Canajoharie to Brewerton NY July 12-22

A Erie canal tugboat leads us through the locks - Palmetto Moon and Patience
















The Mid County Ambulance center bids us farewell



July 12 – July 16 2006
Good grief, it’s rained again on Wednesday and again on Saturday. Carmella, the Director of the Canal system, came down to see the boats on Wednesday and she arranged for a large generator since the shore power is still not operational. The water is rushing now and word is that we can’t make our Friday departure as the water is rising and the current is strong. Jim and I got out our bikes and traveled down to the next lock, #15. A boat was in there during the flood and it didn’t fare so well. The canal staff had already removed it- a sorry sight. We saw the barges working on removing all the debris from the dams. Tonight was the Board Meeting of the Mid County Volunteer Ambulance service. Jim Cobb did a nice job of thanking the group and presenting our donation. He even had the press there. On Friday, things are progressing. Jim got our air conditioning to work and made arrangements to get fuel tomorrow at Lock 16. A press conference was held at noon with Carmella Mantilla, Director of the Canal. We will be leaving at nine Saturday. We all had our pictures taken by the press and some were interviewed. The divers made it here in the afternoon and looked at the boat and removed debris. They report that everything looks fine. We all had dinner at the Inn at Palatine Bridge- Jim, the owner, befriended us early on and he wanted to have a farewell dinner for us. Thanks Jim! The tug came for us at 9 am to lead us out. Our friends from the Ambulance shelter arrived early with the sirens running and brought coffee, donuts and gifts for all. Parting is such sweet sorrow! This is slow going but we made it through Lock 17 to Little Falls. We had some rain but it stopped each time we were locking through so we didn’t even get wet. Traveling with two sailboats and with Patience (a very slow trawler) is quite an experience. We are only going about 4 or 5 mph. It’s 3 pm by the time we get to Little Falls which is a lovely stop, they have a wonderful dock and visitor’s center. We will stay here on Sunday and then move some more early next week and hopefully make it to the marina at Brewerton . We did all go to the movies today to see "Pirates of the Carribbean", the cool theatre was great since it is so hot.
With regret we had to cancel our plans for the AGLCA rendezvous’ as it starts today.
July 17- July 22,
Little Falls, NY to Brewerton, NY
We left Little Falls, NY on Monday and cruised all the way to Sylvan Beach. It’s very hot and humid again. We took a walk to the beach and went swimming. The beach is narrow and the water is pretty sandy but it still felt good. There are some cute restaurants and Tiki Bars here on the beach. It’s definitely a throw back to the resort towns of the 50s with an amusement park i.e. Tilt a Whirl, Scrambler, Dodgem cars, Bumper boats.
Catnip came in under tow – the Erie canal tugboat brought her all the way here as she started overheating the first day we left Canajoharie. Catnip is a sailboat owned by two Canadian women, Joan and Mary Lou and they have two cats aboard – Toby and Genny. Sneakers became fast friends with them at the EMS shelter.
We stayed in Sylvan Beach on Tuesday and left on Wednesday to cross Lake Oneida. The same six boats - 11 people, 3 cats, 1 dog and a parakeet- have all been traveling together since we left the EMS shelter at Canajoharie. We were all together at Little Falls, Sylvan Beach and now at Winter Harbor Marina,Brewerton NY. . We have one more lock in the Erie and then we take the Oswego Canal (7 more locks) to Lake Ontario. When we got here on Wednesday the Oswego Canal was closed because of high water. It opened on Friday and several boats that had been waiting here left. However, now there are flood warnings up again so we can only hope that the Oswego Canal is open when we try to leave next week. One more day and then we should be in Canada. Stay tuned as once we get to Canada this website won’t get updated as often since I don’t want to incur roaming charges on my cell phone. We’re update if we get a WiFi connection, otherwise, we’ll be back up when we get to the Great Lakes. Plans are to take 5-7 days to go through the Trent Severn canal and then a few days in the Georgian Bay and another few days in the North Channel.