End of the Canal and the End of Boating Season

The twin cities of Tonawanda and North Tonawanda form the western terminus of the Erie Canal and are historically known as a lumber capitol. The Canal officially ends where it enters the Niagara River. We got the feeling most boaters go from west to east on the Canal as the dock where we stayed is in Gateway Park and this sign says Gateway Harbor.

Paul asked if I wanted to turn around and do it again from west to east; I said “no thanks” or something like that. We didn’t actually go to Buffalo, which I learned is New York’s second largest city. Evidently it’s much easier going there by bus than by water as you have to go against the current of the Niagara River.

We spent two nights at the town dock and made a grocery run on foot (their rate is $20/night with new showers/restrooms). The football game on local TV was the NY Jets/Dolphins game with Brett Farve starting for the Jets which we thought was rather ironic. It sure was strange seeing him in a different uniform after all those years as a Packer. Alison told us she watched the game at home as a GB station picked up the Jets games this year – too funny!

We decided awhile back that we would rather finish the Loop in the Spring so this is the end of our travels for this year. The days will be getting short, it’s getting quite cool at night and after 5,061 miles, we both need a little break. This way we can take our time and enjoy the Great Lakes part of the trip and not feel rushed.

On Monday, Sept. 8th we headed over to Smith Boys Marina on Tonawanda Island, just a short trip. There’s a lot of current running through there as it’s just off the Niagara River. Smith Boys was recommended as a good place to pull the boat and store it for the winter. Here we are being hauled out on Wednesday.

The anti-fouling paint Paul applied to the bottom held up really well. However, since we sat lower in the water than usual (dinghy davits, extra equipment), our stern and part of the gelcoat were susceptible to barnacles. Here’s a shot of the nasty creatures.

Power washing has no effect on them; they’re hard as rocks.

So…..out came the scrapers. Even the prop was covered with barnacles.

Hooray for power tools! Paul worked really hard and did a great job. I mostly gave moral support and worked on the inside.

We actually stayed on the boat for two nights after it was out of the water. We had electricity and water but couldn’t use the refrigeration as it’s a water-cooled system. So we got ice and used our freezer as an ice box. We of course didn’t bring a ladder with us so we had to improvise to get up and down. With the swim ladder extended and the 2-step ladder we found at Home Depot (we had a rental car by this time) there wasn’t too big of a gap. A couple of times with Ginger in one arm, a bag in the other, rain pouring down, I was thankful I didn’t kill myself. I kept telling myself this was just adding to the adventure (especially with the bathroom situation - after we winterized the “heads” we couldn’t use them again). It was a pretty strange two days!

We had planned to store indoors but since our cradle (wooden frame to support the boat) is back home, they had to put us on jack stands outdoors. They’ll be shrink wrapping the boat later – hopefully before one of their famous snowstorms. This is what the “Restless Wind” looked like when we left her.

We found that we had a LOT of stuff to haul home after living aboard for a whole year. That little Impala was loaded! Ironically it was exactly one year to the day since we began this journey. We left Green Bay last Sept. 12th - we probably couldn’t have done that if we’d planned it! Here's a view of our living area in the middle of packing - yikes!

We drove in rain all day Friday (effects of Hurricane Ike) and stayed with our son, Eric, in Milwaukee that night. We returned the rental car there and Eric drove us the rest of the way on Saturday. Now we were even more loaded down as now we had Eric’s laundry in the car too. Ginger and I were very cozy in the back seat – often we’ve been glad she’s only a 6 lb. dog.

So, we’re safely back at our land home. Thank you for your interest in our travels and for your good thoughts and prayers for our safety. We plan to head back to the boat in May to get the boat ready, put the mast up and head onto Lake Erie and complete “The Loop” before the end of summer.

Check back next May for further adventures of the crew of “Restless Wind”.

Thankfully,
Paul, Emy and Ginger

Nearing the End of the Canal - Lockport

It was only a 7-mile run from Gasport to Lockport. This is the LAST lift bridge on the Canal heading west. This is the view of the Exchange St. Bridge in Lockport in the raised position.

The LAST two locks, Lock 34 and 35, are “staircase” locks; they are adjacent to each other with no space between them. Here you can see the two 25-ft. locks with a R.R. bridge is in the foreground.

We may be in somebody’s home videos; we went through both locks with this tour boat and the cameras were trained on us!

There’s a steep rise to get to the top of the Niagara Escarpment here. Originally there was a double set of five locks, one set for eastbound traffic, the other for westbound. It was quite an engineering marvel when it was completed in 1825. You can walk along the site of the original eastbound section which is now the spillway.

The locks were enlarged in 1862, you can see how narrow they were originally. Then the double set of locks was replaced with the present system in 1910. It was kind of fun to view the locking process from on land instead of in a boat.

