Little Falls, N.Y.

We left the great city of Rome (N.Y.) at 0800 hours under cool, cloudy skies.  First stop was Lock 20, about 10 miles away.

The lock walls in 20 could use a bit of re-surfacing. The biggest issue is getting a fender caught in one of the potholes on the way up (we are going down).

The rest of the trip was quite uneventful.  There was an off and on drizzle that really didn’t pick up until we were docked in Little Falls which delayed our daily walk.  While we were waiting on the rain the Skipper dissected our oil change pump which has a sized motor (“She is dead, Jim”) while the Mate checked out what was on the local TV channels.   Just after 1700 weather radar indicated a break in the action so we hot-footed up to the local grocery stores for a few odd items.  We got back to the boat just before the rain picked up again so beating the rain was the highlight of the day.

Canal Authority vessels were tied up their high wall at Little Falls so we docked on their floating docks, running our dock lines to the dock supports.  The docks and cleats are designed for small boats.

The town is a blend of the old and new. At one time this place was home to many manufacturing firms, about the only thing left is a paper mill.

The old canal depot is now the boaters center. A large lounge with couches, chairs and a TV along with a washer/dryer facility and rest rooms and showers occupy the building. The cost is $1/ft/night including power.

Today:  30 nm in 5.3 engine hours.  Total:  324 nm.

Dave

Rome, N.Y.

A relatively early start at 0730 had us in Lock 24 in Baldwinsville a few minutes later.  A few hours later, just before entering Brewerton we passed by one of our “favorite” boats.  We always take a picture of this thing to note the continuing state of decay.

The bow is now completely open and the area around the stern has some major holes in it. What is amazing is the fact that the fabric enclosure at the stern still appears to be in relatively good shape, at least from this distance.

We have been checking the weather forecast for the last few days as we knew that Oneida Lake was looming on the horizon.  The wind picked up yesterday and was still blowing today.  As a matter of fact, the forecast was the same for today through Sunday, East winds 15 to 20, gusts to 25.  That lake isn’t going to lay down until Monday.  Since we are not interested in staying in Brewerton for four evenings (and paying dockage at a marina as their town wall does not have any power and is exposed to east winds, meaning getting rolled around) we decided to take our lumps today as we were at the west end of the lake at 1100 hours.

We have crossed this lake three times from west to east in the last three years.  Each and ever year the story is exactly the same, east winds in the 20 knot range making for one miserable 20 mile ride.  What are the chances of that happening?  Obviously pretty darn good.

If we could have crossed with just this amount of spray coming aboard it would have been great. As it was we kept falling off the tops of waves and the boat speed would drop from 6.8 knots to the low 5 knot range with the spray going up onto the flybridge. We are not sure how much water was going up there as we weren’t interested in going out to find out.

The ships mascot was relieved when the three hour ride across the lake was over as she was holding on for dear life in the pilot house.  We had to bring her forward as part of preparing the boat for heavy weather requires us to secure the bird as well as raising all the blinds, stuffing towels in cabinets to keep items from banging around and moving anything that isn’t nailed down to a location where they cannot grow wings and fly around the cabin.

Inside Lock 22

At the dock in Rome. This time we docked at the new dock that still does not have any power. We could have stayed a few hundred yards to the east where there is power but getting off the boat is almost impossible as you tie off to rotten pilings and fendering from the last century.

We walked up town and visited the Fort Stanwix National Monument.  As we didn’t arrive until shortly before 1700 we had to do a quick walk through of the visitors center and then walked the outside perimeter of the fort before returning to the boat for a very nice spaghetti dinner.  Since we don’t have shore power we cooked with generator produced power.  One of the reasons we didn’t stay on the crummy part of the dock was to give us an excuse to exercise the genset as it hasn’t been run since before we left.

We seem to recall that a number of locals were really upset when they built this place as they demolished a few city blocks in the process.

They didn’t have bike racks during the Revolutionary War, nor were there churches behind the fort. By the way, the British weren’t able to capture the fort after a few week siege.

The Erie Canalway Trail goes through Rome. The bridge is lit at night as well as the small dam. This location is just around the corner from where we are docked.

