We left Amsterdam having accomplished some “chores” like laundry and web site maintenance, and pushed on to Canajoharie. Who’s ever heard of a name like that for a town? Lots of Indian (well, Native American, to be more politically correct!) and Dutch names along these parts. More and more they are Indian.
As it turns out, Canajoharie has a fantastic facility for boaters: beautiful floating dock with power and water, and all for free!! The facility is part of a lovely waterfront park that is well-used by the community. We arrived around lunchtime, and there were lots of people having their lunches at the picnic tables in the pavilion on the hill, and more still walking, many with young children, along the water’s edge. Here’s a photo taken from the pavilion of us tied behind KatieSue at the dock. Yes, she’s quite a bit bigger (44’ Sabreliner)
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We didn’t find that there was a whole lot to DO in Canajoharie, but we were sure impressed by the friendliness of the people and the quality of the facility!
We left the dock later than usual the next day, Saturday, because we were waiting out some rain. It has really been nice to have the weather satellite that we sprang for when we first bought Mer Sea, because we can literally watch the weather, see exactly where it is in relation to our boat, and see how fast it is moving. We were able to predict pretty accurately our departure time based on following the rain on the radar image. We could see that, although it looked outside like the day would be shot, in a couple of hours the rain would have passed by, and there was no more in the direction we were heading.
We had read on the internet that Little Falls, our next stop, is a good one. True. They have built a wonderful facility, including floating docks with power and water, and a large lounge complete with heads. They do charge, but it is minimal. And the best part is that they have a dockmaster who wants to help in any way that he can. This includes talking to you as much as you wish about the town and its history, driving you to and from the grocery store, or anywhere else you’d like to go, giving you a guided tour of the town in his car, etc….. He is a wealth of knowledge about all aspects of the town and the Erie Canal in general, and a thoroughly likeable guy to boot!
We’d made reservations at a French bistro we’d heard about in Waterford from a French chef from New York City, and Tom was happy to take us there and said he’d either bring us back after dinner or that someone from the restaurant would. We went with John and Betty from KatieSue, and we had a wonderful time!! The food was great and the company fun and the conversation lively! When dinner was over, sure enough, the folks at the restaurant said that there was someone outside waiting to take us back to our boats. We stepped out the door, and saw that there were fireworks across town! Our “driver” told us that the baseball team was playing its first home game of the season, and that was the occasion. He positioned the car for the best viewing, and we got quite a show!! Then he drove us back to the boat.
We rolled out of bed the next morning and made our way to Lock 20 on the canal. I’d wanted to try tying up along one of the canal walls, which are, for the most part, available for free tie-ups. No amenities, although we were in the middle of a large park, and there were restroom facilities in the park on the other side of the canal. The park was full of people having picnics, fishing, and playing. This was Fathers’ Day, and lots of families were in the park together. It always warms my heart!
The next morning we were waiting for KatieSue, who had stopped before us in Utica, NY, so we just drifted through the canal until we heard them on the radio talking to the lock behind us. Here’s a photo of drifting through the canal.
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We only had two more locks to go through before getting to Sylvan Beach, where we were planning to stop for the night. We arrived together in Lock 21, and tied up on opposite sides. I was in the stern, in the cockpit, and Roy was tending the line at midships outside the pilothouse door. This particular lock had an alarm that rang the whole time the water was filling the lock. It struck me as kind of strange, but that’s the way it was. When the lock was full, Roy called to me to cast off the stern line and come tend the midship line so that he could start the engine and get ready to leave the lock. When I stepped into the boat, the alarm seemed louder. I asked Roy what it was, and he said it was the lock. I stepped outside, and the alarm was quieter, so it was definitely inside the boat!
