Amsterdam to Brewerton, Erie Canal 6/24/2018

6/24/2018

We spent 2 nights at Amsterdam, wanting a day off. This gave us time to explore the town with Bob and Diane, Sea Cottage. Amsterdam was once a bustling manufacturing center. Mohawk Carpets and Sandford Carpets were based here along with broom, linseed oil and other industries. Below are photos taken at the historic Post Office, City Hall which once was the Sanford’s mansion, and the Elwood Museum and Green Hill Cemetery.

The restaurant at the wall in Amsterdam was closed, but the porch was open. We joined Sea Cottage for dinner al fresco.

The Post Office walls are painted with murals by Henry Schnakenberg, who also has works hanging in the Metropolitan, Whitney and other museums.

We crossed the pedestrian bridge over the railroad track to the north side of town. The railroad was the life blood of Amsterdam. It allowed Industry to flourish in this canal town.

CityHall was once the home of the owner of Sanford Carpets. Here is the staircase leading to offices upstairs.

The ram representing the local high school mascot.

We found a most unusual museum that housed a mass of strange and unique memorabilia including this piece. Any guesses as to what it is?

Here’s your answer. Yes, it is made of human hair. As a member of the family died, a new flower was added.

Amsterdam built a multi million dollar pedestrian bridge over the canal. Maggie liked this beautiful mosaic.

On our tour of Amsterdam, we came upon the historic Green Hill Cemetery. This is the grave site of Benedict Arnold, the grandson of the traitor.

Hmm, I wonder if these could be some of my Nelson ancestors.

We were told these small unmarked grave stones mark the resting places of children who died during a plague.

The ornate iron fence and stone gate leading the way to the cemetery.

Leaving Amsterdam, we locked through #13 and were told that Lock 14 was closed and efforts were being made to get it opened. We tied to the wall before the lock with several other boats to wait a couple hours for the blockage to be cleared. Once through, we continued through Locks 15, 16 and then the big lift, Lock 17. Little Falls, Lock 17 lifts boats up 40.5 feet, the largest lift on the Erie. We pulled into Little Falls Harbor and Rotary Park tired from the long day. It was dinner and bed for us, knowing that we’d have another long day coming.

Sea Cottage following us into a lock. Diane is reaching out with her boat hook to grab a weighted line to hang on to.

Coming into a lock. Sometimes there is a pipe or cable that we can wrap a line around to help hold the boat in place.

Sure enough, it was a good thing we got an early start. Right off the bat we heard that Lock 18 was not working. We hoped but the time we got there things would be cleared up, but that was not the case. We opted to tie up on the wall at Herkimer and visited the gift shop there while waiting. A call to the fellow looper told us that the lock was working manually, slowly, but locking boats through. So after this 2 hour delay, we had to hustle. Locks on the Erie close at 5pm and we knew it was going to be tight for us. Upon completing Lock 20, the lockmaster asked if we planned to continue to Lock 21 and 22. Upon hearing that we did, he told us to “put the pedal to the metal” . We had to be at lock 21 by 4:45 if we wanted to continue through. Tim throttled us up and we slipped into Lock 21 with only a couple of minutes to spare. Since there are no tie ups in the mile between 21 and 22, Lock 22 had to wait for us. It was 5:30 when we finally finished locking. A few miles later we were tied to the free wall at Sylvan Beach, too pooped to care what the town had to offer. Weather was again a factor for us. We had 20 miles of open water to cover the next day and the forecast was a bit iffy. Sea Cottage and we decided to make a call first thing in the morning on if crossing Oneida Lake was on or not. tim and I were pushing to go because we saw an window to cross Lake Ontario open up for the coming Tuesday. We needed to go so we could make that window. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to cross until Friday.

We woke to calm winds and some drizzle. The weather forecast held and we cast of our lines at 7:30. Two hours later we pulled into Winter Harbor.

Waves we’re whitecapping at 2-3’ on our stern as we crossed the lake. The skies did not look friendly, but held back.

Maggie was happy snuggling under a towel to stay warm.

Tim opted for a sweat pants and a warm hoody as we crossed Oneida Lake.

2/24/2018

Now on the dock at Winter Harbor:

I began this post several days and many locks ago and am just now getting back to it. It has been a busy few days and today will be our first “day off” in a while. We crossed Oneida Lake yesterday and arrived at Winter Harbor Marina around 9:30. It was an early, but short day. We knew the weather was coming in and we needed to beat it across the lake. Winter Harbor will be Subject to Change’s winter home and we moved our truck up here earlier this summer so we were able to do the bulk of our provisioning after getting settled in. We plan to leave tomorrow morning for Oswego and then cross Lake Ontario on Tuesday.