Canajoharie to Utica, NY

Friday - June 15,2018     Canajoharie to Utica, NY

Oh well, after 3 days in Canajoharie, its time to move to the next the next port-of-call, Utica, NY. Looks like another long day with 40 plus miles and 6 more locks. This will again turn into another 6-hour day. As planned we are up early with a bit of breakfast and our coffee in the Yeti cups. Off the dock at 7am and headed to the first lock of the day. We are the first and only boat to lock through west bound. Locking is a time-consuming task. First, I need to hail the lockmaster on the VHF (marine) radio and this is my spiel “Lock number xx this is Zoey’s Adventure westbound, requesting lockage”. Most of the time the lockmaster will call back immediately with, vessel westbound I will prepare the chamber for a westbound passage please stand by and wait for the green light. When the lock is busy or occupied there is a red light. Sometimes, but not to often, the lockmaster will say I have a vessel in the chamber locking westbound and a vessel waiting for an eastbound lockage, this combination can take a half hour or more. The waiting process is just idling, pretty much in place, waiting for the lock doors to open and the light to turn green indicating the chamber is ready for us to make our way in.

Views as we are traveling along the canal - Interstate 90

Approaching Lock

Approaching Lock

Once in the chamber we have found it is easiest for us to tie our port side to the wall. In the Erie Canal each lock chamber have ¾ inch ropes hanging down the sides spaced ever 25 feet. While locking and docking, Lou & I wear wireless head set so we can communicate with each other, that was a pre-condition Lou Ann had to do this trip.  You know my hearing is not the best. I will move the boat as deep into the chamber as I can allowing room if there is another boat locking with us. Once we are against the wall, Lou Ann will take one of the ropes hanging down and tie it to either our bow or mid cleat. Once she is set, and tells me so, I will turn the engines off and make my way to the swim platform where I will grab the rope at the stern and make it fast to the stern cleat. Then we wait for the lock doors to be closed behind us and the chamber to be flooded. Depending on how many feet we will be riding up will determine how long we wait in the lock. As the water rushes in and the boat moves up we both are taking in the line trying to keep the boat as close to the wall as possible. Oh, forgot to tell you since the first lock in Troy, NY, we have big fenders hanging on the side of Zoey’s Adventure to protect the hull from the lock walls which are very nasty! Once I feel the boat has reached to top of the lock I will inform Lou Ann that I have made my line fast (tied) to the cleat and return to the bridge in preparations to re-start the engines and move out of the lock.

Approaching Lock
This was the biggest lock with a 40' lift

Inside Lock

So, the lock is fully flooded and now we wait for the lockmaster to open the lock doors in front so we can now move out of the chamber. Doors are open, I tell Lou to drop her line. She then moves to the stern where she quickly drops that line and informs me we are free. At this point I begin to move the boat both forward and away from the wall.  All the time, LouAnn is telling me how close the stern is to the wall. This entire process, assuming we do not have to wait for other boat traffic can take ½ hour, 6 locks a day is 3 hours of locking!

Lock is flooded - Waiting for lock gates to open

Top of the lock waiting for gates to open

Approaching Utica we are greeted with a completely open dock at Aqua Vino Restaurant.  This is a restaurant with 300 feet of dock and do not take dock reservations; it’s first come first served. After reviewing what seems to be the best place and easiest to dock we move in. Lou Ann has all  4 lines ready, I move the boat up against the dock, Lou Ann steps onto the dock and makes all our lines fast. We are happy to shut the engines down, connect our power and water and call it a day. Tonight, we treat ourselves to dinner just steps from the boat. Dinner was very good and as usual we have dinner for the next day. As we were nearing Utica, the weather quickly improved to a beautiful sunny day with light winds out of the north.