I told Roy that the alarm was definitely on the boat, and he checked the instrument panel, and couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. Then he noticed the high water alarm that we’d had installed in Baltimore last year was lit. He opened the engine room hatch, and there was a foot of water in the bilge!!!! I already had a life preserver on because of working outside at the lock, but Roy went immediately and got one on also, and then we communicated with John and Betty on KatieSue that we were taking on water. We left the lock and tied to the canal wall and went into the engine room to try to determine where the water was coming from. Meanwhile, Betty was on the phone finding a travel lift in Sylvan Beach where we could get some straps under the boat so we wouldn’t sink!
Roy and I each went into the engine room, and neither of us was able to conclusively determine the source of the water. An additional problem is that our automatic bilge pumps weren’t kicking on, so we had to hold the switch down to get them to pump out the water. One more thing to worry about while also trying to operate the boat. But once we started manually operating the bilge pumps we seemed to pretty quickly catch up with the leak and actually get ahead of it. The lockmaster radioed the next lock and told him of our situation, and he was very helpful in getting us in and out of the lock expeditiously.
We got to Sylvan Beach with the leak appearing to have slowed down, and were able to go directly to the travel lift. The father and son team that owned the place were extremely helpful, and got the straps under us, just barely lifted us, and let us be to see what we could figure out. Roy went down to the engine room and started taking a good look around. There was no water obviously entering the boat. Eventually, Roy noticed a hose that had become un-clamped. It was a fresh water hose leading from the 150 gallon fresh water tank to the head. We had transferred about 90 gallons of fresh water from our tank to the bilge when that hose had come unclamped!!! What a relief! We still had to deal with the issue of the “automatic” bilge pumps, but at least there was no expensive repair needed on Mer Sea!
Roy re-clamped the hose, and the marina guy drove home to get his industrial wet-dry vac for us to finish the clean-up, and then brought us a hose to re-fill our tank. Then they couldn’t figure out what to charge us, and asked Roy what he thought it was worth. Roy said, “How about $50?” and the guy said “Fine!” and Roy gave him the money and we were on our way! We motored across the canal to KatieSue, and John and Betty caught our lines and helped us get settled just as the heavens opened. Good timing!!
It was a brief storm, and when it had cleared Roy and I took a walk in the little town. It is a resort town, with a substantial beach area fronting on Lake Oneida, and lots of restaurants, etc. We had dinner out with John and Betty, and planned to leave together in the morning, early, before the lake had a chance to kick up in the expected winds.
We had an easy time of it crossing the lake, and arrived in Brewerton around lunchtime. The marina is pretty far from town, but they have a courtesy car, so we planned to do laundry, grocery shopping, hardware store, etc., all in one fell swoop! We did, in fact, manage to do just that, and were now the proud owners of all clean clothes and a well-stocked refrigerator!
We left KatieSue behind the next day, as she was having a part fabricated and would take at least one more day in Brewerton. We planned to stop in Fulton, but changed our minds enroute, and decided to stop in Minetto, instead, based on the cruising guide information. Before that, however, we wanted to stop in Phoenix for lunch.
Phoenix has a wonderful program called “Bridge House Brats” that takes on kids in the summer who will help boaters out with just about any need. I had been told about this program and had also read about it, and decided that we should stop for lunch and see what it was all about. The way my cruising guide stated it, they do these things “for tips”, so I wanted to be sure to support them appropriately.
We pulled up to the wall in Phoenix, and here come two kids running out to meet us and take our lines. Then they offer us a choice of complimentary lemonade, coffee, or iced tea, and were off to get it for us practically before we could turn around! We sat at one of the “umbrella” tables dockside, and another young lady (entering 8 th grade) came to ask if we’d like to see a menu. What they have is a collection of maybe four menus from some local places, and you choose from them. Before we looked at the menus I asked her a bit about how the program works. Should I tip each kid, or just one of them to be split among them, or what. She said the, really, I didn’t need to tip at all! I said that I wanted to, and she said that, in that case, you would usually tip your server (her). Then I asked her more about the program, and she told me that they have to interview for it, and it’s a community service. (I later learned that the tips go to pay for the “umbrella” tables, uniforms, etc.).
I was quite embarrassed! Here I’d been assuming a mercenary motive, and these kids are just doing community service. Guess I’m pretty jaded!!
