Originally posted at www.svsweetescape.com
The ding, ding, ding of the traffic gates on the Brockport lift bridge signals that the bridge is being raised to allow a boat through. This is how we woke up this morning.
Yesterday, we had ended our day on the canal the way we seem to end every day on the Erie Canal - tied to a wall in front of a welcome center at yet another friendly and quaint upstate New York town.
Brockport is a community of about 13,000 residents. It is also home to the College at Brockport, part of the State University of New York system and is typical of the communities we have seen along the canal. Each has dockage available along walls lined by restaurants, ice cream shops, stores and facilities for the boaters. Most provide power, water, restrooms and showers and are free or there is a nominal charge for their use. At Brockport the charge was $15 for the night including WiFi.
We left Buffalo on Thursday and headed north through the Black Rock Canal which runs alongside the treacherous Niagara River. After locking through the Black Rock Lock we made our way to Tonawanda and the entrance to the Erie Canal where we intended to stay put for a couple days. After really humping it through the Great Lakes the past month, we were ready for a rest and Tonawanda was a great place to stop.
We tied to the wall in downtown Tonawanda where it was very busy with people and boats there for the labor day weekend. Most of the boats we have encountered so far have been locals. We have yet to meet anyone doing what we’re doing. People have told us that we’re about a month early and that they don’t see many people headed south until October.
We were able to do some serious reprovisioning in Tonawanda. There is a Topps Grocery Store two blocks from the canal and we made two separate trips there during our stay. We also had a chance to sample some of the local restaurants and had McDonalds for the first time in a month. It hasn’t changed.
Judy was able to get her hair cut in Tonawanda. There is a beauty school situated right on the canal there directly across from where Sweet Escape was tied. She went in and a student cut her hair under the supervision of an instructor. Despite her initial anxiety she is very happy with the result and the price was right - just $12.
During our stay in Tonawanda we found that Sweet Escape is garnering quite a bit of attention. People are noticing the Pleasant Prairie Wisconsin hailing port and are curious about where we’re headed and we have been getting a lot of compliments on the boat.
We left Tonawanda on Saturday headed for Middleport about 30 miles to the east. En route we encountered two locks and several lift bridges. The Erie Canal has 34 locks between Tonawanda and Troy New York and we will experience all of them before we are done.
There are also countless lift bridges which have a closed vertical clearance of eleven feet. Most of these bridges are staffed by “roaming operators”. It is not uncommon for one bridge master to be responsible for three different bridges. When you approach a lift bridge it is necessary to call the bridge via VHF but the operator might be busy at a different bridge and you might have to wait while he gets in a car and drives to the bridge you need opened. This has happened a couple times so far but the wait has never been more than ten minutes. This system actually works pretty well because the bridge and lock operators all talk to each other - calling ahead to the next operator to let them know you are coming. I wonder what they are saying to each other about the two idiots in the sailboat from Wisconsin?
Middleport was a very small community with very little in terms of amenities. We tied to the wall there for free including power and restrooms and spent the night. The next morning we continued on towards Brockport, passing through some beautiful farm country. At one point we passed through an area of apple orchards on both sides of the canal - trees loaded with red and yellow apples growing so close to the edge of the canal they were almost within our reach.
At Brockport we needed the Union Street Bridge raised. The town’s wall is east of the bridge. Once through the bridge we pulled up directly in front of the welcome center and tied up. We were welcomed there by Gary, a volunteer who works at the Welcome Center. Dinner was an excellent pizza from a little pizzeria right next to the canal.
This morning we left Brockport and continued east across the Genesee River and through Rochester. We stopped at Fairport where this is being written and where - you guessed it we are tied to another wall.
We will post additional photos on our albums page from this time period.
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