We left the dock at 7:00 am and went below our normal cruising speed to enhance our experience today. Our trip from Rome to Brewerton, NY was 36.7 miles and included 11 fixed bridges and 2 locks. On the trip up the Erie Canal (Mohawk River) we had gone up a total of 420 feet while passing through 20 locks. Today we went through 2 locks where we went down 25 feet in each lock. It is not a big deal, but the view changes going down (see photo at right). Before, we would enter the dark, empty lock going up to emerge into sunlight at the top. Today, we went into the lock in sunlight and went down to emerge from the dark cavern. The photo shows the aft end of Lucky Us as we were leaving the first of the two locks. Trust me, it is a more exhilarating experience to go up into the light. We have 8 more locks until we reach Lake Ontario via the Oswego Branch of the canal. Lake Ontario has an average elevation of 246 feet so we still have quite a ways to go (down).
After about 15 miles, including the 2 locks, we entered Oneida Lake, which is about 20 miles long east to west and perhaps 8 miles wide. It is another lake that was carved out by the glaciers, and water depths for us today were 35 to over 50 feet, which is by far the deepest water that we have seen since the lower Hudson River. The photo at the left shows the channel and adjacent breakwater at the entrance into the lake. You can see the ripples about 2 inches high on the water. The wind was from behind us and parallel to our route west on the lake so the little ripples grew into waves less than 1 foot high by the time we reached the far end of the lake. We did see two small fleets of sailboats racing and dozens of boats fishing around some rock piles in the lake. When we reached the far western end of Oneida Lake, it was about Noon and dozens of boats were streaming out the Erie Canal into the lake. They were going to have some of the best boating weather of the Summer. The western end of Lake Oneida is close to Syracuse and is connected by major highways. There were groups of houses along much of the lake, but the density increased at the western end and along the shores of the canal. There are quite a few marinas as well as restaurants in Brewerton at the junction of the canal and Lake Oneida. We chose a marina that is well known for its heated inside winter storage of larger boats like Lucky Us and bigger. Who knows? We might just come back here some day and want to store Lucky Us over a winter...
After we docked at Winter Harbor Marina, we had fun watching families of geese swimming past. In all cases there was one adult in front followed by the goslings in a row with the other parent at the end of the line. It was kind of like a military style march with straight rows. The goslings varied quite a bit in size from group to group, which probably meant several weeks difference in age (?). We saw the same kind of lines of geese later when we went to a waterfront restaurant about a mile away.
The last photo is of Lucky Us at her dock for tonight. It's not what you think! We were not pulled over by the Oswego County Sheriff. In fact, they were quite friendly even though our stern stuck out enough to partially block their slip.
Tomorrow we plan to start toward Lake Ontario at Oswego, NY. It is a distance of 32.4 miles with 8 locks. Our "big decision" for the day will come in the late morning when we will decide whether to stop overnight along the way or to do the whole trip in one day. Boy, I just love this retired life when something that simple is the biggest decision for a day...
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