Trent-Severn Day 1-3

The Trent-Severn Waterway, 240 miles long, is a series of lakes and rivers joined together by canals and locks (44 of 'em) to connect Lake Ontario with Lake Huron. The first lock was built in 1833, but real momentum for lock building occured in 1907 when the government partnered with hydroelectric power companies to build locks and dams. Many of the locks still have a power plant next to them. In 1920, after almost 90 years of construction the waterway was finally completed. Today, the Trent-Severn Waterway is a national Canadian treasure and is heavily promoted for tourism, both by boat and by land. The locks are even smaller than those of the Erie Canal. Here is our entrance to Lock 1, just above Trenton on Lake Ontario ...

... and here are Shingebiss, Eschaton, and Felix at the top. All under 40' and we were close together and filled the entire wall. We got off the boats and went in to purchase our "lockage and dockage" stickers. We bought a one-way lockage pass ($158) and a season dockage pass ($333). The prices are determined with a 'per foot' charge, just like a marina slip fee.

Many of the gates are hand operated. Here's the lockmaster at Lock 1, turning the crank to open the top gate.

The Waterway is well marked, but the buoys are small. At the bottom of some of the dams, the current gets strong.

The dockage pass allows you to tie up to the lock walls below or above the locks. No electric, but there are restrooms and picnic tables. Many of them are very rural, nicely landscaped, and peaceful.

Some of the locks have a narrow car bridge above them which must be opened by the same person who's cranking the gate open. The lock tenders are all very friendly and helpful. At each lock you tell them how far you plan to travel each day and they call the next lock so that they have the doors open and waiting when you arrive. The speed limit is 10 km/hour, which is about 6 mph.

The first 36 miles has 17 locks, so it took us two six hour days to make this 36 miles. Our first nights stop was here at Lock 9 where we met Trudy and Gord, local boaters, aboard Second Thought. We shared a taco dinner and enjoyed the cool, crisp northern air.

We have passed through two sets of "flight locks". Here we are approaching the very tall gate. This gate does double duty as the top gate for the first lock, where we raise as far as the lower wall ...

... and when they open, you are already in the second chamber, where this gate is now the lower gate. Pretty cool.

In Campbellford, we pulled over to walk over this suspensiom bridge that leads to a walking trail/park on the other side.

Here's the view from the middle of it.

Here's a great view from the top of one of the flight locks, where we stayed our second night. We are again amazed that visitors can walk around the lock chambers and over the gates, even when the lock is closed for the night.

The shores of the canal are heavily wooded, lots of pines and a definite "up north" feel. Cottages and docks appear in groups as the water widens and then narrows again. The small towns seem to love the boaters and they are all promoting us to stop. We heard from Gord and Trudy that Hastings had the best fireworks for Canada Day (July 1), so we are parked on the lock wall directly across from the marina where they set them off. The lock is right in the center of this most friendly small town. The recent rains have raised the river levels, so the dam here is really ripping.

Just had to show this sign for you Mississippi River boaters. Yes, we are at the Hastings Lock !!

Notice the lock gates are made of wood.

We've tapped into the WiFi from the marina across the way and the convenience store just across the walkway from the boats has allowed us to plug our electric into their outdoor outlets.

There's a nice grocery store and laundromat about 3-4 blocks away. We had Social Hour tonight with Loopers John and Mary Jo (Recovery Room), the Camano 31 parked in front of us.

We are getting used to celcius, liters and Canadian currency, although the exchange rate is within 3 cents. The cloudy skies that have been following us are supposed to clear up tomorrow with the temps rising each day. Happy Canada Day and Happy Fourth of July too.

Trenton, Ontario

Surprise, a blog from Canada !!! We made it across Lake Ontario, but that body of water is going on our list of "least enjoyable". The waves didn't start out too bad, but by half way across they had built to about 3', steep and close together. They were on our beam, so we were rolling like crazy. A touch of seasickness put me down on the couch and one hit so hard, the couch slid across the floor with me on it ... woke me right up too. Steve stayed on the flybridge the whole time ... what a great Captain. When we got anchored in Prinyer Cove, the Captains dinghy'd to the marina to clear Canadian customs using a "land line" phone. They ask specifics about how much alcohol and tobacco you have aboard. We giggled because we had read that you can bring 1.5 liters of wine, 1.14 liters of liquor, OR 24 cans of beer per adult, plus 200 cigarets and 50 cigars ... but only two days of food !!!! After the phone call, the Captain returns to the boat and hoists the Canadian courtesy flag, then the rest of the crew can leave the boat.

