THE JOURNEYS OF TERRMAR IV: JULY 20-22,2013 - ESS-KAY YARDS, BREWERTON TO OSWEGO LOCK WALL, NY

We were awake and on our way by 0730. Terri and Smudge even had a good walk while I did my pre-trip checks. Only a few miles to go before we turn North on the Oswego River and leave the Erie Canal to history. There were only a few locks and 32 miles before we reached our last lock in NY State. The weather was iffy for crossing Lake Ontario tomorrow, but we wanted to be staged for the possibility of crossing the following day.

To the left Buffalo NY and to the right Oswego NY and Lake Ontario

The next few locks while routine had a few issues with their personnel. We were not the only ones who noticed this and the comments were less than flattering towards the people who operated these locks. But Terri and I promised ourselves to keep this blog positive and upbeat so we shall leave it at that.

Before we arrived at Oswego we had a few decisions to make, the first one being, where to stay tonight. Should we stay at the Marina that is on the North side of the Last lock and have shore power, water etc? Or stay on the wall on the South side of the last Lock and have no shore power or water. It all depended on how long we think we would be here. If we stayed at the Marina on the far side of the lock we could have all of the amenities but most important we could leave at first light to crow Lake Ontario. The down side was that this Marina was very exposed to the lake. A rock and roll night would be a definite. If we stayed on the lock wall we would be right out of the weather. The down side of the lock wall was we would have to lock through the last lock before we started across the lake. That meant an 8:00 am lock through if the lock master was on time and properly prepared. The lock was not the biggest lock either so if there was a crowd that 800 am might be 9:00 am. An easy 3 hours later than we would normally leave. It was 70 miles or so across the lake it should be no problem to cross in the daylight hours if we if we got a late start. So we opted for the wall and arrived at around 1:00 pm. I fired up the generator and cranked the A/C. Beautiful!

We weren’t the only boat with the idea of staying on the lock wall. By the evening there were up to 6 boats to join us along with the two that appear to have been camped here for quite a while. The rest of the afternoon we walked around the small down town that we could walk to and then spent a nice quiet time up on the bridge for Cold Beer and Wine Spritzers.