Here’s another tour boat locking through then leaving the lock .

There wasn’t much of a place to dock here.

They put us on the wall opposite the lock. This is actually the top of the spillway where all the debris collects (old tires, brush and trash). That crane on the dock collects it periodically I guess. I thought Paul did a great job getting us around that tight turn then backing us out again. We were only there long enough to tour the little Canal museum and look around a little. Then on we went to Tonawanda. Really getting close now!

Erie Canal Part 5

Labor Day was pretty much just another day on the water for us; not even any extra boat traffic. We went through Locks 29 and 30 with no further incidents with the First Mate’s life and limbs. We spent that night and the next at Fairport. Its’ name was changed in the 1800s from Perrinsville because travelers thought it such a “fair port” and we would agree.

One of the unique things here is the Main St. Liftbridge over the Canal. It’s the only bridge in the world built so that the south end is higher than the north end. Also no corners on the bridge floor are square, earning it mention in “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” 16 times.



Em finally found her “Ole Pal Sal”!


Other highlights were the “Lickety Split” ice cream shoppe, riding our bikes on part of the Canalway Trail and the Tuesday night classic car show complete with food and live music. The community makes very good use of their proximity to the Canal here.

The two locks we encountered on Sept. 3rd were in the worst shape of any we’d seen. We even heard chunks of the lock wall falling into the water as our fender boards moved against them!


Near here the Genesee River crosses the Canal. We went past Rochester, the third largest city in New York. In days past it was best known for milling flour. We went under bridge after bridge; only three of them were lift bridges that we had to open. Many were old fixed bridges like these.


This 4-mile section of the Canal is known as the “Rock Cut”. The deep cut was made through solid rock in the early 1900s. It’s hard to imagine how this work was done before modern machinery. Italian and Irish immigrants were hired for much of this work. Their influence in the area is very much in evidence as many of their descendants remained in this part of New York.



We spent that night at Brockport and spent 8 whole dollars for the dock and electricity – love this Erie Canal! There’s a nice new visitors’ center here too with showers, etc. The State University of NY (SUNY-Brockport) is here so it has a college-town feel. Brockport is the home of Cyrus McCormick, the inventor of the mechanical reaper. Production of this first practical farm implement began in 1845. There’s a lot of Victorian type architecture here. Here’s a scene on Brockport's Main Street.
Sept. 4th was the day of bridges. We went under 20 fixed bridges, 2 guard gates and 7 lift bridges we had to have opened for us. These lift bridges are only about 7 feet above the water at the normal position and are raised ten feet for boats to pass under.

We crossed over Culvert Road on an aqueduct; the only place where you can drive under the Erie Canal. It was built in 1823 and is noted in “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not”. The clearance for RVs going under the canal is 7ft. 6 in. We wondered what it would look like to drive under the Canal and see a boat going past above you – we may have to try that sometime!


We passed a llama farm and several huge orchards with trees just loaded with apples. When we got to Medina where we stayed at a free dock for the night, we were glad to see there was a little Farmers’ Market nearby with apples for sale. Just going past all those apple trees made us hungry for apples – they were delicious.

The next day was on to Gasport. In 1826 natural gas was discovered here bubbling out of the water so the name of the town was changed! Another free dock here; we met one of the homeowners along the Canal, Ethel. She welcomed us to Gasport and gave us a tip on where to get the local specialty – Beef on a Weck. (really Kimmelwick – a sort of Kaiser Roll piled high with roast beef – really tasty). Some of the friendly locals were there relaxing after work and were interested in our trip so that was kind of fun. Here it is, the Canal Side Inn of Gasport, New York!


There are "roaming operators" for some of the lift bridges on this part of the Canal. One person is responsible for two bridges; some are less than 1/2 mile apart but some are 3 to 5 miles apart so the guy opens one bridge then jumps in his truck and roars down to the next one. We never had to wait long but some boaters get stuck waiting for quite awhile to get through the 2 bridges.


We were told that the entire Canal is drained for the winter so the bottom can be inspected and repaired. The water goes into Oneida Lake, Niagara Falls and the Hudson River. It's something we'd never thought about but found it pretty interesting.

Nearing the end of this part of the adventure - Em, Paul and Ginger

Sidetrip to Seneca Falls

Friday, August 29th did NOT feel like August. It was 66 degrees, cloudy and breezy when we left Baldwinsville, NY.

We went through what is called the Ditch Cut and crossed over Cross Lake, which is about 2 miles long. We’re still on the Seneca River portion of the Canal. We passed through part of the Montezuma National Refuge and saw Great Blue Herons (pictured), egrets, osprey and bald eagles.

This farm had some beautiful horses out in the pasture.


