Sunday, November 20, 2016

Erie Canal, Day 1 - Hibiscus Harbor on Cayuga Lake to Seneca Falls

Finally coming back to last month's adventure on the Erie Canal. Day 1, 10/10/2016: As already mentioned in my earlier post about our boat, we got introduced to our boat in the afternoon, and at 3 pm we set out for our first destination, the town of Seneca Falls. This was about an 11 mile leg, starting in the open waters of Cayuga Lake (nice for getting the feel of how the boat handled) and then moving into the Cayuga-Seneca Canal. The first locks we negotiated were CS 2 and 3, kind of fun because it's a double lock with each lock lifting you 24.5 feet - we knew we were going through 2 locks before we got to Seneca Falls but we didn't realize they were linked like that so it was a bit of a surprise when the water stopped bubbling into the first lock chamber and the big doors swung open to reveal the second one. This carries you over the place where the actual falls used to be, and you can read a lot more history on the NY State Canal System site.

I was driving when we got to this one so I did the driving; TQ has a little more motorboat handling experience than me so I was tempted to hand over the helm to him and go handle lines, but I was actually looking at this trip as a good chance to get more experience for myself, and at some point I was going to be driving into my first lock, so heck, I went with it. My approach was not a thing of beauty, this being our first lock we didn't have a sense of the time it would take for the lockmaster to be ready for us, so instead of approaching juussst fast enough to maintain steerage, I drove up to the waiting area and then stopped and then had to do a couple of circles to stay in place. I got better at that as we went along, we did end up a good job of taking turns doing things, which was pretty much what I'd wanted.

We got to Seneca Falls around 5, found ourselves a spot on the town wall, sorted out our storage a little better and then fixed our first dinner on the boat, steak and potatoes and squash.

Here are some photos from the first day. Click on any photo for a slideshow view. 



6 comments:

Keep Reaching said...

Thanks for an interesting post - I never thought about locks in that area.

bonnie said...

It's a pretty amazing system. A couple of years ago I treated myself to a little adventure, I went to Ithaca to help out with the Women Swimmin' for Hospicare fundraiser and then instead of driving back home to Brooklyn, I drove to Waterford, NY, dropped off my rental car there and paddled to Brooklyn. 7 days, nice trip.

If I could take more time off from work, it would be entirely possible to get rid of the car in Ithaca!

pia said...

Wow so beautiful. Would love to see a picture of TQ (Ha!)

bonnie said...

He's very camera-shy - in fact publicity-shy in general - and I don't put him on the blog too much. However, there is a nice picture of him grilling some steaks for us in Clyde over on the Nimble Nomad post (shhh don't tell him)!

Louise said...

Or the one I took of you guys with TQ at the helm! It was so much fun watching you head out on to the lake. Locks are FUN!!! Thanks for this sweet revisit.

Haralee said...

Wow, that is exciting to drive through locks! Way to go