Today:  50 nm in 8.7 engine hours.  Total:  284 nm

Dave

Liberty was really rock’n and roll’n while coming across Lake Oneida today.  Poor Finny, our cockatiel,  had to spend three hours on our shoulders (switching back and forth from Dave and I).  Her cage was moving around so much that we were worried she might get hurt.  I have to say Finny is a brave little bird!!!!!

We’ll continue down the Erie Canal tomorrow in much calmer waters than we had today!!!(Finny says “thanks”)

Bobbi

Baldwinsville, N.Y.

Leaving the dock at 0805 hours this morning got us to the double lock in short order and we were able to enter without waiting and this saved us a half hour as they didn’t have to cycle the lock.  A quick survey of the walls in Lock 3 showed that a square inch of the wall was covered with about 100 Zebra mussels.  Assuming a 75 percent coverage ratio on all the walls this works out to be 25′ x  300′ x 2 walls x .75 = 11250 ft^2  Converting to square inches, 11250 ft^2 * 144 sq in/ sq ft =  1,620,000 square inches.  At 100 mussels/sq in = 162,000,000 (162 million) mussels.  That is a lot of mussels.  Talking to one of the lock masters he told us that they replaced the gates in Lock 2 a few years ago and at that time scraped the walls and cleaned out the dead mussels from the bottom of the lock.  He told us they took out 50 (yes 50) tri-axial loads of mussels from that one lock, he was running the loader at the bottom of the lock.  Almost all the mussels on the wall of Lock 3 are dead.  They ate themselves to death.  Only a few were spitting water when they lowered the water to drop us down today.  Evidently boats were getting quite the shower when the mussels were busy multiplying like crazy.  Now we understand that Lock 2 (the lower one) is kept empty when not being used and Lock 3 is kept full when inactive which is another reason that Lock 2 is clean.    So ends the conchology lesson for today.

Arriving at Baldwinsville we walked up to their “shopping mall”, really a shopping plaza where we hit the second hand store.  The Skipper purchased a book on the history of Bell Labs, the Mate didn’t find anything of interest.

Since we didn’t take any pictures today and as it is a slow news day we thought we would mention one of our sailing “events” for posterity. In late July our Pilgrim friends that own Gatsby, Dave and Mary as well as our Lord Nelson Tug friends that own Nellie D, Dave and Bicki were visiting us.  As it was a Wednesday evening and we race our sailboat those evenings (if it isn’t raining, or too hot or too windy) we shanghaied LNVT Dave to crew and put Pilgrim (Gatsby) Dave in command of Liberty to take the ladies (Bobbi, Mary and Bicki) out to watch the activities and take some pictures as nobody else ever takes a picture of us.  The winds were terribly light, perfect weather for our boat.  Our sailing friends were surprised to see our sailboat out at the same time as Liberty as this was the first time Liberty has left the dock since we owned it without the Skipper on the boat.  We did win the race quite handily.

Dave and Dave. That is not a protest flag (the orange square) but a flag indicating we are sailing in class C.

Dave and Mary

Bicki

Today:  33 nm in 5.5 engine hours.  Total 244 nm.

Dave

Today really is a slow news day!  The zebra mussels seem to be the best we have for current news!  It looks like tomorrow will bring us a trip across Oneida Lake (if we are lucky).  Seems we’re getting closer to the end of the Erie Canal. We’ll just keep chugging along!

Bobbi

Seneca Falls, N.Y.

Our friends that own the Pilgrim River Dancer, based on the Hudson, cruised the Erie Canal this summer and enjoyed visiting Seneca Falls so we thought we should stop by and check it our ourselves as it might be a long time before we come this way again.

Exiting the canal after Lock 25 we traveled down the Cayuga-Seneca Canal through three locks before getting to the town of Seneca Falls which is slightly north of Seneca Lake, one of the finger lakes.

Entering Lock 2. Locks 2 and 3 are in tandem similar to the locks in Lockport. These have lifts of 25′ each.

Upon entering Lock 3, it appeared as if the lock wall had this textured surface that glistened in the sun.

