2023 Lake Oneida to Thousand Islands Boat Trip
Lake Oneida to the Thousand Islands
Today we started the first leg of our trip from the edge of Lake Oneida to Mackinac Island. We have driven to Brewerton, NY with Mark and Nancy Dawes. Nancy will be the driver this week, meeting the boat as it docks in each town. She will be enjoying the towns and parks along the way while the other 3 are on the water working our way to the St. Lawrence River and the Thousand Islands. Lake Oneida is a long slender lake that is very shallow in a great part of the lake so only the center channel is safe for Mark’s boat to travel. This is our first time on the trawler type boat that he has named the Jeanne Baret after the first woman to sail around the world. It is a comfortable 42 ft. boat that has a nice upper deck to steer and for the rest of us to enjoy the ride. We take some time on day one learning how to tie up and dock the boat and enjoy a ride down part of the Erie Canal since this boat is different from the Nancy Carolyn that we are used to helping with. The Jeanne Baret, JB, is much lighter, faster, and has much less wake. It is a fun ride. Because our start is delayed due to a lift bridge being out of commission, we find a park with a long hiking trail that lines the many lakes and streams in the area. It is very pleasant walk, but you do have to be careful of the droppings left by the many Canadian geese that seem to be here. There are many outdoor restaurants lining the canal, so we chose one for dinner. It is like sitting on a river enjoying the boats that go by. Then, Dean and I took a walk along the canal to see the front of the homes that line the canal. To our surprise this area is not only home to humans and birds but the biggest rabbit population we have encountered. There were small rabbits everywhere you looked. I guess there aren’t any predators in this area.
Our start is delayed a day as the motor on the Oswego Canal bridge has broken and being an old motor, it has been difficult to find parts. It has been down about a week, but on Saturday the bridge will be lifted by a crane to let all boats through. Saturday morning we head down the Erie Canal knowing that we have 8 locks to maneuver as we pass the 8 dams. After making our way through the first 2 locks we make a right turn onto the Oswego canal that will take us to Lake Ontario. It is a very windy day, and these locks have long ropes hanging from the top of the lock that we are to hang onto. Without wind this is a relatively simple task. In the first couple of locks the boat was pushed around a bit and the ropes got to be a bit so a challenge, not awful but challenging. Then we came to the Oswego Canal Bridge which had a pretty significant drop. The lock master said it had been a very busy day, but they had managed to clear the back up before we arrived. We had a little wait but enjoyed talking with a father fishing with two young boys on the banks. They told us how the canal had recently opened up for the season. The season starts once the snowpack has melted and the canal water level goes down to an acceptable level. He said they had a heavy snowfall this winter, so the canal had only recently opened. Once we get into the lock, we find that we are the only boat in, so we have a nice conversation with the lockmaster. The locks are small, and each has one employee who walks from one end of the lock to the other opening one side and closing the other. It is very intimate, and it is fun to have a little conversation with the lock master as we wait on the water level to go down and the door to open. Dean is at the bow and I’m at the stern. I was fortunate to have a cable at this lock that I could wrap a line through. It made the locking process easier for me.
Three locks down, 5 more to go. The wind was gusting to over 30 miles per hour at the next two locks which turned the boat into a sail. Mark had a huge challenge fighting the wind to get the boat close enough to the wall for us to reach a rope. In the first lock he fought it for about 5 minutes before we could secure the boat. There were two other large boats and a kayak in there fighting the wind, too. To make it a bit more challenging the ropes were not well spaced so in the end Dean held onto a rope and I lased a line though a ladder. It meant moving the stern line frequently but worked pretty well. The second lock was so challenging that Mark jumped on the lock wall to help Dean secure the bow of the boat. The trouble was that the lock master thought he was getting back on the boat and opened the lock doors, but Mark wasn’t on. He managed to quickly hop on the boat. The rest of the locking process went smoothly. As we watched the other boats in the lock, we were fascinated by one that had a tiny woman at the stern holding onto the lock rope. More than once this woman was lifted off the ground. Somehow, she held onto the rope, and they safely made it through the locks. It was rather frightening watching her.
