A nice day for cruising and didn't have to worry about the rain which held off. We left our dock in Oswego at 7:40, tied up on the wall as gate wasn't opened for #8 lock. No more blue lines although that system does work well on the Rideau.
We started the 7 locks on the Oswego Canal....such a difference from the Rideau. These are much longer and some are pretty scuzzy.....they use ropes or cables (we prefer cables) whereas only cables are used on the Rideau. All of these are hydraulic so no cranking, but no young friendly folks to chat with, etc. Not that many staff are needed with this more modern technology and believe it or not, some locks we didn't see anyone or just waved to the person in their little lock house.
We had the locks all to ourselves today - nice! And only met 3 boats going the other way,
Our last lock on the Oswego was in Phoenix, NY and we have fond memories of times spent here and home of the Boat House Brats (BHB) who are school-age kiddos who hang out at the docks helping people settle in, bring them a meal from restaurants, ice, other errands. they also serve breakfasts and just the nicest young people. The townspeople stop by and everyone sits around on picnic tables chatting away with the boaters. As we drove past, several of the kids were wearing their royal blue shirts waiting for some business! Great place for kids to hang out these warm summer days and doing good deeds for we boaters which are much appreciated!
From the Oswego Canal we were on the Erie Canal and one more lock to Brewerton - good to be back here. 2 nice neighbors (both doing the loop from TX and NC) helped us tie up for diesel and a pump out - they are full here at EssKay. Tammy helped us into our slip next to folks from Oriental, NC.
After getting Catrina settled, we had lunch and then Mark took off on his bike for a haircut - gotta love $15 haircuts (senior price)! I tidied up Catrina - vacuumed, sorted laundry, etc. When he got back, he set to work fixing the dockside water thingy....Kim had ordered the parts, he got it all installed and we are good to go! And then at 4:15, just as he was finishing up, the heavens opened up and for 45 minutes, we had very heavy rain! And then the sun came out and a nice evening!
They have a courtesy car here at EssKay which you can sign up for 2 hours. Nothing available today, but we have it booked from 10-12. Laundry, groceries, manicure hopefully!
Philip, Annette, Luke and Maeve are enjoying a little getaway in FL and the kiddos saw where Daddy works!
I had a good chat with Kim tonight - nice to see her and catch up! Saw Ethan, too
No comments:
Post a Comment