In reality, the lock wall was covered with probably millions of Zebra Mussels. So why were they only in Lock 3 and not Lock 2 as both locks are in tandem?

In 1885 the Trinity Episcopal Church moved to this land that was once an industrial site, just outside of Seneca Falls.

This is a very boater friendly town. The docks, power and water are all free.

Once in at the dock we decided to visit the museums in town.  They have the Seneca Museum of Waterways and Industry, The Wonderful Life Museum and the Woman’s Rights Museum.  Of course today being Tuesday, the Woman’s Rights Museum wasn’t open.  The Woman’s Rights Movement started in Seneca Falls which is why the Museum and Hall of Fame is here.  The people of Seneca Falls believe that the location and key scenes from the movie It’s A Wonderful Life were inspired by Seneca Falls (known as Bedford Falls in the movie).  They  have a Museum dedicated to the movie and the actors.  Their brochure has thirteen bullet points that make the case for the town being the model for the movie (shot entirely in California).  Evidently the director, Frank Capra did get his hair cut in a local barber shop when the screen play was being written.

Foot powered table saw at the Waterways and Industry Museum.

Walking down the waterfront we came across this. In the center of the picture, above the black car, on the third story entrance, next to the ladder there is a sign. The hand lettered sign reads “Come In, Chinese Food, Yummy”. I don’t know about you but I am not going up to a third floor place to eat on the basis of that sign. Actually, it isn’t that bad. It turns out that this is the third floor on the back side of buildings which is the main floor at street level on the other side.  It appeared to be a respectable Chinese Restaurant when you approached it from that direction.

We did a walking tour of the downtown area before heading back to the boat.  As  the day wore on and cooled down a bit we walked the one mile sculpture trail along the river bank before heading over to the Sequestered Tavern for dinner.  It truly must be the off season as there were only three other couples eating there at 1800 hours.  We chose to sit outside as the temperatures were still in the low 70’s with a light wind.  Unfortunately, for most of our meal we were downwind of a couple that was smoking their dinner and washing it down with beer.  The couple appeared to be in their late 50’s or early 60’s and they had some sort of rock and roll playing on one of their phones while they played a video game on the other phone.  It just seemed so out of character, but it made for entertaining people watching.  We weren’t upset when they finished their pitcher of beer and left though.

There was no explanation attached to this “sculpture”. It appears to be a bunch of pump impeller housings with a guy holding a globe. As ITT Goulds pumps have been here forever, maybe this was a tribute to the manufacturing of pumps that are sold worldwide. At least that what says to me anyhow.  The one thing nice about “art” is that you can interpret it anyway you want and not be wrong.  Once upon a time I took an art class in college and learned to say “notice how the shapes relate”.  Got an A in that class :).

At the dock in the evening.

Today:  24 nm in 4.8 engine hours.  Total:  211 nm

Dave

Here we are in Seneca Falls.  What a great little town!  I really enjoyed walking through “A Wonderful Life” museum.  My sister, Linda, had sent me a copy of the movie years ago.  Tonight Dave and I plan on watching “A Wonderful Life” (seems appropriate).

Tomorrow we will be back on the canal to Florida!!  Today was a great side trip!!

Bobbi

Lyons, N.Y.

Departing Fairport at 0750 hours we headed east with the initial destination being Clyde.  The attraction of Clyde was that it was about half way to Baldwinsville and it had a laundry close by.  What is special about Baldwinsville?  Not to much but there are fewer and fewer stopping places as we get farther east and they have some nice docking facilities.

As we approached Lyons I was reading reviews on Active Captain and read that there was a laundramat near by though Google Maps knew nothing about it.  Since Lyons is a bigger burg than Clyde meaning more to see on our daily walk it might be more interesting so we decided to stay at Lyons.

Unfortunately it is Monday and the few small museums as well as the ancient theater are closed on Mondays leaving the highlight of the day being the laundry and a trip to Tops market.

We passed by Mid Lakes Marina where Caprice is on the hard, just to the left of Danita IV. Caprice’s new owner is having the bottom stripped and the topsides sanded in preparation for painting. We saw the owners of Danita in a few different places as we came up here, they being from Erie.  We also spoke with Wayne and Kim, owners of Eventide, the Mainship that is just to the right of Danita in a few different ports.

