lake Oneida is Sylvan Beach, a busy resort area with an old fashioned amusement park, swim beach, and lots of people. Not much happening, today, as it is a cloudy and cold Wednesday.
Dream Chaser left the lake and re-entered the Erie Canal at Sylvan Beach. We continued east sharing the water with a handful of fishing boats. It's May 20th, and there is little water activity. No boats in the locks, and few in the canal. Most were sailboats and their occupants were dressed for winter as the temp seems frozen at 46. As we meet and greet them with a "hello" wave, they stare at us while we sit inside Dream Chaser in shirt sleeves, listening to music, and sipping coffee. Love our furnace!
About noon, we pass through Lock E21 near New London, and in a channel off to our right is an old dry lock of the Old Erie Canal. Fun to see remnants of the days gone by.
While we cruised down the canal lined with bright green trees and bushes (Spring has arrived here), we are enjoying our chicken salads and waiting for the sun to pop out.
We cruised by Rome, NY having previously stopped there in July 2014. Rome, NY is an historic area with the restored Fort Stanwix covering an entire city block. This wooden fort is an excellent example of a Revolutionary War wooden fort. Rome is also the area where the first shovelful of dirt was dug for the construction of the original Erie Canal which started in 1817 and was completed in 1825. The canal contains 36 locks and a total elevation differential of about 565 ft. The construction of the canal is quite interesting and is discussed in more depth on one of our posts last summer.
There are approximately 286 bridges, guard gates, and other structures spanning the Erie Canal between the Hudson River and Niagara Rivers. We pass under Guard Gate 6 and marvel at the mass of weight. Guard gates are used to isolate sections of the canal in case of emergency-a break in the canal wall, accident, or extreme high water. They are also used when the canal needs to be drained for maintenance or winter freeze protection.
We are quickly becoming reacquainted with calling lock masters for locking information and working Dream Chaser through the locks. Dream Chaser has 21 locks to pass through before we arrive at Waterford, NY and head for points north.
The sun has peeked through the clouds, but temps hover at 50. Brrrr!
We pass Herkimer, NY famous for "Herkimer Diamonds" which are double terminated quarts crystals (having points at both ends). The mines are about 6 miles from the canal. The Herkimer Home State Site is here and General Herkimer is honored with a 60' obelisk.
The locks on the Erie Canal close at 5 pm during this time of the year. So, at 5:15 pm, Dream Chaser slid up to the dock at Canal Harbor at Rotary Park in Little Falls, NY for the night. Little Falls sits in a gorge between two 1,000 ft. cliffs with the Mohawk River running through it. It is a picturesque setting with many large old beautiful homes. After stopping in the marina office to pay for dockage, we walked to the Price Chopper grocery store in downtown Little Falls. We were on a mission for lobsters-steamed and ready to eat for $9/lb. We dined on lobsters last summer when headed west on the canal-Mmmm Good! Our mission was a success!
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Morning broke, and as we were stretching from the best night's sleep in days, the fog was lifting from the river. The sun was beginning to brighten the sky and hopefully move the temps out of the 40's! We are the lone boat at the dock, and its been wonderful. It is sooo nice traveling before the crowds appear. Today's breakfast was blueberry pancakes with melted butter & maple syrup; ham and onion omelet; and hot coffee. Oh, the aroma in the salon!
During the past two years, the Erie Canal has seen Spring flooding resulting in closures, damage, and debris in the canal, but we aren't seeing those things this Spring. Seeing downed trees in the canal, like this, is to be expected but they have been mostly off to the side.
About 9 am, we cruised into St. Johnsville Marina, a boater's dream tucked away along the north shore with very little signage. We found this marina when calling around for diesel prices...$2.90 gal.! Going price elsewhere is about $3.35 gal. When we find these good deals, we fill up and motor for a month or more. Last year, diesel on the Erie Canal was $4.40/gal.
Yeah! The sun has come out, the temps have reached the 60's, and Mary has thrown off her work gloves for locking, and is ready for R & R! We have passed through nine locks today, and it's time for a rest.
Dream Chaser cruised by Fonda, NY, and we waved in case any of Henry's family was around. (Fonda is the home of the Henry Fonda Family.)
