Amsterdam to Waterford

Another easy day on the water, 3 locks, and more scenery than just trees! (not that they aren't lovely to look at)

Pulled into Amsterdam dock $1/foot park side. Great spot. Bob and his gang of workers, i think they are all family, are throwing a wedding later today. Ceremony, cocktails and reception all held water side.
We got organized on the boat then I headed off to tackle laundry while Al worked on some banking/computer business.  Unfortunately not an easy task as Al found out. Finally almost 2 hours later he managed to knock a couple of items off our to do list.
I had a great chat with Bob who runs the docks, the cafe, and caters special events. Everyone helping there, including Bob, works full time jobs also!!  Al had told him I liked cooking so he was giving me ideas for storage and getting the most out of my vegies as well as a couple of recipe ideas. Very hard working organized bunch and still so friendly and helpful. Taking the time to make sure we were good.  A grocery bag was filled with ice from the kitchen for me and I was on my way.

We both showered, grabbed a cocktail, G n' T with Campari, bag of Bits n Bites then settled in for the wedding.

we had front row seats.

Had a great dinner and then watched a movie with an early lights out. Rained  some overnight and the train noise, oh the train noise...

Al had a terrible night sleep so he was moving slower and with me taking some time to do some computer stuff we were a bit slow to get going. Pumped out the head then we were on our way.

Today was going to be the day we went through the "flight of 5". Lock 6 through to lock 2.
Five locks very close together (within a mile) all at elevations of 33 to 34.5 feet each. So dropping over 160ft.

A familiar site for me!

Lock 7 had my name all over it. This was the one and only lock that i was a rope girl instead of being at the the wheel.  I wanted to have a chance to experience it before we got to the end of the canal. Very uneventful, I don't think it was as hard as Al made it out to be (just kidding). No pictures.

Bob the lock master at lock 6 held the boat for us so I could get photos.

In the distance you can see the next lock

We weren't sure where we were going to end up. We were a bit ahead of schedule as we wanted to avoid Waterford during the weekend. We had heard it was a nice place to stop. Free dock right in town with full service, showers, wifi, power etc. The glitch was that the Tug Boat Round Up was going on in town. Drawing huge crowds and all the tugs would take up the dock space. Now I'm a sucker for tug boats but not sure where we could stop and get into town easy.  Al did some investigating and found out we could stay on the wall above lock 3 and it was just a short walk into town.  We ended up in the center of the canal and the gates over to land got locked at 6pm when the lockmaster left for the night. I tried to get him to leave it open but, no go, although he did leave the main house open for us to use bathroom and shower - ok, that was nice.

"Haven" front of the line.

We paddled the dingy across the canal easily as there was no current with the locks closed and walked into town to check out the festivities. Lots of tugs, good music, another quaint little town. Our dinner consisted of fair like food, nothing really to get excited about but we did have the most amazing dessert call "fried dough". We haven't been eating badly so i thought we could splurge.  Almost the same as a Beaver tails, all you Canadians should know what i'm talking about.
Waterford put on an amazing Fireworks display. Lasted almost 30 minutes and was well done. Quite the celebration.

Had a great breakfast on the main street in the morning, $3.50 each and walked to the farmers market.
Al grabbed a tide chart for the Hudson and in the magazine (Boating on the Hudson & Beyond) he noticed the dates didn't match up. When he asks the dock master about it he sent him in the direction of the Publisher and editor John Vargo, who just happened to be there.  So, humbly he acknowledged the error and set Al up with a computer and copied everything he needed. A wonderful gentleman who made sure Al knew his name and phone number so that if we had any questions at all regarding our transit down the river that we are to call him. How awesome.

Al and went back to the boat to get her ready and I headed over to Troy, crossing the Hudson River via Union Bridge,  just on the other side to get groceries.

We were thinking of waiting till later for some of the tugs to move off the wall and then come down from lock 3 and stay on the dock for the night. I can't remember what changed our mind but we decided to move on.

Downtown Waterford

Heading out of town

Waterford and lock 2 are the end of the Erie Canal entering into the Hudson. One more lock which is a federal lock in Troy and then we are back in tidal waters.