Here are some of the remains of the Montezuma Aqueduct, originally 900 feet long, near Richmond. This is where the Canal of 1862 crossed the Seneca River.



We took the turnoff south on the Cayuga/Seneca Canal to Seneca Falls. This canal is actually two short canals joining the Erie Canal with Cayuga and Seneca Lakes. We’d heard a lot about the Finger Lakes Region, wine country in New York, and wanted to visit it. We went through C/S (Cayuga/Seneca) Locks 1, 2 and 3, all raising us, before Seneca Falls. This is the free dock in Seneca Falls.

Seneca Falls is the site of the 1848 Women’s Rights Convention and has museums and historical sites to honor that. It is also the likely inspiration for the fictional town of Bedford Falls in Frank Capra’s classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Remember Zuzu? This café is named after George Bailey’s youngest daughter in the movie. Seneca County alone has 28 wineries; there are over 70 in the entire Finger Lakes Region. We got our tickets for the wine tour at the visitors’ center. For $10/person the mini-bus takes you to 6 local wineries. You get on and off as you like; the wineries charge a nominal fee for you to sample a selection of wines.

The Finger Lakes area has a more temperate climate than the rest of central New York and is ideal for growing grapes. Temperatures rarely go below freezing so the lakes don't freeze over in winter. Here’s a view of Cayuga Lake from one of the wineries. It was a beautiful day and the scenery was spectacular.


The pictures below were taken at the Thirsty Owl Winery where we had lunch overlooking the lake in their outdoor bistro shaded by a grape arbor. I didn’t want to leave!

Several of the vineyards are now growing a white hybrid grape being developed by Cornell University named Cayuga. The white wines, especially Rieslings, seemed to be the specialties. We ended up with 10 bottles of wine and one jar of peach butter from four of the wineries. We didn’t have to lug it around; the bus driver kept it for us. Here’s Paul at the last winery on the tour with some of our treasures.

The legend is the Great Spirit created the Finger Lakes by dragging his hand across the land. Somewhat more romantic than saying they were created by glaciers. They do rather look like fingers if you use your imagination. The two largest lakes are extremely deep in places. The gold line at the top of the chart is the Canal route.

We left the next day and headed back through the three C/S Locks – locking down this time. I took my turn fending off the bow. It makes Capt. Paul nervous if the mast comes too close to the lock wall!

We went through 5 more locks after that for a total of EIGHT. Two of them were more exciting than we’d like. The tip of the boat hook I use is mostly worn away from the rough lock walls. If you push off the top of the wall where it’s painted, it slips and the first mate is left hanging on the life lines (a rather scary moment!) At the last lock of the day, I was in the process of taking a picture and tripped over the wooden mast supports and fell backwards. The deck is a real obstacle course right now with the mast down. No real harm done except for a scraped and bruised shin but that was enough fun for the day. All the locks have an info sign. This is the one from the infamous Lock 28-B.

We went under the lowest bridge on the Canal this aft. It’s an old R.R. bridge and has a clearance of 15 ½ ft. We are now 11 ft. at the highest point so no problem.

We spent the night at Newark, NY, another free dock. This one with a free washer and dryer – what a bonus! There were about 7 boats there at one point but none were left when we departed in the morning. There were historical murals painted along the bridge walls – new this year.

Retired local gents man the visitors’ center and give you the restroom key and any information you need about the town – really a nice service. And that’s the end of this side trip.

Erie Canal Part 4

On Tuesday, August 26th we got to experience the first locks on the Canal that lowered us instead of raised us up. Lock 21 and Lock 22 are about 1.5 miles apart and each lowered us 25 feet to reach the level of Oneida Lake. After 20 locks going UP, it felt very odd to start at the top of the lock and end up at the bottom. We reached Sylvan Beach on the eastern end of Oneida Lake at mid-day but decided to stop for the day. The wind was blowing quite hard out of the west and the Lake was kicking up quite a bit.

Sylvan Beach is a summer resort area with a little amusement park and lots of eateries and shops. This area is known as “the playground of Central New York” or was back in the day. We had lunch at Eddie’s (best haddock sandwich ever), a well-known local eatery since 1934. This is the renovated free dock which had electricity and wifi; we’re tickled when we get a reliable internet connection so we spent the afternoon trading off using it and catching up.

This is the cute little 2-car roller coaster at the amusement park. It really made a lot of racket!

There were lots of people walking along the dock and one woman asked Paul, “do all sailboats look like that?” We also got asked if we can sail anywhere along the Canal. Sometimes it’s hard not to laugh! Here’s a sunset at Sylvan Beach, New York.

