August 28

Our first day on the Erie Canal, and it is apparent we have a few things to learn before we can consider ourselves canalmen.

The first thing to note is the canal is beautiful. I don’t know what we imagined, but it is much more beautiful and quaint than we pictured.

The canal also has locks and bridges – perhaps hundreds of them. One must radio ahead to request they be opened for you, and there are a few nervous moments as you wait to hear back from the tenders. It is impossible to sit still in the one plus mph current in the canal, and difficult to maneuver in tight quarters.

Our most interesting discovery, though, is related to lift bridges. Did you know a lift bridge lifts up? The bridge itself is about 6 feet above water. When you radio ahead, the tender raises this piece of the bridge straight up so you can pass under. At our first bridge we called, and the tender radioed back, “The bridge will be raised when you get here, Captain.” We confidently edged forward, but could not see the span of the bridge separating or lifting. We radioed again, but received no response. As our concern rose, Corinne finally realized, “Greg, I think the bridge IS up.
And so goes the adventure.

This is Middleport, New York, 29 miles down the Erie Canal. We spent our first night tied to a canal wall here.

August 27

Wardell’s Boatyard is situated about 50 feet from the first bridge on the Erie Canal, and getting the mast down and stored was the order of the day. Gorma is such a pretty boat with the mast up, and somewhat gangly when it is down. The scary part, as we are coming to understand, is the rather long tail (ten to twelve feet of mast) hanging over the back of the boat. It makes turning and maneuvering in tight quarters a bit of a challenge.

Note the boat beside us. It is a Columbia 30 owned by a lovely young couple from Poland. They are going through the Erie Canal to New York and then to St Pierre and Miquelon before heading to Bermuda and the Bahamas this winter. Next spring their plan is to sail back to Poland.

August 26

We were up early this morning and away by 7:30 am. It had been quite windy through the night and the water was quite rolly, but the wind had settled into a steady 10-15 knots and we had a great sail as far as Dunkirk. Gorma is a good boat and we become more confident with her all the time.

The wind died down mid-morning, though, and so we motored the rest of the way to Buffalo. The waterway through Buffalo to Tonawanda is heavily traveled, particularly on a sunny afternoon. There were sailboats everywhere in the outer bay, and hundreds of power boats on the river and Black Rock Channel, paralleling the Niagara River.

The river and channel are approximately ten miles, and besides giving us an opportunity to sharpen our aids to navigation skills, it also had a couple of bridge openings and a lock in store for us. Although they shouldn’t have, both of these came as a bit of a surprise, and we have our first lock with ropes under our belts.

Around every corner, a new adventure, and here the sign marks the beginning of the Erie Canal. The canal system is 341 miles long and contains 34 locks. It connects the Great Lakes to Troy NY and then to New York City.