Captain's Choice blog: And...we are off again

We've had 3 wonderful days on the Erie Canal since we left Buffalo on Thursday, September 27. Instead of doing the Great Loop again to get to Florida we will join the group of "liners" that head south via the East Coast each fall.
So far the temperatures have been a little brisk in the morning, ranging from 47-52 but the sun has been brilliant and warms us up quickly. I guess the fact the Erie Canal closes early this year (October 10) is actually a blessing as we really wouldn't want to be doing this in late October with frosty mornings.

So far we have traveled 182 miles and stayed overnight in Brockport, Newark and now in Baldwinsville. Today (Saturday) we went under the lowest bridge on the Erie Canal, which is just east of the village of Clyde and with our radar pedestal down we cleared it with no problem. Now that the bridge is behind us we were able to put the radar back up.

The Erie Canal has an abundance of blue heron (we affectionately call all herons "Fred"), the fish are jumping, an eagle flew overhead, turtles have been sunning themselves on logs and we actually saw a squirrel swimming from one side of the canal to the other. The trees have just a tinge of color and I'm sure it will be just beautiful in a couple more weeks.

A couple of tips if you ever travel the Canal by boat;
1) Don't forget gloves! The lines you hold onto while in the locks are gross!
2) If you are traveling East, make sure you have good sunglasses. The sun is brilliant in the early morning.
3) Lastly, the speed limit in many portions of the canal is 10 mph and there are also many homes and boats that you pass so you have to slow down to "no wake" speed...there inevitably will be a homeowner that yells that you are going to fast...just smile and wave!