Depart: Oswego O-7 Lock Wall 8:45
Arrive: Brewerton - Winter Harbor Marina 2:15
Distance: 28 nm
Locks: 7 (O-7, O-6, O-5, O-3, O-2, O-1, E-23)
The walls in the locks on the Oswego and Erie canals are covered in black muck and/or green slime. We learned a long time ago to wear gloves when handling the lines that hang down from the lock walls. Now that we know to position me bow or stern based on wind direction (on Sea Moss it did not matter as much, and I always took the bow.) locking is a lot smoother.
I did have one mishap on today's last Oswego lock (O-1). Clark said I should drop the line that I had wrapped around a cable provided at the lock for locking. I dropped the line to pull it through, and it wrapped itself around itself and tied itself in a lovely knot that I could not reach to untie from the boat. I tried with a boat hook and that was a fail as well.
I told Clark I was in trouble, and he said, "Hold on, I"m coming!" Next thing he is off the boat and laid down flat on his stomach on the wall of the lock to reach down and disconnect my entangled line. Then quick as anything he is up and back at the helm, and we are on our way. My hero! The dudes that work the lock just stood there and watched Clark in action!
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| On the Oswego Canal at O-7 |
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| Oswego Canal Lock and Dam |
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| Workers on the Canal All with life jackets and tethered to a line for safety. |
With all the rain in the area, we see a lot of trees and limbs in the canal. Some of them are full-sized trees sitting at an ominous angle that looks like it could pierce the hull of the boat should it be hit head on. Rather scary actually! We see many that have collected at the dam areas. They don't quite make it over the waterfall for some reason.
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| Tree on the canal partially hanging over a dam! |
Clark finds the workings of the locks and tools used to control the water flow interesting - like those shown here.
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| Backside of above picture |
Most of the scenery on the canal looked familiar since we just passed through here a week ago. We did see a huge pink flamingo bird that we hadn't noticed on the way north.
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| Two people could fit in here easily! |
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| Lock E-23 on the Erie Canal |
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| Red Light - Don't Enter Gate is closing as we exit the lock! |
Clark recorded the door closing on video.
Today was a hot and muggy day to be working locks. Almost as soon as we docked I grabbed a shower. After that I felt much better. We borrowed the marina's courtesy car and made a "food run" to Walmart for some fresh vegetables and deli meat. They ask that people using their cars limit the time to 1.5 hours. That hardly gave us time to drive to the store, buy a few items and get back. We left at 4:37 and got back at 6:04!
We did not see a great sunset tonight due to weather in the area. The evening sky was interesting just the same.
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