Thursday, June 4, 2009

It was 46° this morning at Lake Oneida, but the sky was clear and there was no wind which made for a terrific time to cross the lake. We were on our way at 6 am and completed the 20-mile crossing in about four hours. Our first stop was at Ess-Kay Yards in Brewerton, NY, where we fueled up, topped off the water tanks, and picked up a few miscellaneous items for boat maintenance. At 11:50, we passed through the last lock we will use on the Erie Canal, Lock 23, which dropped us down 7 feet. About seven miles after Lock 23, we came to Three Rivers where the Oswego Canal begins at the junction of the Oneida and Seneca Rivers that form the Oswego River. This is mile 160 on the Erie Canal. From this point, the Oswego Canal drops from 363 feet above sea level to 245 feet above sea level at Lake Ontario in 7 steps. The total length of the canal is 24 miles. In general, the locks are more modern and in better shape than the Erie Canal locks. The locks are numbered 1 through 3, and 5 through 8 – Lock 4 was planned but never built. At 5:30 pm we came through Lock 7 at Oswego, NY, and tied up for the night on the wall south of Lock 8. We had read about a Farmers’ Market happening here every Thursday night from 5 to 9 pm in the summertime and were not disappointed. We came away from the market with wonderful fresh asparagus, a green pepper, some baked goods and sampled won-ton and crab rangoon made by a local Chinese restaurant that was the best either of us had ever had! Back at the boat we found we had a great Wi-Fi signal so Gale made a couple of calls on Skype before going to bed.