Depart: Brewerton Winter Harbor Marina 9:35
Arrive: Ilion Marina 5:15
Distance: 54 nm
Locks: 4 (E-22, E-21, E-20, E-19)
Last night when Clark did trip planning, he told me that we would have an 8-hour day on the water today. This morning he seemed shocked that I believed we had an 8-hour day ahead of us. He said it would be more like 5 hours. He was right last night!
We started the day crossing Oneida Lake. Busy reading today's news on my cell phone, I had no idea we were even on the lake instead of the canal. The water was amazingly calm on the lake. Crossing the lake took until almost lunch time. I decided to make sure we had eaten before we had to deal with locks on the canal.
As we traveled the Erie Canal today, the lyrics to the Erie Canal song kept running through my head.
"Low bridge, ev'rybody down
Low bridge, we're coming to a town
You'll always know your neighbour
And you'll always know your pal
If ya ever navigated on the Erie Canal ..."
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| "Low bridge, everybody down ..." |
If Clark had not done the work required to allow us to lower our mast, we could not have made this trip. It takes a while to become comfortable approaching these low bridges and not worrying about colliding with them. When I see a bridge coming, I automatically look back to reassure myself that the mast is down.
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| "Low bridge, we're coming to a town ..." |
"I've got a mule and her name is Sal
Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal ..."
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| Work boats on the Erie Canal |
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| Bike trail along the Erie Canal |
"Get up mule, here comes a lock
We'll make Rome 'bout six o'clock ..."
Actually we passed Rome mid afternoon.
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| Rome, NY water tower |
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| "Low bridge, everybody down ..." |
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| "Fifteen miles on the Erie Canal ..." |
Clark called Ilion Marina to make a reservation for the night. The person who took the reservation said he doubted we could make it to the marina because the locks quit locking at 5:00 p.m. Fortunately we made good time and reached the last lock of the day, Lock E-19, just after 4:00 and exited there around 4:40.
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| In Lock E-19 Lock tender sitting on bridge as we get ready to exit |
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| "Low bridge, everybody down ..." |
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| Looking back at lock E-19 while passing under the Railroad Bridge |
We arrived at Ilion Marina just after 5:00. I decided underway that if we managed to make it here for the night, I would head for the laundry room as soon as we docked, and that is just what I did.
After I finished the laundry, we walked into town to an Italian restaurant for dinner. Clark said we should bring rain gear with us due to the weather forecast and the look in the sky.
It was a short, four-block walk to the restaurant.
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| Ilion, NY |
We walked back to the marina, which is also an RV park, without ever needing to pull out any rain gear. The sky still proved interesting though.
When we arrived back at the marina, some friendly folks sitting by an RV called us over to talk about our boat and our travels. Although we enjoyed chatting, the bugs were making a meal of Clark, so we went back to hide in the air-conditioned boat for the rest of the night.
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