Good morning, Campers!!  We went straight to bed after enjoying the country music performance at the pavilion across the river.   This morning is a glorious morning!!  The sky’s reflection in the water is spectacular.

Sunrise at Lock 20

Our side of the river – cool green grass

Today’s journey is to go from just west of Utica (Lock 20) to Brewerton, NY.  The challenge is to cross Oneida Lake.  That might not seem too tough but it is 20 miles long.  It can get pretty rough on the water if you have bad winds and weather.  Today the lake promises to be calm all morning and kick up later in the day as the weather starts to get testy again.

Since we were on the west side of lock 20, we started our day rather early.  We don’t have to wait till 8am for the lock to open.  We have 8 miles to Lock 21 – about an hour away.  Plenty of time for coffee and breakfast.

From Utica to Brewerton across Oneida Lake

Mohawk River and the Erie Canal combine and split apart from time to time along the way.  In this section of the Erie, the Mohawk river is the twisty turning blue line below the more straighter blue line which is the Erie Canal.

Mohawk River and the Erie Canal

There are spillways from the Erie Canal that empty into the river.  We imagine these spill ways are used for water control.  They are great collection points for debris.  Here are some rather large logs and tree limbs.  There are markers to designate the spill way incase you can’t see the small dam.  The current can be brisk around these sections as well.

Tree debris

Tree debris

Guard Gate 6.  Rather formidable structures.  Again, I duck when we go under these.

Guard Gate 6

I thought I would show you what we saw this morning.  A wonderful view.  We are the only ones cruising this morning.  The ripples in the water is from the wind.  Or beasties under the water?!?!  No… really.  The wind was blowing just a bit.

8am view of the Erie Canal from our Flybridge

Lock 21 is the first lock going down.  25 feet!  We weren’t sure what we were looking at.  What is wrong with this lock?  It is open and ready for us.  Just drive right in and get settled.  The ride is a quick one.  Down.

Approaching Lock 21

Of course, I get distracted with the geese on the side of the lock.  Several family groups.  Are they still a gaggle of geese or family gaggles?  Different sizes of young ones.  Wayne yells at me…what’s going on?  Oh, yea… the lines!

Geese walking away from the edge of the lock

With this lock, I have to reach down with our pole and grab a line from the lock edge.  I pull the line up to our deck and hold fast.   We are the only boat going through.

The starboard side of Lock 21

Going down!!

When we are going up in a lock, you can see where you are going to.  The dark edge where the water line stops.  But, when going down, how do I know when we hit bottom?  I like to know.  Then I spied the water’s edge along the lock wall.  See all the growing crusty stuff just below the line?  We must be at the bottom.  Right?  Makes sense.

Water’s Edge tell me we are at the bottom

The air had that just cut grass smell.  You can see the lock wall looks recently cut.  What a beautiful day.

Bottom of Lock 21

This is the second and last lock for the day.  Lock 22.  Another lock going down.

Approaching Lock 22 – going down 25 feet

Entering Lock 22.

Interestingly, on this lock wall I saw moss growing.  Which is very curious.  The wall gets wet but doesn’t stay soaked or the moss would suffocate. There would be the normal slime instead.

Moss on the wall

As we are standing within 2 feet of a concrete wall, what else do we have to do but look and see what the wall looks like.  I saw the moss and the critters growing within the cracks and crevices.  As the water was going down, these little shells spit water out randomly.  The colors are pretty neat.

Shells clinging to the wall

On the east side of Oneida Lake is a free wall to tie up and wait for good weather to cross.  Sylvan Beach.  No one was there.  I understand that this wall is packed with boaters on the weekends.  Quite the party place.  There are picnic tables and trash bins.  No electricity or water.  We don’t need to stop.

9:45am and everyone is gone

Our view of Lake Oneida as we started our trek across.  A few fishing boats in the distance. Flat calm waters.

Lake Oneida at 10am

Another view of Lake Oneida as we start across

The wind did get higher as we finished crossing the lake.  Fishing boats grouped around locations where we assume the fish are.  A few go-fast boats zoomed past us.  We were the only trawler we saw on the water.  Piece of cake!!  Waves were expected to be < 1 foot.  They were.  Tomorrow??  The waves will be over 3 ft high per the forecast.

We found our marina without too much trouble.  It is right along the Canal.  The current was quite brisk and it took us 2 tries to finally make the right approach to the fuel dock.  Then we found our place along the outside wall.  Perfect for us.

Winter Harbor Marina