Both Erie and Oswego canals were beautiful. They were wide enough for a couple of boats in most places, had clear, still water and lush riverbanks and were quite serene. This area is several weeks behind Cincinnati in weather, so we enjoyed numerous Spring flowers and flowering bushes and saw many new families of geese and ducks. There are many homes, large and small, along the canals as it is a beautiful place to live or have a vacation home. In a few places the strong winds had a wind tunnel effect causing waves and making it a real challenge for the kayaker. When we finished our day at Oswego, we talked with him. He was British and had paddled many rivers and canals, so this didn’t bother him much. After that long day of rowing, he set up a small tent and crawled in the for night.
Our last three canals were all together at Oswego. It was windy but not too bad. The marina on the banks of the Oswego and Lake Ontario was a very pleasant site. After docking and dinner we took a nice walk along the Oswego. The part of the canal in the city is lined on both sides with pleasure crafts. One had a large happy face painted on the bow. There were losts of smiles as folks passed this boat. After watching the sun set behind the large grain silos on Lake Ontario, everyone looked forward to a long rest as it had been a beautiful and challenging day.
Day 2
Breakfast on the boat is like it is at home, everyone makes what they want and then we headed out to Lake Ontario for our ride to the St. Lawrence River. The winds out of the north had died down and the lake was relatively “smooth” for a Great Lake. The sky is blue and clear. Most of the time it felt like we were the only boat on the water, and you might see land in one direction but only water the rest of the way around the boat. The boat went fast cutting through the waves. That’s not to say it wasn’t bumpy, but we made good time. Mid-day I looked at my watch and laughed as it said that I had taken about 9000 steps! I had been sitting the entire time with my legs wedged between the seat and wall. Guess it was bumpier than I thought! The guys were sitting on the stools at the control panel. Evidently the boat didn’t quite bounce as much in the canter as they each only had credit for about 7500 steps.
As we neared the St. Lawrence River the water got smooth, and we passed numerous islands. Some islands were tiny, some were large, some had white beaches, and some had steep cliffs. They all had trees and waterfowl. One island was filled with wind turbines. As we passed islands and got closer to shore, we started seeing houses on the islands. It was a lovely trip to Clayton, NY. We arrived about 2 pm and Nancy was waiting for us at the marina. We docked and then walked into the center of this beautiful little town and found a restaurant on the river for lunch. After lunch we walked around the town and explored. There are a number of homes built in the late 1800’s. Each home has its construction date in the window. Clayton is a lovely little town with lists of restaurants and shops. It also has one of the largest Ace Hardware stores we have found. On the trip the wind blew so hard the first day that the ships flag blew loose. A tiny nut came off the bolt and is in the drink. Mark took the bolt into the hardware store and the woman he handed it to had a nut to fit it within a minute. She knows her hardware! She led us to a couple of other things we were looking for including something to deal with the millions of gnats that were swarming the boat in this town. Seems we arrived just as they all hatched. We asked the locals how they deal with the bugs. The most common suggestion was to open the door as infrequently as possible! Ok!
Day 3
We spent the day exploring some of the Thousand Islands. There are tiny island, some completely filled with a house. Some of the islands are attached by tiny foot bridges connecting them. One home owner had 4 connected islands. Some islands are large enough to have whole communities, some large islands are home to one single house. You can have as much or little seclusion here as you want! There is a castle that was built over a 100 years ago on one island and many huge homes on islands known as Millionaires Row. The day was beautiful even though the sky was covered in haze. Tonight, we dock the boat in a small, old marina in a cute town called Port Vincent, and this will be its home until we return July 5. We met a fun woman, Mary Ann, who lives across the street from where we docked. She loves to garden and had the lushest garden that we saw in these parts. Most gardens consist of bushes and maybe a few perennials. She had flowers and veggies. She even had real poppy plants because she loves the flowers. We didn’t ask if she used any of the rest of the plant. The man who owns the marina is elderly and has fixed up the docks on half of the marina but not in the area where Mark’s boat will be for the next few weeks. We don’t have many neighbors on this side of the marina! It is nice to have a car as we made a grocery run for staples to fill the cabinets. We weren’t confident that the electricity would be good but left a few things in the frig and set up an experiment in the freezer section. We put some ice cubes in a plastic bag in the freezer and will see when we return if they melted or not. Tomorrow, we head back to Cincy. The sky is turning a strange shade of grey/brown. We learn that smoke from forest fires in Canada has blown down this way. The smoke/haze will eventually make its way to Cincinnati and lots of the Midwest and east coast.
