Captain's Choice blog: The Erie Canal

For many years we chose to start the boating season with a trip on the Erie Canal for Memorial Day, it was warmer than being on Lake Erie with the cool west winds and there was a cute restaurant near Middleport called the Basket Factory that we would go to and meet up with friends. It seems fitting that this Memorial Day weekend we started out on the Erie Canal again, the difference being we are traveling from Albany to Buffalo. In those years we went from Buffalo to Middleport and back to Buffalo.

The weather forecast for Friday was partly cloudy, no rain and "breezy", Mark and I decided we would "test the waters", see how breezy it was and make the decision to stop in Waterford after the Troy lock or continue on through the flight of 5 at Waterford. Breezy didn't really describe the winds...it was windy and gusting and after we got through the Troy Lock Mark looked at me and said what do you think...my thoughts - let's stop in Waterford and start out on Saturday when the winds calm down. Knowing that the Erie Canal was open from Albany to Syracuse and it only being 11 am we figured there would be no problem getting a spot on the dock wall...wrong!...yes the people going west had moved on but we forgot about the people heading up the Champlain Canal (which is closed, and there were several boats from Montreal waiting to move north)...the docks were full and our decision to keep moving was made for us. We ended up traveling 49 miles and 8 locks in a 9.5 hr day...we were glad to get to Lock 8 in Scotia and tie to the dock wall for the evening.
The problem with doing locks on a windy day is the winds swirl and do crazy things when you are in the lock. This makes "work" out of holding on to the lines and I can attest I have no interest in being the captain as we traverse in and out of the locks. Mark does an excellent job! Also because of the rains and high water we are still experiencing debris in the water which is always a little worse at the locks. Of course the positives out way the negatives when it comes to the scenery and we had several eagles soar through the air around us. Unfortunately no pictures of these magnificent birds but as Mark said "just watch and enjoy." After we tied to the lock wall we got some good news! Starting tomorrow (Saturday) at 7 am the canal from Albany to Buffalo will be open! Hooray!

What a beautiful morning Saturday ended up being. The winds were calm, the temperatures were rising and it was sunny! The forecast for later in the day wasn't looking that good but we knew if we left early we could get at least 6 hours in before we would have to call it quits. I was watching the weather map and it looked like the rain and t-storms would hit about 2 pm, at 1:30 we had just exited lock #E-15 at Fort Plain and decided it was as good a spot as any to spend the night. That gave us a 6 hour day, 40 miles and 7 locks. Once we were tied up the sprinkles started, then a little harder and suddenly that was it...about 20 minutes of rain. When we checked the weather map everything had shifted north and the 60-100% chance of rain for the afternoon became 20%. We decided to stay put, the town of Fort Plain is about 1/2 mile away and we had never been there so we set out to explore and grab some dinner. We found great food at "The Table" and to quote Mark on the town, "it looks like someone rolled up the sidewalks for the evening several years ago, and just never put them back out." We just try to picture in our minds what these canal towns were like back in the day before cheap imports and the big box stores 5 miles outside of town on the main highways.

When you can string several sunny days in a row you get excited and Sunday did not disappoint. We woke early to the sun coming up, warmer temps and just a layer of fog over the water and wind. When we start out on the canal we are never sure just how far we are going to go...locks, weather, other boaters all figure in to the equation. We did good Sunday as we traveled 61 miles and 6 locks in a 10 hour day. This boating gets tiring! We decided to stop at Lock 22 just east of Oneida Lake for the evening. It is so quiet here, no trains or traffic as we have heard at some of the other lock walls, although the mosquitos came out in full force once the sun went down. This would be an excellent location if they just had more rings or cleats to tie to, but we managed.
There were at least a dozen people fishing and Mark got his fishing rod out to try his luck...supposedly there are bass and walleye but we didn't see either. I was busy watching all the geese and their babies forage for food.

Amazingly with the weather of this spring we had another beautiful morning to head across Oneida Lake on Memorial Day. Two days in a row with no rain??? Haven't had that since the Chesapeake. Our destination was Baldwinsville, where we take the radar down so that we can continue our travels on the western Erie Canal. 6 hours, 48 miles and 2 locks later we arrived in Baldwinsville and Mark got to work on the radar. We knew Tuesday was going to bring rain so once he was finished with the radar we rechecked the weather forecast and found that they were predicting 1/2"of rain Tuesday...that did not bode well with us. Baldwinsville was the last area of the Erie Canal opened and there is still high water. Mark made a quick call to the lockmaster at lock 25, May's Point, and asked if he thought we should stay in Baldwinsville or move on due to the amount of rain forecasted. Our concern is they would close this section of the canal again. His opinion was we should move to May's Point, if they would close the canal they would make us sit it out in Baldwinsville, if we moved to May's Point where there is nothing (no nearby town or amenities) they would probably allow us to move to Lyons. Lyons to Tonawanda was open from the start so we knew that was a position on the canal we would like to get to. With that information, we unplugged the electric and water, untied the lines and headed another 31 miles in 4 hours.
Travel along this section is extremely slow, you have to slow for the no wake zones, docks and small boats, kayaks, canoes and the water is still very high and you do not want to create a wake that will effect the homes along the canal. It certainly was a long day and we got to the lock wall and tied up just prior to dark. Just another reminder that when your dealing with the canal you never know where you will end up by the end of the day.