Hanging out at the laundromat in Lyons.

Reading material in the laundromat. The US magazine was interesting, using the term loosely. Who reads this stuff? I didn’t recognize 95% of the people in the rag and looking at the articles couldn’t believe what they where about. An article about the contents of some “stars” purse?  You have got to be kidding.  They must give US away for free as nobody in their right mind would pay money for it.   Fortunately there was a National Geographic that had more down to earth articles in it to keep me occupied.

We don’t have to share the dock with anybody.

Some interesting pictures taken during the construction of the current canal, this being the third iteration.

Today:  22 nm in 4.2 engine hours.  Total:  187 nm.

Dave

Fairport, NY

The day began with breakfast at Steve’s house with Steve and Wendy.  Bobbi and Wendy went off to church and the Skipper went back to the boat to clean the boat, fill the water tanks and do a little grocery shopping.  Steve drove up to Fairport where Bobbbi and Wendy met him after church was over.  They could stage one of their cars there as Steve and Wendy were going to spend the afternoon with us, as we traveled from Spencerport to Fairport.  We had our own personal body guard with us, even though Steve retired from the Secret Service a number of years ago.  It turned out to be an uneventful trip so we weren’t able to see him in action.  We did have to go through two locks with 25′ drops, one of the locks with four other boats which was the most we have ever shared a lock with on the Erie Canal.

Arriving at Fairport we had a drink in bar before heading for another place (Donnelly’s Public House on the recommendation of the dockmaster) for a good, simple dinner.  After dinner it was back to the boat for some apple pie before we had to say goodbye to Steve and Wendy.  They will be spending a month in the Clearwater, FL area this March and we won’t be too far away so we will be getting together again at that time.

Heading down in Lock 33.

At the dock in Fairport.

Steve, Wendy, Bobbi and Dave

Today, 21 nm in 4 engine hours.  Total: 165 nm.

Dave

We’ve had a great weekend!!!  We were able to spend the past three days with our “man in black”  (Steve) and his fiance, Wendy. We had a lot of meals, a lot of conversation and a lot of laughter together!!!  Thanks guys!!!!  Hopefully, we’ll see you both in the spring down in Florida!!!!

We’ll continue through the canal tomorrow and we’ll see what surprises the canal will bring!!!

Bobbi

 

Spencerport, N.Y. Day 2

We had an invite from our friend Steve to join him for breakfast at his home this morning so we took him up on the offer.  After breakfast he very kindly offered us the use of his car for the day so we could explore Rochester, a town that neither of us have visited.

So, we picked three things we wanted to see figuring that we could do those things in six hours.  First on the list was to visit the  George Eastman Museum (founder of Eastman Kodak), then stop by the Rochester Museum and Science Center, grab some lunch by the water and see the Charlotte Genesee Lighthouse.

It turned out that the Eastman Museum ended up taking about three hours as we stumbled into the start of a guided tour.  Listening to someone explain the history of the house, the furnishings and a bit about the man and then watching a PBS documentary about George Eastman and the Kodak company made the three hours fly by.  We had to cross the Science Center off the list if we wanted lunch and see the Lighthouse so it was off to find a place that was still open on the harbor and then toured the lighthouse and the keepers house.

The room where George Eastman ate breakfast, usually alone. He had an organ player who played while he ate. The organ had three sets of pipes producing early surround sound as the pipes were on three sides of the room. The elephant was one that he shot on a safari. He actually had the room stretched by 9-1/2 feet after it was built. They cut the house in half and moved one side to improve the acoustics in the breakfast room. The cost for that renovation was twice the cost of building the entire house.

One of the first cameras made by Eastman. These sold for $25, equivalent to three months salary at the time. The $1 Brownie didn’t come until years later.

The Mate sitting with George. He seems to be ignoring her at the moment.

Lunch at the Pelican’s Nest. The Rochester YC is in the background where the large trimaran (Earth Voyager) is docked.