We thought it was interesting that the small marina where the phone is located has decided to make a bit of profit off the anchored boats. They charge $5 to bring your dog in for a walk (plus pick up the poo) ... and also charge a few bucks each for common cruiser needs like dinghy landing, trash disposal and use of the restrooms. The anchorage was so still and peaceful after our tumultuous crossing of the Lake ... the view from our boat the next morning when we left.

We were headed up the Bay of Quinte, a winding series of bays that leads to Trenton, Ontario, the entrance to the Trent-Severen Waterway. It began to rain so we drove downstairs. The scenery was pretty, but except for this ferry boat that crossed our path, it was an uneventful day.

Felix had gone to Trenton and Eschaton was staying in a marina for the night, so we anchored out in a bay off the bay. The rain persisted into the evening, and we had only our satellite radio, books, and computer solitaire for entertainment ... we really miss the internet when we don't have it. When I had set the anchor, I noticed that we were in very clear water with thick weeds growing almost to the surface. The anchor held fine, but it looked a bit odd when we pulled it up in the morning.

We had a short journey today to Trenton where the only place to stay is at the Fraser Park Marina. It's a tiny little transient place and tonight it is full of transients.

This is Fraser Park, just steps out our door....

... and here we are at dinner out with Jack and Lynn (Felix) and Nan and Jack (Eschaton)

It's raining (again), but we're both enjoying the marina WiFi. Planning to head up the T-S Waterway tomorrow and I'll blog at next opportunity.

Oswego, NY

Ess Kay Yards, in Brewerton, NY turned out to be one of our favorite marinas and we stayed there for five nights. We were surprised that the water was so clear; you could see ten feet straight down to the bottom.

The Erie Canal has been such a pleasant and peaceful place, with beautiful sunsets seen from our dock at Ess Kay.

Canada is calling, however, so this morning we cast off the lines and pulled out with Eschaton and new friends Jack and Lynn, aboard Felix, their catamaran sailboat. We soon turned north into the 24 mile Oswego Canal, with its seven locks leading to Lake Ontario. The first lock we came to has a bridge right at the downstream end, so when the canal doors open, the yellow bridge goes up.

Many of the canal locks have a spillway adjacent to them, with no barrier to prevent someone who lost their engine or made a wrong turn from going right over.

The banks of the Oswego are high and heavily forested. Very lovely and reminding us of the upper Mississippi back home.

We are tied off to the lock wall, just a mile and one lock from the southeast shore of Lake Ontario. It's like a park with mowed lawn, benches and a walking path. Notice in the picture, the "fence" on the other side of the boat and the rushing water beyond which is about 6 inches lower than the level of the canal and meets up with the canal water just below the last lock. We're right in the center of the town, but the rushing water provides a nice background sound.

Tomorrow night we will be in Canada and will be there for about 4-6 weeks. We checked into using our AT&T air card in Canada, and the cost for using it about as much as we normally do would be over $6000 for a month !!!! So, guess what? The air card will not be used ... but if/when we get to a marina with WiFi, I will do a blog. If none appears for a while, that's why, don't worry, we're all fine and having a wonderful time ... and I'll get cha caught up when we get back into the USA.

Erie Canal Part 2

We took a "rain day" at Canajoharie ... Steve and Lucy got some rest.

We left the next day and transited 5 locks including Lock 17, one of only 2 in North America where the downstream entrance gate is lifted like a garage door and the boat pass under to enter the lock. Yes, it did drip on us.

It is also the highest lift on the Erie at 40'.

We docked with Mas Bueno at the free dock at Herkimer because we were having mail sent there (thanks Ron!) along with some chartbooks we had ordered from West Marine. Well, we thought the chartbooks would be there, but learned that FedEx cannot deliver to a post office so our charts were traveling all around the state of NY. After learning that we could not have them delivered unless we had a "real address", we cancelled the order and have since bought them in Brewerton. The next day we finally got some sun and the Erie was beautiful.

