Segment #8: From NY to Oswego


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July 28th 2010
Published: July 28th 2010
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July 6, 2010
Schenectady Yacht Club
Schenectady, NY

The journey goes on. The Marilsnick has been underway now for almost four months. Finally I am beginning to relax. With a familiar crew the adrenaline I put out during docking definitely has decreased.

Yesterday was our last day on the Hudson River. The green banks floating by us for hours and hours were not boring but relaxing. A gentle breeze from the bow made the temperature, which was in the nineties tolerable. The trip from the marina in Rondout Creek to Coeymans was comfortable except for docking. I had to accomplish it by going against the stream, stern in and into a very narrow space. Fortunately I had good help.. In Coeymans, a village obviously founded by Dutch immigrants, a wonderful mechanic checked the Marilsnick’s electric system including batteries and alternator and then explained the battery management system to me.

Around noon we left and floated gently a few miles upriver to Troy. This town only has the name in common with the ancient city of the same name (by the way Athens is located only a few miles down the Hudson). After docking and refueling our dock master offered his truck to us so that we could refill our food stores. That gave us the opportunity to see a little more of the town. Troy used to be an industrial town but most industries were defunct and there are rows of empty storefronts in the center of town. One of these companies was the Arrow Shirt company. The dock master’s son told us that he recently got his MBA but could not find a job. One has the feeling that the economic situation on the east coast is more dismal than in the west. Even the grocery store was depressing with narrow isles, small merchandise offering and a parking lot with only old cars.

We left the harbor area of Troy the next morning and entered our first lock since leaving Lake Okeechobee in Florida. This lock was still located on the Hudson. Shortly thereafter we had to make a choice: either to go further north into Lake Champlain or to head west into the Erie Canal which deviated from the Hudson after a few miles.

We turned into the Erie Canal, which is indeed as beautiful as its reputation although we had hardly any time to admire our surroundings because within a few miles we had to pass through a series of six locks and at the end of the day a seventh. The waiting times were short after the first lock because the lock masters announced us, a group of four boats, to their colleagues higher on the river. Yes, the first part of the Erie Canal runs through the Mohawk River. The locks raised the Marilsnick a total of 290 feet within a few miles. We had enough space in the locks that apparently are of uniform size and shape. As the Marilsnick approached a lock wall Karlfriedrich placed a line around a cable that hung from the top of the lock wall and manually held the boat closely to the dock. By the time we reached the second dock our fenders were placed at the right level to prevent damage to the boat from the rough lock walls. It was an interesting experience, which we will have to repeat 23 more times before reaching Lake Ontario.

The Erie Canal led us through bucolic scenery: little villages, an occasional boat with a fisherman, and acres of expansive water lilies, seaweed and algae. The boat channel was well marked and we never had to worry about depth or shoals. We decided to stay in the Schenectady Yacht Club. It had two advantages: it was cheap and had a wonderful swimming pool, which cooled us with the temperature being in the high nineties. Another Grand Banks, a 46-foot Europa model, later docked next to us. The captain, former Mayor of San Antonio, Texas proudly showed us his boat, which he had maintained meticulously.

Sylvan, New York
Mariners Landing
July 9, 2010

The beautiful journey along the Erie Canal continued. Coming out of Schenectady we saw several crew boats with 2, 4 or eight persons practice in the cool morning. Their coach was in a separate boat and gave them signs, which I only later interpreted were intended to slow us down because the Marilsnick going eight knots created a pretty strong wake. By the time we passed the boats it was too late and I still fill bad about giving the crews a rough ride.

The scenery continued to be green, lavish and remote. During the morning we encountered only three boats, all were heading east. The locks - we have now passed twenty-one - were a welcome interruption and gave us an opportunity to talk to a lock master. Everyone seemed to bring up the soccer game between Germany and Spain and commiserated with us. The lock masters were always helpful. They had a variety of excuses for not responding to our radio. Either they did not hear us because our radio was defective (we had done a radio check to respond to such excuse), or they were nonchalant about this because they did not care.

As we approached one of the locks a boat that had just left the lock as we entered announced over the radio, that they had just encountered the best lock master in the world: he had reattached a wire in their engine starting mechanism.

One day we had two Amish encounters. On the side of a lock was a picnic area with forty or fifty Amish people in their colored but plain clothing. The men watched us coming through the locks while the women in their uniformly styled blue and red dresses with bonnets on their heads prepared the food. A middle-aged man with a long beard asked us about our comings and goings and told us that they celebrated a visit of one of his wife’s sisters, who had moved out of the area. He also told us that an older man with a white beard was the grandfather of most of the offspring. The Amish women must be birth machines. We also saw four more Amish women in an Aldi grocery store where we purchased supplies.

The only negative item I have to report is the heat. For the past three or four days the thermometer rose over hundred degrees. While traveling we had no problems but after docking it was almost impossible to remain comfortable. Most of the time I lay on my bed minus most of my clothing with a bottle of cold water next to me.