The Charlotte Genesee Lighthouse, now a private aid to navigation. It is 40′ high, about 42 steps up a spiral staircase and then an 8′ climb up a vertical ladder to reach the light.

View from the top of the tower looking north towards the lake. The lake shore was where the large group of trees are located in the center of the picture when the light was built. The Genesee River and the breakwalls have increased the land area since the early 1800’s.

Upon our return we had an excellent dinner this evening with Steve and Wendy at Steve’s home.

This chain saw bear sculpture is about 5′ tall, one of Steve’s garden decorations.

There is a stream behind Steve’s house (actually overflow from the Erie Canal) that Steve has dammed to create a small pool and waterfall. There is a small waterfall on the far side that is fed by a pump and backlit at night. He has turned this area into a real showcase with the addition of plants and stone. A picture doesn’t do this area justice.

Today:  0 miles and holding, one of the most enjoyable 0 mile days we have had in a long time.

Dave

Spencerport, N.Y.

The crew of Liberty put in a full day today, depending on you definition of a full day of course.  The overcast morning started off with a brisk walk to visit the waterfall in Holley before we took in our dock lines at 1010 hours.

Liberty coming into Holley yesterday. Photo by “Rick”, and sent to Norm Vallee (Real Mountie).

The Mate at the waterfall. We understand that it is lit at night.

It is a bit of a hike to get there and before you decend down a steep path to the pond and waterfall there is a sign indicating that the bed of the original canal (which was only four feet deep and forty feet wide) can be seen.  The question is where?  We have looked around numerous times and have never seen anything.  Leaving the waterfall we randomly selected a trail and started following it, referring to the satellite view from Google Maps to help guide us back to the canal.

While wandering back we came across this sign. There is no way you would find it if you were actually looking for it as it was off the beaten path.

Back on the boat we headed east on the canal and decided to stop at Brockport, just to walk the town as we didn’t need to make any miles today.

Brockport is a college town (SUNY Brockport) and as such has traffic and young people walking around. Of course there are bars and tattoo places as well as numerous places to eat in the small downtown area.

There are a lot of partially to fully renovated Victorian homes in the downtown area, many of them turned into apartments for student housing.

One of the “odd” things about this town are the streets that cross Main Street. They are offset from each other. Evidently two  people owned land on each side of the street and they hated each other so much that when they laid out the streets they deliberately made sure the cross streets did not line up.

Tied up in Spencerport.

Arriving at Spencerport we walked up to the used bookstore where we left with a bag of books for $22.  We expect these books will keep us in reading material for quite a while.  There is a Tops market in the vicinity so we restocked the fresh fruit larder on this walking trip.  For what ever reason we are walking more, eating healthier and drinking more water while drinking less fortified grape juice.

This evening we went to dinner at Charlie Brown’s Restaurant with our friend Steve and his fiance Wendy.  They eat there most Friday evenings and we dined there with them a year ago when we passed through.  One interesting thing was seeing “Bob” (one of the Friday night regulars) again.  Bob, who is in his 80’s was there a year ago and still remembered us today.  That isn’t bad for somebody who only talked to us briefly.  I have trouble remembering who I talked to yesterday.

Today:  11 nm in 1.7 engine hours.  Total: 144 nm.  We won’t be getting to Florida too soon at this rate but will be picking up the pace soon once we get to the eastern portion of the canal.

Dave

Fun day today even though the weather changed on us (a tad chilly and a bit of rain).  We left Holley this morning after a walk to a neat little waterfall.  We then headed for Brockport for a quick walk around the town.  (We’re trying to make the most of our trip through the canal this time!!!)

We made it to Spencerport a little after lunch and went right to a wonderful used book store we had found a few years ago on our first trip. I found several books by Harlan Coben (one of my favorite author’s thanks to my cousin Pam!!) that I hadn’t read yet.  Dave was able to find a few books of interest to him as well.

Once we had our books in hand, we were on our way for a few groceries then back to the boat to meet our “man in black” (Steve) for dinner.

We had a great time with Steve and his fiance, Wendy, at the neatest little restaurant, Charlie Brown’s.  Our plan is to get together with Steve and Wendy again tomorrow!!!  Another fun day on the Erie Canal!!!