I really like the way the banks reflect in the water, so I've got lots of shots like this.

These are "guard gates" found periodically on the canal. Apparently, they can be lowered in an emergency to prevent the water from flooding.

After spending three nights close to roads and train tracks, we were really looking for a quiet setting last night. We found it here on the wall below Lock 21. Very peaceful.

Today dawned sunny and warm ...

After transiting 21 Erie Canal locks, we crossed Oneida Lake, a 20 mile long 3-5 mile wide section of the canal that was busy with local boaters and fishermen since it is Saturday. We're back in the narrow canal at Ess Kay Yards, a family owned marina that is very inexpensive, very friendly, and has all the services we need, including a courtesy car. Lucy likes it here too, she's already caught 2 mice on the marina lawn. We've purchased the charts we need for Canada and Steve is studying our routes. After 10 more westbound miles on the Erie Canal, we'll turn north into the Oswego Canal for the 24 mile trip to Lake Ontario ... where a 40 mile big water crossing awaits ... we'll be watching the weather.

Erie Canal Part 1

Every town we've visited on the east coast has its claim to fame as far as being the first, best, biggest, most, or oldest in some historical fact or figure. Waterford, NY, at the east end of the Erie Canal is no exception.

Erie Canal cruisers certainly would rate it as "most hospitable". We woke to the local farmers market setting up right on the pier, so we could step out of our boats and buy fresh local produce and bakery. It was still cloudy, but didn't rain that day.

We went up to the first Erie Canal lock to purchase our 10 day lock pass ($37.50). There is a noticeably relaxed atmosphere at these locks compared to the Mississippi Locks. We wanted to get to the other side so we just walked our bikes over the walkway on top of the gate.

The Erie Canal has a long history and is the most well known of the New York Canals. The first Erie was finished in 1825 and the barges were pulled through the water with mules or horses. The route has been changed, the dimensions increased, and the locks rebuilt twice since then. Many of the old towpaths have been made into hiking/biking paths and the old Champlain towpath is accessible from Waterford. The trees hanging out over the still waters of the old canal create a picture perfect bike path.

There were 6 Looper boats along with several other cruisers on the dock, so we had a Social Hour up on the patio of the Welcome Center. We hadn't been to a Looper/Cruiser gathering this large for quite a while. We made plans with 3 other boats to leave together the next morning.

The first five locks of the Erie are called the "flight of five", where the total lift is 169 feet over just a mile and a half of distance. In these five, I secured the boat by passing a midship line around a thick plastic coated cable, held the boat into the wall and scooted the line up the cable as the water quickly rose 30 feet.

The locks are about one fourth the size of the Mississippi Locks as you can see in this picture of Jolie Blond entering the lock.

The remarkable thing about these first five is how close together they are ... the lockmasters have the door already open for us at the next lock as we exit this one.

This sign shows that the last lock was less than a quarter mile back and the next one only .16 miles away. The locks are operated by the State of NY rather than the Army Corps and they are very efficient and friendly toward cruisers. Still, you can't make the kind of mileage in a day that we were used to on the ICW and we traveled just over 20 miles in 5 hours, transiting 7 locks our first day.

At many of the locks, you are allowed to tie for the night on the walls adjacent to the locks. We stayed at Lock 8 and all shared a great dinner on Mas Bueno, with hosts Hal and Cheryl. Here's the wall as we left this morning.

The section of the canal that we are on follows the natural path of the Mohawk River. The sun came out today and it was beautiful, easy cruising. We again locked through 7 locks, each 5-10 miles apart. Some of the locks have been recently refinished and don't have the pipe or the cable to secure the boat, but have heavy ropes hanging down to grab for bow and stern. Kind of like our Mississippi locks except they don't pull the ropes up after each lockage, but let them hang constantly in the water, so they are really dirty. I'm wearing gloves to lock through, first time ever.

Tonight we are docked at Canajoharie, a small town along the canal that provides free dockage at a canal side park.

We walked through town with Bob and Fran (Jolie Blond) and had ice cream before dinner !! We're really enjoying Erie Canal cruising.