Archive | August 2017

Waterford

Aug31

8/31/17 – 9/3/17: Today will be our last day travelling the Erie Canal. We will be in Waterford this afternoon, which is the eastern most town along the canal. We cannot believe how fast this journey has gone; it seems only yesterday that we left Buffalo, but it was almost 3 weeks ago!
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Schenectady

Aug30

8/30/17: We are nearing the end of our journey on the Erie Canal. From Amsterdam to the end of the canal at Waterford was 40 miles of travel and 8 locks. We searched for one more place to break that journey into two days and found dockage in Schenectady at the Schenectady Yacht Club.
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Canajoharie

Aug28

8/28/17: On this part of the canal, due to the sparsity of suitable places to dock, we have two choices for moving from place to place. We can either do 9-10 hour days with many miles and many locks, or we can do 4-5 hour days with less miles and fewer locks. We have so far chosen the latter. With that in mind, we chose Canajoharie for our next stop, 20 miles and 3 locks down the canal.
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Little Falls

Aug26

8/26/17 – 8/27/17: We had been travelling every day for several days and we felt we needed a break. We had heard Little Falls was a nice place to stop, so we planned on spending two nights there. We were met with a pleasant surprise on our way there and another when we arrived.
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Lock 20

Aug25

8/25/17: After crossing Oneida Lake, we were now officially in the eastern section of the Erie Canal. Here, the towns become fewer and farther between, and many of those don’t have adequate depth at the walls for us to stop at. We would now have to plan the remainder of our journey a little more carefully.
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Brewerton

Aug24

8/24/17: Everyone who transits the Erie Canal, especially sailboats carrying masts on rickety cradles, stops at one of two places depending on which direction they are travelling. For eastbound travellers, it’s Brewerton, and for westbound travellers it’s Sylvan Beach. The reason? Oneida Lake.
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Baldwinsville

Aug23

8/23/17: Baldwinsville was the next stop on our canal journey. It was 49 miles from Lyons, but was the only option we had with plenty of depth at the wall to tie to. We also had 2 locks that day, plus a lake crossing, so it was going to be a long day
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Lyons

Aug21

8/21/17 – 8/22/17: There were severe storms forecasted for the day after we left Newark, but we wanted to make a little forward progress. We had everything options: Baldwinsville, a 50 mile journey; Clyde, about 10 miles away, or Lyons, only 5 miles from Newark. Our first choice was Clyde, but they only had dockage for 2 boats, and we were concerned that once we got there, there would be no space. We opted for Lyons, and it turns out, we made a very good choice.
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Newark

Aug20

8/20/17: Fairport was a nice stop on the canal and we enjoyed our time here very much. However, we were eager to make up some ground, but we were also anxious about the engine dying. So we picked a town that was about 20 miles down the canal: Newark.
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Fairport

Aug17

8/17/17-8/20/17: The next town down the canal that we chose to stop at was Fairport. The trip there was probably the worst day we’ve had so far since leaving on May 21st (even worse than the 8 foot wave day back in Tobermory).
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Middleport

Aug15

8/15/17: After a quick trip to Walgreens in the morning, we were ready to head out. We left the wall where we tied up at about 9AM, and Middleport was 30 miles away. We should be there about 3PM. Did we make it by 3? No! Why not? What else – more rain!
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