Originally, we had planned to stay at the marina in Amsterdam, but the train and traffic noise was horrible, so we continued on. Usually the locks close at 5 pm, but they were very accommodating at Lock E10 and called ahead so Lock E9 would stay open for us. On the Erie Canal if a lock is closed, you're not going through until 7am the next day or when the lockmaster is ready!
At 5:15 pm, Dream Chaser cruised into Arrowhead Marina and RV Park, located on the Mohawk River (the Erie Canal follows the river). This park is a VERY popular spot for big beautiful motor-homes. We are the only transient boat at their dock, but the park is filling with the big rigs. Many have already secured their spot for Memorial Day Weekend and probably the whole summer.
After a long day of motoring, we were happy to sit down to a dinner of Chicken and Shrimp Pad Thai
prepared by Chef Marie. What a peaceful spot!
Friday, May 22, 2015
We woke to temps in the mid 60's, glorious sun, a clear sky, and chirping birds! It doesn't get any better! There's nothing like eating breakfast while the peaceful river flows by. Great omelets this morning! Oh, it's so good to be back on the boat! Dream Chaser's engines purred as she pulled from the marina about 7:30 am. We have seven locks ahead of us- five locks are at the end of the Erie Canal in Waterford. Anticipating a 1:00 pm arrival.
This east end of the Erie Canal has more train tracks and highways paralleling it and thus more noise.
We are seeing more houses, some very large beautiful homes and we get closer to Albany. There has been more boat traffic going west on the canal-haven't seen any going east. We have been the ONLY boat in every lock since we left on Wednesday. Also, if you do the Erie Canal, watch out for the big Canadian boats-the drivers don't tend to slow down even in no wake zones! If they get reported, the lockmasters can hold them at the locks for hours and fines are quite steep.
We passed Schnectady Yacht Club where we over-nighted last summer. The remains of an early aqueduct which used to span the Mohawk River were easily seen this morning.
Waterford is the gateway to the Erie and Champlain Canals and where the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers meet. The Waterford Flight, at the east end of the Erie Canal, is a series of five locks where boats are lifted and lowered the greatest height and shortest distance of any canal in the world- a lift
(or drop in our case) of about 170 ft. This morning our locking through took about 1 1/2 hours with no waits!
This is our view looking forward in the lock before being lowered.
We arrived in Waterford, NY about 12:15 pm, earlier than expected, due to no boat traffic and no delays. Perfect!
After securing Dream Chaser, we celebrated our completion of the Erie Canal with lobster salads and toasted to "a great experience" with chilled Fentimans Cherry Tree Colas!
Docked next to Dream Chaser was the "When and If". If you know your history and love details, you would know that this was General George S. Patton's boat. In 1939, Patton had the 63'5" John Alden designed schooner built (in Wiscasset, Maine) and planned to sail it "When the war is over, and if I survive". He survived the war, but was killed in a traffic accident. Patton was an opinionated anticommunist and the accident outside Mannheim, Germany was very suspicious. Apparently, there is a considerable amount of information and reports that "can't be found". American Thinker.com has an interesting article: The Mysterious Death of Gen. George S. Patton. If you have a few extra minutes, google Gen. George Patton and you will learn about this amazing man- things we didn't learn at school and information left out of our history books. Patton was planning to return to the US and campaign against the communists, Russia, and Stalin which didn't make our US leaders happy. Patton knew of the Russian treachery, but the US had agreements with Russia after the war and didn't want him to interfere. The article suggests that people were hired to kill him and that the "accident" on the road was planned. Patton had survived the car accident and was ready to return to the USA. It is believed Patton was poisoned while in the hospital.
Family members owned Patton's schooner for a period of time and then it changed owners and went through a restoration process.
Our exercise for the afternoon was a nice walk to Hannafords and Price Chopper grocery stores. Lobsters were $6.99/lb., so you know what was on the menu for dinner! Also, zucchini spaghetti (summer squash cut into noodles with my new spiral cutter) was the healthy part of the meal. Might as well have fun while you cook!
After dinner, we had a nice evening walk which was followed by warm apple crisp for dessert. Oh, the wonderful aroma in the salon, tonight!
No comments:
Post a Comment