Friday, August 29, 2008

Canajoharie to Waterford, Eastern Erie Canal

This week we traveled 60 miles; locked through 12 locks and down 272 feet.

While in Canajoharie we picked up a flyer advertising the Fonda Fair that starts on Tuesday. So we left early Monday afternoon and arrived at the Fonda canal terminal wall two hours later; we walked around the small town and got a preview of the fairgrounds. On the list of events for the week, other than seeing the animals Mark really wanted to see the Tuesday night demolition derby and figure 8 race. Both turned out to be a blast to watch.

Mark at Fonda Fair

Demolition derby

We also got in touch with our friends Leane and John that lived in Fultonville, we had dinner at their house on our way west, so on our return we invited them onboard for dinner.

John and Leane

This part of canal/Mohawk River is wide and scenic, with a lot of locks in short distances. We decided to stop at Guard Gate 2 canal park on Wednesday and just relax.


Mohawk Valley, man and his friend fishing

Lock 8 and Guard Gate 1

We arrived at Waterford early Thursday morning after locking through five locks in only 2.3 miles. Here is where all the boaters gathered, either going west on the Erie Canal or on the Great Loop, or going south in the fall. It has 1000' floating dock with electricity and water. The visitor center is staffed with a team of volunteers ready to provide local knowledge.


Waterford Harbor dock, and a barge passing through
We spent our time in Waterford doing laundry, provisioning and boat maintenance, all to get ready for our trip south on the Hudson River and beyond. We also met several boaters, going for our daily walks and breakfast at Don & Paul's Cafe, a local hang out. Otherwise, we are keeping a watchful eye on Hurricane Gustav and TS Hanna's developments, and praying.
Boats and boaters gather at Waterford for Labor Day weekend

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Brewerton to Canajoharie, Eastern Erie Canal

This week we traveled 90 miles; locked through 9 locks, up 50 feet on two and down 133 feet on 7 locks.

We left Brewerton early Monday morning on August 18th and had a smooth crossing of Oneida Lake to Sylvan Beach (20 miles). We stop here mainly for the beach but also we get a kick out of the amusement park, the bikers night activities, etc. We also enjoy talking to the locals who stop by, and this time we met Patty and Sig who live here in the summer and cruise south on their sailboat in the winter. Patty took Joyce to get our LP gas tank filled and blueberrie picking. They also drove us around the area to see their home and their sailboat. Meeting them really enriched our stay at Sylvan Beach.
U-pick blueberries from a farm near Sylvan Beach
On Thursday we arrived at Lock 20 canal park dock in the early afternoon. Soon we learned that they are having a concert that evening and on Friday too. So we ended up staying two nights and enjoyed the music by Abby Road the premier Beatle tribute and the No Name Ragtime Dixieland Swing Band.
Abby Road playing at Lock 20 canal park
When you spent the summer on the New York canal systems, soon you learn which towns are the most convenient places to provision. So on our trek east on Saturday we stopped at Frankfort to shop for meats and cheeses at Melrose Family Supermarket, then on to Herkimer to shop at super Wal-mart for canned goods and condiments, etc., from here on most of the town docks are noisy from nearby highway and train traffic. We decided to stay because we had good tv reception here to watch the Saturday night Olympic games.
Joyce loaded down with groceries

On Sunday, we traveled through the town of Little Falls, we spent two days here on our way west, it's a beautiful town with nice hiking trails and the impressive Lock 17, it's the highest lift lock(40') on the Erie Canal; what makes it different from other locks is that the entrance gate is lifted above the boaters instead of swinging open as the vessel enters.
Locking through Lock 17
We arrived at Canajoharie early enough to spend the afternoon at the Canajoharie gorge. It's a little over a mile walk from the town dock and one of few places that we enjoyed swimming along the Erie Canal. We also visited the new Arkell Museum's remarkable collection of paintings.

Canajoharie river gorge "pot that washes itself", named by the Indians as Canajoharie

Canajoharie town dock and sail boat travel the canal with mast down

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Chen and Victor's Visit

It was so good to see Chen and Victor when the Airport taxi dropped them off at Corn Hill Landing, Rochester on August 7th. They adapted to the crammed accommodations on the boat with ease. We went through 4 locks and 1 lift bridge on their first day cruising with us. We stopped at Fairport for lunch and docked at Newark for the night, where we visited the Hoffman Clock Museum.
Newark town dock with shower and laundry facility



The next day we went through 8 locks and up 60 feet to Seneca Falls. The water color changed from muddy yellow to deep emerald blue, and as we exit the lock to Seneca Falls on Van Cleef Lake the first landmark was this beautiful church.







