July 2-4, Brewerton, NY

We left Kingston, Ontario, this morning about 7 am and began heading home.

Leaving Kingston

We crossed 50 miles of Lake Ontario in a 2-3 foot chop, to Oswego, NY, where we arrived about 10:15 and cleared US customs via video phone. Using the special video phone at the Oswego Marina, we could see a US Customs person on the video phone (a telephone with a 6" video screen) and they could see us. We placed our passports on the scanner underneath the video phone where they were read and recorded. The whole process seemed to work well and we were cleared right at the marina in five minutes or so.

Entering Oswego

Lock upstream of Oswego with waterfall over the spillway (right)

Getting ready to enter the lock

Spillway from above

Some of these lock areas along the Oswego Canal have abandoned power plants

And equipment junkyards

And abandoned buildings. Only small parts of the Oswego Canal are like this. We did not see anything like this in Canada on the Rideau Canal.

The Oswego Canal has lots of pretty spots.

Very pretty and rural.

Small Oswego Canal town of Phoenix has made a place for boaters to come ashore to explore

Here we have turned East on the Erie Canal. There are a few areas of homes here but it is much more rural than developed.

Then we went south on the Oswego Canal and then east on the Erie canal to Brewerton, NY, and the Winter Harbor Marina, where we will store the boat for now until we make a new plan. We arrived in Brewerton about 5:15 so it was a long day. Linda did very well today and handled the bow line in the eight locks even with her limited vision. Linda reports her left eye is better (she cannot read yet) and that both eyes are very light sensitive. We could not have made this trip today without her handling the lines in the locks. We had a deck hand from Kingston, Ontario ready to go with us and fly home but Linda said she did not need the help. What a great crew!

We spend July 3rd and 4th getting the boat ready to leave it for a while. Clean out refrig/freezers and turn off everything. Evening of July 4th we watch the NYC fireworks on TV and think of last year when we were watching the fireworks in NY Harbor. Ron and Cathie call from NC and they are remembering the same thing.

Winter Harbor Marina is almost home away from home. We will fly from Syracuse (seven miles south of Brewerton) to Stuart on Saturday, July 5th. Stay tuned for future installments.