It was much smoother the next day so we’re glad we waited. Oneida Lake is the largest body of water on the Erie Canal; it’s 20 miles long and fairly shallow. The original Erie Canal passed to the south of the Lake. This is when it was basically a ditch which mules and horses pulled barges through. In 1917 the Canal was enlarged and relocated to accommodate self-propelled boats and now passes through the Lake.

Our destination was Winter Harbor Marina in Brewerton, a mile or so up the Canal on the western side of Oneida Lake. We fueled up at $4.39/gallon; they’re known to have the lowest fuel prices on the Canal. The dockage was 90 cents/ft. with a Boat U.S. discount so we were pleased with that. Another neat thing was the pots of vegetables on the fuel dock for boaters to harvest. I helped myself to cherry tomatoes, basil and parsley. This was the extent of my gardening for the entire summer so I enjoyed it!

They let us borrow one of their courtesy cars to do laundry and get some groceries. Do you like our new Mercedes?

This had to be one of the more unique marina cars we’ve used. It’s a 1987 Mercedes with 213,000 miles on it. It’s actually pale yellow – the picture doesn’t do it justice!

We also found a boat supply store that had a life vest to fit a 6-lb. dog. Ginger can actually move normally in this vest so we got it and she wears it when we’re in the locks and can't keep an eye on her. She barks if we put her down below where she can't see what's going on.

We left the marina the next day and went through the last lock down  on the Canal. Lock 23 was only a 7 ft. drop. We knew how far we had to go to Buffalo when we saw this sign at Canal Junction. It’s the turnoff for the Oswego Canal which you would take if you were heading to Lake Ontario.


We spent a quiet night just past Lock 24 in Baldwinsville, NY. Actually it was VERY quiet – we were at the free dock right in front of a cemetery. The weather was rainy so we didn’t even walk to check out the town but we didn’t think we missed too much.

I'm slowly getting caught up on writing. We're currently in Medina, NY - just another stop away from the end of the Canal. I'm writing from the Shirt Factory Cafe which was built as a hotel in 1876. In 1919 it became a shirt factory and operated here until 2004. It's the coolest place with antique furniture, original art on the walls, yummy danish and coffee and James Taylor playing. Who could want anything more?

Erie Canal Part 3

The next stop was in Utica, NY. We’re right next to the Aqua Vino Restaurant and the $1/foot dockage is paid to them but there aren’t any amenities except for the restrooms in the restaurant.

Our main reason for stopping here is we thought taking a brewery tour might be fun. So the next day we got the bikes out again and headed for the Saranac Brewery.

Saranac is owned by the F. X. Matt Family and is the oldest family-owned brewery in the State of New York. There were once 12 breweries in Utica but this is the only one here today. This is part of the extensive gift shop.

There was an ad campaign in the 60s starring two talking beer steins, Schultz (the German) and Dooley (the Irishman). Some of the people on the tour remembered the ads and got a kick out of seeing all the different Schultz and Dooley steins. They also had a 5-gal. beer stein with the inscription in German: "only a real man can drink this full".

There were 25 people in our tour group led by Alison who gave us a history lesson along with info on the making of their beer. They weren’t bottling as it was a Sunday so we watched a video on that. The brewery’s slogan is “Spirit of the Adirondacks” and that’s the source of the water used in the brewing process. This is a display of some of their specialty beers (also I liked the stained glass). There were quite a few beautiful original Tiffany lamps along the tour.

We hopped on the 1888 trolley and were dropped back at the main building to finish the tour at the Hospitality Room (bar). We were given tokens to be used for 2 pints of any of their beers or soft drinks (root beer, orange and Shirley Temple) so that was kind of fun. This is the only brewery to keg their own root beer so maybe we should have tried it. Paul was surprised that he liked their summer beer, Pomegranate Wheat (he thought it would be a girly beer!)

We learned that after the 13 yrs of prohibition ended, Saranac was the first brewery in the U.S. to begin brewing beer, within one hour of the announcement! They have a collection of polyphones (the old time music boxes) that played periodically. Here’s one of them, beautifully restored.

The tour was very well done and a worthwhile stop. We didn’t overdo and made it back on our bicycles just fine and headed out into the Canal. Right after Lock 20 there’s a park and place to dock overnight. I got a kick out of this sign on the restroom building. Thanks, Loyal Order of Moose, for the flush toilets! That night was the closing ceremony of the Olympics from Beijing. We were surprised we were able to see a lot of the coverage of the games since our mast is down and we weren't sure what kind of reception we'd get.

Monday night, Aug. 25th, was spent at the free dock in Rome, NY. It’s at a park near a dam but no electricity or facilities. We used our bikes again and did some errands and shopping and used the library. Hopefully when we were in Rome we “did as the Romans did”!

ps: Thanks to the 2 people who sent us the words to the Erie Canal song, which I learned is entitled "Low Bridge". Now I can have more of the words running through my head!