Dock at Seneca Falls, Mark & Victor relax on deck
Seneca Falls Visitor Center offers wineries tours of the Finger Lakes on Saturday and Sunday during the summer. We've planned our arrival to take the Sunday tour, for $10 per person the shuttle bus takes you to 7 wineries, you can stay in each winery for as long as you like and hop on the next shuttle. Each winery offers 6 to 8 wines for tasting and two wineries also have a brewery that offers several brews for tasting. The bus ride to the wineries was very scenic and we had a very fine time of wine tasting.

Mark, Chen, Victor & Joyce at winery

The Finger Lakes are beautiful, we made a short cruise to Geneva on Seneca Lake on Monday, and on Tuesday we cruised 40 miles to the south end of Cayuga Lake at Ithaca, docking at the Allan Treman State Marina Park for two nights. We visited Cornell University, especially the Law School where Victor's daughter is in her 3rd year and downtown Ithaca. We celebrated Joyce's birthday with delicious food and wine at a Thai restaurant.

Cornell University Law School Library & Chime master playing at Clock Tower
Cheers to Joyce's birthday

We left Ithaca early Thursday morning to cruise back to north of Cayuga Lake before the wind picks up. The run was easy so we continue on to Baldwinsville with Victor taking the helm for most of the afternoon. On Friday it was a short run to Phoenix, this is one of our favorite stops. The Bridge House Brats is a volunteer group of Phoenix youth who care for the waterfront park and for tips they will deliver meals from local restaurants. We had the Bridge House Brats deliver pizza to the boat and enjoyed the Friday night pie and Jam session at the park. Saturday morning we woke up with heavy rain and worry that it will ruin the planned Bar-B-Q and concert at the waterfront park. Magically the sky cleared up at 11:00 AM and it was just beautiful for the rest of the day. The Bar-B-Q was delicious and the concert was great with music from the 60's and the 70's.

Relaxing at Phoenix waterfront park


Dancing to the music of Good Old Time band
Sunday morning we left Phoenix for Brewerton. We had lunch at Calypso Jack's, then it was time for Chen and Victor to pack for their flight from Syracuse back to Seattle. The airport taxi came to pick them up at 4:30 PM. Their 10 days visit went by fast and we enjoyed our times together very much, so special and dear.

Corn Hill Landing, Rochester, NY

Our friends Chen and Victor from Whidbey Island, Washington are coming for a ten day visit on August 7th. We have a few days to spend before their arrival at Rochester. So after Fairport we made stops at Palmyra and Pittsford. We did some routine boat maintenance including replacing the engine mounts. Mark custom made the mounts and it works beautifully. We did laundry, grocery shopping, farmer's market and attended summer concerts.


Nice looking house in Palmyra and custom made engine mounts


Beautiful dock wall at Pittsford



Dock at Corn Hill Landing, Rochester

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Fairport, Erie Canal

When we left Brockport a few days ago we had planned to go directly to Pittsford, it's only 25 miles. But the lift bridge operator in Spencerport somehow had a timing problem, first he said it'll be 10 minutes wait, 10 minutes later he's still at another lift bridge, so we called again, this time it's another 10 minutes, we waited and waited, meantime two boats that were tied at the Spencerport town dock left the dock, so we decided to tie up and stay. Later, we learned that the lift bridge operator at that time was a relief operator from another town and didn't quite have his timing. So we end up visiting the Captive Life Forms reptile shop and the Used Book Store that we didn't get to see on our early stop in this town. Mark and I each bought about 7 books, most of them at $.50 each.

The next day we traveled 24 miles to Fairport, this is a friendly tourist town with many shops and restaurants. We attended the Friday night concert at the Gazebo by the Rochester Jazz Orchestra and had a delicious dinner at Joey B's restaurant by the canal


Rochester Jazz Orchestra perform by the Gazebo at Fairport

Joyce & Mark enjoying rack of lamb and venison at Joey B's