Goodby to Brewerton and Winter Harbor!! 5/12/08

Hello All . . .

Here is our last view of Winter Harbor Marina. We left on Saturday around 9 am as the temp warmed, went through 4 locks and spent the night in Ilion. Sunday we had 8 locks and are now in Amsterdam. We'll stay here today waiting for better weather and leave again tomorrow morning for Albany, going through 9 locks. We'll be leaving Albany for home on Friday, May 16th for our 2 granddaughter's high school graduations.

As those of you have been on the eastern part of the Erie Canal know, the locks are difficult to say the least. Try for a day with warm temps and NO wind. We found it especially hard as our boat has a very high deck and the decks are bowed, leaving the lines WAY down there and WAY out there. Thank goodness of expendable boat hooks, long arms and strong backs. We are also using our walkee talkee thingees so we don't yell at each other so much. Be sure to bring good waterproof gloves and lots of patience.

We have found the lock masters friendly for the most part. The summer crews are not working yet so things are a little slow and a little unorganized. Last year the locks were free, this year we had to purchase two 2-days passes for $20 each to use the locks for 3 days. There are less expensive per day options if you need more time. A season pass is $100. You purchase the pass at the first lock you go through and may be asked to show it at each lock so keep it handy.

I'm uploading several typical scenes from the western Erie Canal. Please excuse the positioning of pics on this blog. I seem to have no control where they end up.

See you out there somewhere . . .

Bob & Ann