Anyway, we had a fun lunch, and our waitress gave us a tour of the Bridge House Museum afterwards, and then we were on our way (with a big tip in her pocket!!). We arrived in Minetto and tied up at another free floating dock with power. Again, a local volunteer made himself known to us, made sure we had everything we needed, and filled us in on what he could about the town. These small towns aren’t wealthy, but they are clean, filled with flowers, and also filled with goodwill! It’s really been uplifting for us.
The next day, Thursday, we arrived in Oswego. This is not a very well-run marina, and we couldn’t get them to respond on the radio or telephone as we were approaching. Frustrated, we simply pulled up to the fuel/pump-out dock, tied up, and went to find someone in charge. We did have reservations, and needed to know where to tie up. Roy was finally able to find someone, and she came out and pumped us out, and then we proceeded to our slip.
The slips at this marina are wide and deep, no worries about squeezing in, and plenty of room in the fairway to turn around, etc. The down side of this marina is that trash, debris and, worst of all, dead fish (we’re talking 6 to 8 good-sized fish here) accumulate at the dock end of the slip and STINK! And the flies!! It was repulsive, to say the least! But we were only really aware of it when in the cockpit, where the stench seemed to get trapped, or walking to the boat and looking down into the water. We just lived with it, but it made me wonder what the heck was going on in that lake (we were at the edge of Lake Ontario), and also about all the many fishermen, and what they might be catching (literally and figuratively!).
The bonus for us in arriving fairly early on a Thursday is that the Oswego Farmers’ Market is on Thursday evenings! Roy and I walked over at 5:00, when it opened, and had a great time wandering around and picking up some really yummy fresh produce. The strawberries and asparagus, especially, were fabulous! I hope we see more of this kind of market in the small towns along the way in Canada!.
Friday we spent most of the day sprucing up Mer Sea for our company on Saturday. We also took care of some monthly maintenance items like batteries, defrosting refrigerator, etc. It was a productive day, ending with a perfectly horrible dinner at a restaurant that had been recommended by one of the lockmasters. Okay, it was Friday night, and the empty restaurant at 7:00 should have been a clue…We went with John and Betty, we all ordered different things, and not one of us could eat more than a couple of bites of our dinner! I will say that the wine was good, and the waitress was adorable. It was her second week on the job, and at the end of dinner, John said, “Alyssa, I have some advice.” “Yes?” she said. “Find a different job,” he said. “This is a terrible restaurant.” Now that’s pretty extreme!! But, alas, it was absolutely true!
We had a wonderful time with our relatives from Buffalo!! They brought us all kinds of delicious home made Polish goodies, and left plenty for us to eat for days! It was a lovely, sunny day, and a really fun reunion!
Yesterday, Sunday, we headed out early to cross Lake Ontario. Our weather satellite showed some weather coming along behind us, but we were plenty ahead of it, and the water in the lake was calm and easy going. It was beautiful! When we got to Cape Vincent we discovered that the marina where we’d planned to stay didn’t have much for us (the power hook-ups weren’t even the correct amps), so we’re just staying at a free dock in town. The town is cute, clean, has some beautiful houses, a little village with grocery store and several gift stores, and quite a few pubs, pizza parlors, and one really fine restaurant. John and Betty caught up with us here, and we had a fun evening together. We’ll be parting company here, as we’re taking different routes, but expect to meet up again in August in Georgian Bay. It’s really been fun getting to know them, and making this new friendship. We look forward to sharing experiences and hooking up later in our trips.
One observation about this area is that great blue herons seem to be as common as sparrows. This must be a big breeding ground for them or something. Anyway, it’s pretty spectacular.
Today we head into Canada, and won’t be back in the US until September. I have no idea what kind of internet connections we’ll have from now on, although I know our cell phone will work as long as we can hook up to a tower somewhere. I’ll post to the website when I can find a connection, but feel free to call if you want to know what’s going on with us. We’d love to hear from you!!