Checking it off - We finished the New York Canals.

 Docktails at Ess-Kay Marina in Brewerton, NY, last night. There were 16 looper boats there.

Woohoo!  We are in Oswego, NY.  Today we finished both the Erie Canal and the Oswego.  We went through eight locks in all.  It was hard work and took seven hours.  We left Ess-Kay at 7:00 am with Island Office and Southern Comfort.  We found other boats waiting at Lock #23 (Erie Canal). We had found our traveling companions for the day.  We went through all the locks with this group.  As we moved from one lock to the next, we were a parade of trawlers; everyone stayed in line and filed into the next lock in order.  

Last night's photo of our newly pedicured toes.

The hard work came from being with the group.  The locks were full, and every line or cable was needed.  This differed mightily from our other days on the Erie Canal.  On those days we were alone or with one other boat in the locks.  We had our choice of positions and lines.  If we made a mistake, there was another line waiting to be grabbed.  Not so today.  

This giant tour boat came by our caravan of loopers in the Oswego Canal after Lock #1. 

We followed Speedy Delivery into the lock on the port side.  We snuggled in and grabbed the line right behind them.  I had to use the boat hook to hook the line under the float.  Then I grabbed it in my hand and walked to the stern.  George used the bow thruster to push us close to the wall.  Then he came out of the boat and grabbed a bow line using the boat hook.  Then we held on as the water emptied from the lock.  We worked to stay in place and close to the wall.  

The harder maneuver was on the two locks that had only cables and no lines.  Since we were entering full locks, the cables were lower than our boat.  I could not place my line around the cable.  The first time I held on for dear life with the boat hook, yelling at George for help.  Aunt Aggie was drifting away from the wall and into the center of the lock.  Finally, George came out.  I pulled us to the wall, and he got the line around the cable.  It was hard! I was scared and shaking by the time we were set.   We tried a different method in the next lock, but we still had lots of stress.   Only two locks were cable only, so we grabbed lines the rest of the time. 

After going through the locks, we were sweaty and dirty and a bit fussy.  After each lock we would say what we could do differently next time.  The locks were not too tall ( 10 - 20 feet), so the process was quick, and we didn't have to hold on for too long.  We were happy to see Oswego after Lock # 8.  We sped down the canal, turned left and entered Wright's Landing Marina or Oswego International. (It has two names, which is confusing.) We called them, Joe came out to grab our lines, and we got set quickly with no drama at 2:00 pm.  

I hosed off the boat, and George went to check in.  We both took glorious cold showers, read, and napped.  We are proud of this day. The bottom line is we did it: We did not hit any boats or the lock walls or get hurt.  So our day was successful.  It just was more like work than our other Erie Canal days, which were quieter.

We are sitting on the edge of Lake Ontario, the first Great Lake we have ever seen.  Rain is coming in tonight, so we will do laundry tomorrow and walk over to lock # 8 and look for our friends.  We can explore Oswego a bit.  On Thursday we plan to cross Lake Ontario.   

We passed this cheery flag on the Oswego Canal today.