Bringing Home the new Willie Dawes: Aug 19- August 23 Grand Island NY to Spencerport NY

We spent several months this past spring thinking about, looking at, and deciding what we wanted in a new boat.  Don't get us wrong - we love our 30 foot motorsailer, and she served us well on the Down East Circle, down the ICW, and to the Bahamas.  But we thought, if we could find something a bit larger, maybe with two cabins/two heads, maybe with the galley up on the same level as the inside helm, maybe with a fly bridge....?  Well, we wouldn't say no.

Introducing the new Willie Dawes.
Yes, we're keeping the name. She's a Newburyport 37, and met all our criteria, including being in the price range we wanted. She's a trawler. We've gone fully to the dark side. And we LOVE her!

Dan took two trips out to Grand Island, NY this summer - once to look her over, and the second time, after the sale had gone through, to bring out the initial load of stuff every boat has.  On Sunday, August 19, after we'd finished with our very busy summer schedule of commitments, we rented a truck to bring out the dinghy and everything else we thought we might need.  The truck turned out to be a lot larger than we wanted (Dan had asked for a 12 foot truck, they 'upgraded' us to a 16 foot truck) and despite our best efforts, we only managed to fill it less than half-way.  With the awesome boat cat Tommie in the cat carrier, we set off early Sunday morning.  We spent the night in a 'pet-friendly' room at a hotel in Syracuse ('pet-friendly really means DOG friendly, but Tommie tolerated the smell) and arrived at the marina in Grand Island just before noon on Monday.

We spent the entire day Tuesday unloading and stowing, taking breaks only for meals and to make a large provisioning stop at the local grocery store.  By dusk the truck was empty, the bed was made, and we even knew which cupboard everything went into.  We toyed with the idea of setting off in the morning, but the looming thunderstorms and 20 kt winds kept us at the marina for another day.  We found things to keep us busy, and ran into previous owners Jeff and Eileen at the grocery store when we stocked up on the last minute fresh produce and meat.  They offered to help Dan get the rental truck back.

Tommie has settled into boat life as if she never left it, and has, in fact, explored every inch of the boat.  She thoroughly enjoys a good game of hide and seek - she hides, we seek - and has shown us several access portals into the engine room.  She loves the large dashboard and the big windows, but still doesn't care for the sound of the engine.

Diarama of the old locks next to the new locks.

Wednesday we set off at 9:25 am and entered the Erie Canal five minutes later to start the journey across the state of New York.   We began our journey on the flybridge and had a weather-drill hastily evacuating everything to below decks and snapping on the toneau (the canvas cover that goes over the flybridge helm and seats.)  Nothing like a sudden rainstorm to sharpen our skills!  We traveled about thirty-five miles, with a break just after the first two locks in Lockport to have a walk around the town and visit the history museum.  Lockport initially constructed a 'Flight of Five' - five locks to raise or lower boats along the steep Niagara Escarpment.  There were two sets of locks - one for each way - an engineering feat for the early 1800s.  Today the remains of one set of locks is right next to the two modern locks.

The remains of one set of the old locks in Lockport.

We continued on and spent the night in the charming small town of Medina, whose claim to fame is the quarrying of quality sandstone used in Buckingham Palace, the Brooklyn Bridge, and other famous buildings. 

So far, this section of the Erie Canal has been entirely man-made, mostly hand dug with shovels.  When you think about it, the whole Erie Canal is an engineering marvel.  We were actually above the surrounding landscape, which often comprised of large farms on one side, and small towns on the other.

See how straight the dike is. 

Farm lands on one side.

Towns and houses on the other side.  

Many of the towns along the Canal exist because of the Canal, and so far all of them have shown to be extremely boater-friendly, with seawalls to tie to, bathrooms and showers to use, and the downtown area just a block away.

Thursday (Aug 23) we set off from Medina around 9:20 am and spent a leisurely day viewing deer grazing in ball fields and herons playing on the Canal's edge, working our way from lift bridge to lift bridge until we stopped for the night in Spencerport.  This town has a small museum/welcome center with official packets for the boaters offering a walking tour of the town as well as free Wifi and suggestions for meals.  Dan and I spent an hour sight-seeing and enjoyed an ice cream on benches in the shade alongside the Canal.  So far the weather - though somewhat showery at first - has been quite warm.  Ice Cream sounded like a good idea to me!