Lock 25 at May’s Point is scheduled to open at 7 am sharp. I guess they opened a little earlier than 7 am. I was still laying in bed when I heard Ed’s motor behind us as he pulled away from the wall. Mark was already up but hadn’t yet stuck his head out of the cabin. Once we heard Ed’s motor, we were like….it’s show time! We didn’t want to miss the lock opening and have to wait at least 30 – 40 minutes for them to turn the lock around. We were the last ones off the wall but we made it into the lock with everyone else.

6 boats in the lock together this morning. On the left is Ed and Evelyn with Paul and Lisa behind them and then us. On the right we have Ryan and Justin, then Dave and Kendra and then John who is just out of the picture.

As soon as we made it through the lock, Paul and Lisa immediately pulled over to the wall on the right as they must have gotten up as quickly as we did. Paul was still in his pajama bottoms and we thought they likely pulled over to make coffee and get dressed. So now we were 5 boats in the pack. Ryan and Justin are delivering this boat they are on to Key West, FL so they are in a hurry and not really on a sight seeing tour. They quickly pulled ahead of the pack and we didn’t see them again after the first lock. Now we are 4 boats in the pack.

We feel fortunate that we are in the first pack of boats to get through the canal heading east which means we should not have any trouble finding spots to dock on the walls since there is no one ahead of us. There are plenty of people behind us however!

There is evidence of high water in this section of the canal. You can see in this photo the water was at least 3 feet higher up the embankment.

Here it looks like the water was all the way up to that tent canopy in the left of the picture. The house would have been under water and just in front of the house it’s just mud flats from the water that was recently there.

Multiple trees were also downed from the high water. There are multiple logs and branches in the water that we have to keep a sharp eye out for as we make our way up the canal.

Many of the bouys are not where they should be and have been drug around due to the high water as well.

Not to worry however, the canal guys are actively out and about working to put all the bouys back where they belong.

These guys are working so hard they have 2 tents and a porta potty on the barge to keep working around the clock.

Otherwise, we just enjoyed the scenery as we headed down the canal.

We kept in contact via text with Ed and Evelyn; John; and Dave and Kendra on our journey today. Ed and Evelyn go a bit faster than us and were ahead. Dave and Kendra go about the same speed as us and John is a bit slower so he is behind. We are all headed toward Brewerton. We went through 3 locks today and at each lock we would catch up with one another before spreading out again.

Stats for today:

lift bridges – 0

fixed bridges – 24

guard gates – 0

Locks – 3

Miles traveled – 50

We passed by several points of interest on the way to Brewerton. We went through Cross Lake, which is a small lake in the middle of the canal. At one point we thought we would anchor for the night here in Cross Lake but now we needed to put on some miles in case it rains and they shut down the canal again.

We also passed the junction of where the Oswego canal joins the Erie Canal. The Oswego canal takes you out to Lake Ontario. It is at this junction that we officially transition from the Western Erie Canal to the Eastern Erie Canal. This junction marks the dividing point. It also makes a difference in the current within the Erie Canal. The eastern Erie at this point up until Rome flows westward and up the Oswego canal and into Lake Ontario. As soon as we crossed the junction of the Oswego canal this was readily evident. Our boat speed dropped about 1.5 knots due to the current now working against us.

We got to the wall at Brewerton and just relaxed for a bit.

There’s a restaurant just overlooking the canal here, so the 7 of us went to dinner together just overlooking our boats. We called it a night since we will all be up bright and early. Tomorrow we are heading for Little Falls.