Bobbi

 

Holley N.Y.

This appears to be the last warm day we will be having for awhile.  Temperatures were in the mid 80’s today which had us seeking shade from the uncomfortably hot sunshine.  Again, since we wern’t going far we got a late start, 0930.  This allowed the mate to get in a morning walk while the skipper puttered around on the boat.

This is where Culvert Road (aptly named) passes under the Erie Canal. It is supposedly the only road that goes under the canal.

The following is four minutes of drone shot footage of this location.  It is more impressive then our picture shown above.

Since we could see the Albion Prison as we passed by we thought we would stop and check out the town.

Our initial impression of this rather old town was that of liquor stores and churches with lots of empty storefronts.  It is really a shame as the town buildings have a lot of architectural character.

Not a lot of cars or people around.

There were four churches near this corner, most built from Medina Sandstone as you would expect with the close proximity to Medina.

Leaving Albion, we were off to Holley, nine miles distant.  This is a quaint little place with its claim to fame is being named after one of the Erie Canal Commissioners.  Obviously the town owes its existence to the Erie Canal and there was a thriving quarry businesses here in the late 1800’s.

Looking west at the canal, a lift bridge barely visible in the background.

We are docked in a park like setting, free dockage, water and power.

During the summer Liberty (almost) got her fair share of attention.  Gentle reader,  rather than spell that out here (and risk boring you to tears) the line below is a hyperlink to the web page detailing those projects if you are interested.

http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/d/r/drf6/Liberty_Project_1/Projects_2016.htm

Today:  18 nm in 2,9 engine hours.  Total: 133 nm.

Dave

Another beautiful day on the Erie Canal!!!  We made it to Holley early afternoon and met a couple from Erie.  They keep their boat along the Erie Canal and spend their summers here.  Nice folks!!!

Dave and I strolled around town today and visited a few shops.  Not a lot happening here in Holley. but it is a cute little town!!!

We will be heading for Spencerport tomorrow.  A whopping 13 miles!!!  The great thing about Spencerport is that we get to visit with our “man in black”.   We met our “man in black”, Steve, on our first trip through the canal on our way to Florida.  We plan on having dinner with Steve and his fiance, Wendy.  Can’t wait!!!

Well, looking forward tomorrow and all the canal will bring!!!!

Bobbi

Medina, NY

Leaving Lockport at 0930 hours we had a grueling 13 mile run up to Medina.  Years ago, Medina was as far east as we ventured in our previous trawler, Finlandia.  How times have changed.  Actually, the 13 miles wasn’t grueling, it was a milk run if there ever was one.

When we got into Medina, there was only one other boat here and we must have chased him away as it left shortly after we arrived.  By the end of the day four more boats showed up, the most boats we have ever seen here.  Only one, a sailboat with their mast down is heading south (actually east at the moment), the rest are quasi locals.

You can’t go to Medina with out visiting the train/firefighters museum so we walked the main street and went to the museum.

These three engines were pulling 91 cars. The owner of the place said that each engine was rated to pull between 30 and 50 cars and the most they ever had in motion was a train with 150 cars. All the wheels on the engines are being driven by electric motors enabling them to accomplish that task.

We always see things we hadn’t noticed before. This is a scene of a train derailment on a mountain.

On our way back we walked over the canal and along the Aqueduct that carries the canal over Orchard Creek.

Orchard Creek, well below the level of the canal.

Looking back across the basin from the aqueduct.

This structure is pretty impressive considering that it was built during one winter in 1915.  The canal basin at Medina is on the other side of this wall.

Today:  13 nm in 2.1 engine hours.  Total 115 nm.

Dave

Here we are in Medina.  Years ago this seemed so far from home.  Now it seems like a little jaunt from home to here!!

Dave loves museums, so off we went to the railroad museum here in Medina!!!  Actually, I continued walking through town then met Dave at the museum a little later!!  I enjoy museums as much as the next person but I don’t seem to need quite as much time to look around as Dave does!!

 

We’ll be off to Holly tomorrow!!

Bobbi