We are officially southbound!

Utica-Canajoharie Sept 6,2013

We're trucking along. Having some great days, even though the weather is starting to feel a lot like fall.
Al had the heaters going yesterday morning. Temp dropped down to 4 degrees overnight!

Matt Brewing Company

Nail Creek Pub and Brewery

Had a blast in Utica, but now moving on...

Only 3 hours on the water today to take us to a little place called Little Falls. Such a picturesque, quaint spot. We fell in love. Little Falls organized the first Dairy Board in the USA, 1871. With the first cheese market in 1861. Unfortunately, not much remains in the way of cheese these days, but great history.

Walked to town on a beautiful re done walkway around the canal. Went the north south side first then up over the bridge and into town. Then connecting to the Canal walk on the north side taking us up over lock 17 then back to the boat. Did a bit of shopping. Local co-op and then the meat shop.

Lovely people and just a warm fuzzy feeling walking around. Lots of great architecture to look at.

We stopped into an awesome place that use to be the old Stone Mill. Ole Sal's place on the lower level is an Antique shop/ coffee house / ice cream joint. What a cool place. Everyone we met in there was so friendly and interesting. The best iced coffee i've ever had! We thoroughly enjoyed talking to owner Chris Connolly. Very passionate and excited about the idea of learning  how to sail some day. - Well Chris, good luck with your business and with your dream of sailing. Keep in touch with us and if you can ever find the time, come join us in the south somewhere, we'll teach you what we can. -

The old Stone Mill, Ole Sal's in lower level. A few other stores to wander through as well as a hotel in the upper level.

Al and Chris in Ole Sal's

C

Lock 17

Spent the night on the east side of Lock 17, one of the highest locks in the world, 41 ft.

Nights and mornings are cold, but with the sunshine we are having great weather during the day.

Next was Canajoharie. Fabulous dock and park. Dock master, David and his son Nick, was there bringing in another boat "Allegria" so they also assisted us in docking.Walked to town and had a beer at John's Irish Harbour and a great chat with Sue and Greg from "Allegria"

Beautiful setting but very noisy overnight with train traffic. I've never heard such noise and I swear they came every 30 minutes all night long!

Sharing the lock with Allegria

Domestic geese living in the park for the last couple of years

River running through Canajoharie

Dock master David and Nick

September 2, 2013

The last few days have been fun with some excitement.
The crossing of Lake Oneida was uneventful.
Pushing off the dock in Brewerton around 7:30am We had quite the lightening/thunderstorm during the night so the morning air was cooler. Expecting only light easterly winds and the day was going to get hot. The waters were less than 1 foot chop and Haven took us for a very comfortable ride. Very shallow lake. In the main channel we were usually reading 16-24 feet all along the way until closer to the east end it went up to 37 at times.
At first I felt like I was back on Bay Of Quinte, The scenery and the feel of the morning was definitely reminiscent of our home stomping grounds.

Al cleaning carnage off boat after storm

Lake Oneida crossing

At the opposite end of the Lake we stopped at a little place called Sylvan Beach. Very much like cottage country or a great recreational holiday destination. We tried up on the free wall east of the bridge and took a walk around town. We were surprised at how quiet it was for a long weekend. Talking to some locals they said they actually had a great summer, very very busy. The State Fair is on in Syracuse which takes away a lot of business while its running.  Sylvan Beach has beautiful beaches with very warm water.  The town is quaint and has a very retro amusement park as a permanent fixture on the point between the lake and the canal. Not sure is if they realize what a fun gem they have the old time rides and games or if they just can’t afford to change but either way it was pretty cool walking through it.

