We left Sylvan Beach on Friday morning and traveled to the other side of Oneida Lake. It was just a couple of hours to a little marina called Ess-Kay where we completely filled AfterMath with fuel for the first time. Ess-Kay Marina had a well-stocked ship’s store so we were able to find the electronic Canadian charts we needed. We also purchased a quarantine flag that we must fly as we enter Canadian waters before we check in with the government. Ess-Kay offered us the use of a courtesy car so I picked up a few provisions that we were low on while I had this welcome convenience.

Along the Oswego Canal

Turbulent waters near Lock 5

Yesterday, Saturday, we started out early. We went through Lock 23, still on the Erie Canal, and then came upon an area called Three Rivers Junction. There you choose to go towards Buffalo or to Oswego. We took the Oswego route, which put us on the Oswego Canal. Here the locks are numbered 1 through 8, except there is no number 4. While Lock 4 was in the original plan of the canal, it was decided later that it wasn’t needed but 3 and 5 had already been built. All of the locks on the Oswego Canal lowered us and we dropped a total of 119 feet yesterday. Some of the locks on this canal have very turbulent water at their top or at their base. We found the bottom of Lock 3 to be a surprise as it had a very strong current. Number 5 is the one known for its current, but probably because we knew about it ahead of time, it seemed less than the one at 3.

These images show the view from our dock just before Lock 8.  You can see how the canal waters are calm, but the river that flows next to the canal is very fast flowing.  Lock 8 lowers boats to the bottom of the river where both meet Lake Ontario.

We continued to the end of the canal, and we were surprised that immediately after reaching Lock 8 you are on Lake Ontario in Oswego. Crossing Lake Ontario is a day’s trip for us so, after we descended through 8 and saw the limited docking places there, we decided to return through it again and stay on the nice wall, just before the lock itself.

This morning we are getting ready to head across Lake Ontario. It is calm on the lake so the eight-hour trip should be easy. We leave New York and enter Canada today, which is why I am quickly writing this entry and getting ready to post it. One of my jobs for this morning is to call Verizon and get cell phone service and a data package that will be available in Canada. It seems that data is very expensive once you leave the states and, although we will use free Internet service whenever we can, my posting time will be more limited than it has been previously.

The lines are now off, we are heading out and I will throw out a fishing line today to see if we can catch anything on our way across the first Great Lake on which I have ever boated! Our next post will be from our first international stop. Canada, here we come!