The day started a little later than most as we planned to cross Lake Oneida, a large shallow lake similar to Lake Simcoe, then go a little way down the Oswego Canal towards Lake Ontario. Breakaway our buddy boat for the last few days set off just before us. They planned to stop in Brewerton for the night.
We stopped at Winter Harbour in Brewerton on the advice of Danielle on Breakaway. Diesel was $3.60 a gallon. What a score! We topped up and pumped out, said our good byes and headed for the Oswego Canal.
The Oswego is an older system that hasn’t seen much maintenance in recent years. Some have been renovated but others are still waiting for attention. However, it is a beautiful section reminisce of the Rideau and Trent. Narrow intimate channels between locks, small towns with older buildings and cute business.
We had identified several possible places to stop. The Oswego is only 29 miles long and a weather window for crossing Lake Ontario was four or five days away so we weren’t in a rush. The only dock with power was just before lock one. Fortunately, it is turned out, there was no space in Phoenix as five other boats had tied up before we got there. We locked down and continued to our second choice.
We continued on checking out potential moorings as we went but did not find anything suitable. It is still early in the season and many of the docks are not installed yet. The bare walls are quite rough and some have rebar sticking out. We realized we were only four miles from Oswego by mid-afternoon. We decided to continue and finish the canal. A long day but, the lock masters were very cooperative and had each of the remaining five locks open and ready when we arrived.
We didn’t know it at the time but the Oswego canal slammed shut behind us. We were either the last or second last boat to pass through. The lift bridge at lock one stuck in the down position and unless a boat has less than 9 feet of air draft they can not pass until the bridge is fixed – in approximately three weeks.
We will do some much needed cleaning while we wait for a appropriate weather to make the 60 mile trip across to Loyalist Cove in Bath.
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Moon Dance IV 