One evening we stopped in Canajoharie. We found a free dock with electricity without having to pay a penny. We walked into town past the Beech Nut factory and a beautiful art museum and library, which unfortunately contrasted to the rest of the town. IT was just as depressing as most other towns we had visited in New York State. We had dinner at a diner mostly populated with local folk. Karlfriedrich, who is almost non-critical, commented after dinner that such food would not find takers in a university cafeteria in Germany.

The next day we stopped at the village of Ilian. After passing Athens and Rome and staying a night in Troy we now were in the town named after the other ancient name of Troy, namely Ilian. It was the home of the Remington gun factory. From all we saw this town still seemed to have a spirit. The handout from the dock master, the cleanliness of the facilities, the friendliness and helpfulness of the people: everything seemed to welcome us to the community.

In the morning the song of the birds awoke me often. Fortunately my hearing still is good enough so that I do not have to miss this experience as some people of my age do. One bird seemed to answer another, then a different kind of bird chirped in and sometimes they all sing in an uncoordinated chorus.

After Ilian the Erie Canal frequently deviated from the Mohawk River and the next day we almost went exclusively traveled on the dug Canal, indicated by the straightness of its path. On this day the canal reached the highest elevation and the last two docks carried us down.

As we locked down a boat entered our lock, which was from Hansville, Washjington. Unfortunately we did not have an opportunity to exchange stories.

The Oneida Tribe owned and ran the Mariners Landing , a small but friendly place at the entrance of Lake Oneida., where we spent a night and experienced a tremendous thunderstorm.

Oswego, NY
Oswego Marina
July 11, 2010

The weather forecast in the evening for the next twenty-four hours was not good. There was a flash flood warning and thunderstorms were also predicted. When we listened again the next morning the thunderstorms were predicted not to be severe. We decided to leave and attempt the crossing of Lake Oneida. We were encouraged when we saw several fishing boats bopping in somewhat lively seas for a small inland lake. The crossing was indeed easy and the wonderful little town of Brewerton rewarded us at the opposite end of Lake Oneida.. Homes of all sizes, shapes and possibly prices were strung along the canal like dissimilar pearls. Most were well kept and most had a small boat tied up to a private dock.

We continued on the Erie Canal for a few hours until we reached our stop for the night, Pirate Cove. It was a fairly old marina and according to the visitor’s book, which I signed, the last boat had passed through about a month before. When we reached our dock we understood the reason: a heavy growth of seaweeds surrounded the Marilsnick and worried me. The bow thrusters love to aspirate this material, which then can wrap around the propeller and overloads the thruster motor.

We enjoyed a quiet Saturday afternoon in the marina, which was not located near a town or village. The marina appeared to be a resort for local boat owners, who had set up tables and barbecues near the dock.

The marina owner, a young lady, came by to tell us that a boat had run aground about a mile away. The owners had been busy with changing a DVD and to their surprise went with full steam up the shore. The next morning we saw the result; it was not pretty. A picture is in the album of this segment.

The 11th of July was the last day of cruising with my mate Karfriedrich. It became a challenge since we had to pass through seven locks on the Oswego Canal. During most of the Erie Canal locks we had been by ourselves. Beginning in the second lock on the Oswego Canal we traveled in a convoy of three boats. It worked well although we had to tie up to a lock wall a couple of times to wait for boats being raised. The scenery was again green and pleasant: trees, acres of algae or seaweed, and many houses lined the canal and made it a trip where we did not run out of objects to see and study.

The final lock was already within the town of Oswego and our marina was just around the corner from the lock. There had been a fishing tournament and the dock master assigned us a temporary place along the sea wall. I am never happy when I have to show my docking skills - or more often my lack of them - two times when one would be more than enough. In Oswego it would be three times, because we had to stop at the fuel dock also.

It had been a busy day with many phone calls from friends and family and they often did not fit in with our locking schedule. I was happy to hear the voices of my granddaughters and many other friends and family members.

Oswego Marina
Oswego, NY
July 13, 2010

Unfortunately the day had also arrived for Karfriedrich to leave me. We drove together in a rented car to Syracuse to the Amtrak Station from where he left for New York City and home. We had gotten along well because he is easygoing and is a natural to deal with high-strung folks. His Buddhist training must have helped him.

After I returned from delivering Karlfriedrich to the Amtrak Station in Syracuse my cousin Marianne Koenig and her husband had arrived with my next crew, cousin Manfred Duenhoelter and Wilfried Dicke, a high school friend from Germany. The Koenigs had picked them up in Toronto and drove with them five hours to Oswego where they around 2 AM

One final word about Karlfriedrich Schaller. He has several great talents: he has a most even temper, which he probably acquired as a Buddhist monk in Sri Lanka and Thailand. He graduated to Christianity, became theological thinker and an imaginative pastor of the Jakobus Congregation in Tuebingen. When he could do something, he did not allow me to do it. This concerned all kitchen work. He was a most imaginative chef although as a Frankonian who lived many years in Svavia he had an aversion against potatoes. A picture of one meal can be seen in the attached album. I am most grateful to Karlfriedrich for all the roles he fulfilled on this segment.

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