The afternoon did pick up with lots of boaters in the canal and heading to the beach. We've never seen so many pontoon boats in one condensed area before - oh, maybe at the boat show! It's certainly seems to be the way to travel around here. We also saw a couple of sail boats out on the lake with their masts UP and sailing. We did a double take as it seems so long ago that we've seen anyone sailing.
Relaxing on the boat in the hot sun and watching the world go by I decided to pump up my paddle board and go for a spin. Lots of fun and great exercise. While out on the water (in canal) I could see the skies blackening and heard thunder so went back to the boat. Al hadn't heard anything and watching the sky it looked like it was passing us to the north.  Luckily, we still closed our hatches etc. just in case. I no sooner had my board up on deck when the wind kicked up like mad and the rain started. Within seconds the rain turned to a crazy hail storm. We've never experienced anything like it before!!  There a boat on the canal that got caught in it getting thrown around like a floaty toy. He finally made it under the bridge to safety. Cars were all pulling over on the side of the road and the town sirens were going off. Total chaos. It also felt like got thrown into the middle of winter all of a sudden. The hole thing lasted about 10 minutes but it seemed longer.
We didn't get many pictures but Al caught it on video so watch for it on utube.

After the storm we wandered down to a local joint that was just packed with people gathered for a Polka extravaganza! The place was called Yesterdays Royal. An old hotel/ ball room now used as a bar and restaurant with a lot of the charming original features restored and remain a part of the atmosphere.  The people were amazing and we were pleasantly surprised to enjoy the Polka music, even talked Al into dancing!! We had a blast for a couple of hours then back to the boat for a nice dinner and to plan the next day.

The next morning we wondered down to a tiny road side market and bought some peppers and tomatoes then pulled off the wall heading for Utica.

The canal at this point is extremely straight mostly tree lined. Very much like the Murray Canal only it went on for 3 hours. We were tied  up in Utica at Aquavino by 3:30pm. Probably not the best choice for a marina as it was 1/foot. The only bathroom was in the restaurant – closed at 8:30pm, no showers, pump out was broken, barely got the power up dock side, and the internet was down. Some of the issues were due to the storm that had hit the day before with some of the power in Utica still not back on.

We headed into town. Fairly good size, small city really. Again beautiful old buildings but the downtown area was run down with lots of empty buildings. Are main goal was to hit the Matt Brewing Company for a tour. The oldest brewery in USA, celebrating it’s 125^th anniversary this year. Unfortunately  they had switched to their fall hours  so were only giving tours Thursdays and Sundays (we were there on Tuesday) Had a nice talk with Sue, the lovely women running the store. We  headed to a local joint down the road that specializes in craft beer from  all over, Nail Creek Pub. So, it turns out we are in the heart of Irish settled community and tonight – first Tuesday of each month- local Irish musician gather at the Nail Creek to jam. Amazing music!  7 fiddles, three guitars, an Irish flute and a percussionist. Mike, the bar tender was a hoot. He was very fascinated by our upcoming travels and when we were leaving he gave me a complimentary  pub t-shirt!! Thanks Mike.

I'll be back...

Oswego to Brewerton

I almost forgot to show you the American courtesy flagpole made from a piece of driftwood Al found on the beach on Main Duck Island.

We left Oswego on Friday morning heading for lock 7 hoping to stop in Phoenix - lock 1- for the night. The canal system is just beautiful. A mix of extravagant homes with cottage style properties.
With every lock we got more confident with the procedures and it became second hand. Lock 3 turned out to be a challenge when Al brought the boat in and we missed the lines. We came very close to turning around but a quick recovery by all and some help from the lock operator who opened the waters a bit as we got close to the side, helping to push Haven into place.
We spent the night on the free dock in Phoenix, lovely people making us feel welcome and little ones called the dock brats who would run errands for you. We had them pick up a couple of items from the grocery store for us and deliver them back to the boat.

The Canal

                                  

dinner on the dock

Do we need to check our navigation??

Off to Brewerton, just past lock 23 on the Erie Canal and west of the opening to Lake Oneida. Checked into a marina for the night. Only a buck a foot. Great people here and a beautiful spot to stop and get caught up on internet etc. The owner, Kim, lent us a car to go into town, North Syracuse to pick up battery boxes and unfortunately a small alarm clock.  Al still can't completely give up on being punctual and somewhat following a plan. 

Al in Brewerton. He is holding a hand carved walking stick given to him  by his good friend Tim  from Comox

We are having a blast and enjoying every minute. Signing off to go make dinner now. Talk again soon.