June 24 Sylvan Beach to Brewerton.

June 24

Oneida lake is an almost straight westerly  20 mile crossing  so  winds  like those yesterday running 15-20 knots  from the NW have a chance to build up  some nasty waves in the relatively shallow lake. We saw them crashing  on the breakwater going out from Sylvan Beach  and felt them on the wall where we were tied up, so we were glad when the wind settled last night with a promise for a light  SE  breeze today.  

Leaving the Sylvan Beach breakwater

The forecast held and  we had a very smooth and uneventful crossing  to Brewerton with the exception of getting swarmed  by little bugs attacking the boat and the clusters of fishermen on their boats trolling and jigging for bass and walleye.

Clear skies, sunshine, calm seas and open water behind us on Lake Oneida

We put in at Ess-Kay marina, topped off the fuel tanks with 116 gallons of diesel and secured a slip. It looks like we’ve gone about as far as we can go for the time being.  They have had copious amounts of rain up here and most everything is still experiencing high water which is impacting lock operations on the Oswego canal . We’ve been hearing about it and it’s one of the reasons we slowed down and took extra time  visiting  the smaller towns along the Erie canal.

Just past Brewerton we end our transit  of the Erie canal.   While it continues westward all the way to Lake Erie we exit the Erie canal and  head north on the Oswego canal  going towards Lake Ontario.   All these waters are now flowing outbound.  Lake Oneida flows through the Oswego canal into Lake Ontario which flows into  the St. Lawrence which flows into the Atlantic  some 750 miles from Lake Ontario.   All this water is still backed up (Lake Ontario is 3’ above normal).  The high water and especially high outflows over dams adjacent to the 7 locks on the Oswego canal have them temporarily closed to boaters for safety reasons.  Adding to this dilemma is a forecast for more rain over the next few days.      We’ve got a nice protected slip here at Ess-Kay and will just wait it out along with other loopers until things open back up.  Really no other option.   This isn’t completely unusual.   Several years ago   there were a group of loopers trapped on a section of the Erie for 2 weeks because of high water problems.  Let’s hope our stay is shorter.   It's been a fun 2 months getting to this point but some of the best sections of the loop lie just ahead.  The Thousand Islands, the Trent-Severn Waterway, the Georgian  Bay, and the North Channel  are calling us forward to spend the summer on their waters!!

Journey for June 24 - note the red blip on our travel line where I ran WOT to blow out the turbo