Finally in the Erie Canal

Tired but undaunted, we left the Buffalo Yacht Club and headed South to RCR Yachts to begin the work of turning our sailboat into a "Crawler".

Removing the mast

Alize with the mast going in the
wrong direction

RCR did a magnificant job of taking down the mast and positioning it on the cradle. Five hours later and $550 poorer, the job was done and we were ready to transit the Erie canal. It was a tough day for the guys at RCR because they had to work in the rain and manage my wooden contraption that I built in April after drinking a bunch of scotch. But it worked and the mast sat in it without crushing the deck or me. Next stop, Tonawanda, NY at the western terminus of the Erie Canal.



We arrived at Tonawanda at 6 pm on Tuesday. We immediately cleaned the boat washing away 8 days of yuck and began to feel reasonably respectable. The picture below shows the western entrance of the Erie Canal.

Tonawanda is straight ahead, a beautiful stop that is very accomodating to boaters. We met an interesting couple with 2 kids there. They were from Duluth and heading for Grenada on their 46' ketch called Dilly Dally. The Captain, Dale, couldn't stop talking. I guess it was because he had two pre-teens on board and a wife. He was glad to have any adult to converse with. Nice guy.

We departed Tonawanda and headed east to Lockport about 20 miles away. No biggy but nothing moves quickly on the Erie Canal and the trip took us nearly 4 hours. If you have never seen the Erie Canal, you must take a barge trip or stow away on someone's boat. It is a natural wonder. Built in 1817 to 1825 by thousands of laborers with shovels and donkeys, it meanders across NY for 338 miles. The picture to the left is a small representation of the waterway. I can't describe how beautiful the canal is. I hope congress doesn't decide it is not important in the scheme of things.
We arrived in Lockport around 3 pm at lock 35. The locks in Lockport actually lower you 50' from one end to another. Pretty amazing. There are actually two locks, one right after another. Each lower you about 25 feet. The process takes about 30 minutes and is a bit slimy. You drive into the lock chamber and grab onto a cable that extends down from the top. As the water exits the chamber, the boat lowers and you hold onto the cable to steady the boat and keep it from running into other boats. The cables are very stout and covered with mucus. Glad we had old gloves. Lockport itself is a charming town. We met a very nice couple from Watkins Glen that were transitting the canal for a week or so. I can understand why Huck Finn's tales of travels on the Mississippi were so popular. In a small way, travel on the canal is reminiscent of time long, long ago.