September 4-5

We departed from Lock 27 early on Tuesday morning. The mist was rising from the water and it was a beautiful morning. It was also particularly memorable, especially for the ‘admiral’, as it marked the first day of official retirement. You be the judge of how difficult this transition appears to be.

We tied up to the canal wall in Brewerton for the night. This was eventful for two reasons for us. There were three boats already tied to the wall, a sailboat and two trawlers. They were all from Canada and following a similar plan to ours. It is nice to know there are others to meet again along the way

The ‘middle’ section of the Erie Canal passes from Lyons to Rome. It follows the Seneca River and traverses Lake Oneida. It is more open and more populated, with many stretches of lovely homes.

There are seven locks along this section. Three of them are lift locks which raise the boat to a higher level. They are somewhat more turbulent and we have to work a little harder to keep the boat where we want it against the lock wall.


Another early start on Wednesday morning so that we can cross Lake Oneida in a calm. As it turns out, it is quite breezy to start, and becomes calmer throughout the trip. Once across the lake we make our way to Rome, where we meet Debbie and Wayne. They are going to join us for the next part of the trip.

We have made one other realization about the middle part of the Erie Canal. While there are many walls to tie up to, very few of them provide water or washroom facilities. It has been a couple of days since our last shower, and we are becoming less enamoured with ourselves, let alone each other. We decide to walk down to a small marina and inquire about the possibility of getting a shower. We track down the owner who says, ‘I don’t usually do this, but I could let you have a quick shower for … $20. Ya know, the price of hot water …’

We thanked him and returned, a little dejected, to the boat. Along the way Corinne asked, ‘Do you think we could fill that plastic shower bag. We did, and it felt great. We took a couple of pictures, thinking it would be interesting to include on the blog. After looking at them, it was unanimous - no one needs to see that!