June 12- 13:  Erie Canal to the Oswego Canal

Intermittent thunderstorms followed us (met us?) much of the day Friday as we continued along the Erie Canal from Little Falls to the Sylvan Beach, on the shores of Lake Oneida.  One lockmaster told us we'd had an inch and a half in fifteen minutes.  Nobody was arguing with that - most of our fellow travelers were drenched.  Dan and I got wet, but we also have the luxury of a pilot house, and we made good use of that - standing indoors at the helm while everyone else was right out in it.

We had a couple of lock surprises - Lock 20 had only two lines on one side and three on the other, and nothing for us to tie our own line to.  We were the third boat in and had to make do with one line to steady us.  Good thing there were no other boats behind us - don't know what they would have done.  When we arrived at Lock 22 - the last one of the day - the lockmaster was frantically signaling to us, looking quite agitated.  The storm had taken out the power and the lock couldn't open.  He was awaiting a truck with an emergency generator.  We tied up and waited, along with boat Persephone, with whom we'd been traveling all day.

The heavy rains abated and we gave each other boat tours.  We locked through just before seven pm, and tied up for the night in Sylvan Beach.

Saturday we got an early start on Lake Oneida, which was our first lake.  It's 21 miles long, but never deeper than 50 feet, and with a strong current, we were through by nine-thirty.  A couple miles later we left the Erie Canal and entered the Oswego Canal.  We tied up right downtown in Phoenix, a charming little town with its own lock, and which obviously caters to boats passing through.  We went for a long walk, found a farmer's market!!, and did our two weeks' worth of laundry.  We had a farewell picnic with friends Larry and Debbie of Intrada, who are home now after a winter's stay in Florida.