Triangle Canada Historic Canals Mini Loop

[colbysmith]

Well, the color is correct:
"When making the passage on the Erie Canal, red markers are kept to starboard when westbound for the entire length of the Canal."

And square is the correct shape. Perhaps you have issue with it being tipped?

[pat.jack]

Boris is correct, if memory serves me right, 1st lock is on the Hudson, south of the canal, and is named the 'Federal' Lock. I suppose this is to designate it is separate from the Erie Canal System, which is NYS responsible. So-Erie Lock's start at 2. But, not a bad question for Jeopardy!
Jack

[gulfcoast john]

Boris, Jack and Colby all correct.

Colby, I contend that a green diamond shape is not the same as a 'tipped square' that has been secured in place that way.

Happy navigating!

John

[Robert H. Wilkinson]

John, thanks for the account of your trip. Enjoyed the humor and pictures. Keyboard on my laptop was messed up so I was lurking silently in the shadows! Now using a separate keyboard plugged into laptop - big PITA!

Regards,

Rob

[gulfcoast john]

Greetings from the Erie Canal final portion of our 1,000 water miles Historic Canals of Canada and New York adventure!

Building the Erie canal was an effort to mainly follow the Mohawk River valley path, although early (1860 era) engineers favored avoiding the riverbed for safety reasons. The stone craftmanship is amazing…see the Waterford old lock pics on page 16. They have weathered brutal winters and seepage freezing etc and still the torrent of water follows their stone path 186 years later without an inch of deviation.

The railroad and highways followed, so there is more train and highway traffic and noise along the Erie compared to the other canals and rivers. There were heavy rains recently, and a lot of floating tree branches and driftwood, especially on exiting locks upbound.

Although many boaters have commented that the Eastern Erie is more industrial than the Western portion, we’ve found it to be mostly tree-lined countryside outside the towns.

Be aware that the Skipper Bob guidebooks were bought out by Waterway Guide, and the same area editor edits both. We still use both plus the NY Canal book ($20 well spent). We’ve found it best to call ahead in the afternoon to inquire about a transient slip at the next marina, and all had plenty of room. The first time we didn’t, we found that the marina had been sold and merged with another. Best to call ahead, these are virtually all mom and pop marinas with voicemail while Mom is out pumping gas.

Like Lake Ontario and the St Lawrence seaway, Lake Oneida (the largest lake on the Erie Canal) was in a mellow mood when we crossed that 20 some miles. The next day it was blowing 25 MPH with gusts to 33…be prepared for 3 or more weather days in a small craft.

The last 2 weeks in July in Canada is the ‘construction holiday’, when virtually all construction and trades workers take their holiday. It was a madhouse of 40-60 foot yachts in the Thousand Islands. It reminds us of local advice we got 25 years ago : ‘on the Gulf Coast, you can’t get any skilled trades person to work during Cobia Season.’
‘When is Cobia Season?’
‘March 15 to December 15.’
So don’t be in boating in Canada during Construction Holiday or try to get any construction done on the Gulf Coast during Cobia Season.

Since early Aug, the number of cruising boats has dropped to almost none. Since Aug 15 we were often locking alone, and most often encountered only 2 or 3 boats on mini-loops going counter-clockwise. The standard looper advice is to leave Chicago by Labor day, so they’ve been out of this area for weeks. Local skiffs fishing are about the only other boats we’ve encountered since mid August. Many city dock walls have no boats at 3pm, when a month ago they would have been full by 2PM.

Sept 6 we transited our last lock on the Erie canal and crossed our wake at Pirate’s Cove marina on this Triangle loop. Our Locking Gloves and lines will go in the trash. If lye doesn’t clean up the fenders, they will be relegated to bumper dock duty at our wet slip. We’ll save the remaining 150 miles of the western Erie canal and the Finger Lakes for another trip.

It’s been a magnificent adventure! 36 days and nights on the boat.

The statistics:
We don’t have many. About 140 locks, plus we have a lock on the aft cabin door which we hardly ever use. Marinas have averaged $28-$60/night ($1-$2.00)/ft/night) as we prefer an unlimited hot shower, shorepower for electric heat and cooking and protection from wakes and wind wavelets. We made all meals onboard except a few lunches eating out. Groceries and box wine costs the same as if we were home. The new F250 diesel truck gets 11.5-12MPG towing the 11,050-11,600 lb load.

I’m presented with boat fuel consumption data that is twice the actual. I haven’t figured that out yet, and have two Garmin GFS-10 flow meters plus 2 Lowrance adapters hacked into the Yamaha ECMs under the cowling, all 4 on the Garmin N2K network. The boat got at least 2MPG combined based on gallons in while in Heavy Cruise mode with a full load of 30 gallons of unusable water. The freshwater pump never fixed itself, which I find very disappointing.

Even worse disappointment, my 5 year old Home Depot radar mount 4” PVC and commode mount flange (mounted to a Starboard plastic platform base for the radar dome, anchor light and fog horn/loudspeaker) broke off at the base just above the flange after a very rough section of I-65 near Birmingham. Only the radar power and data wires held the platform dangling over the road at the starboard cabin top. We must have been quite a sight. We have slammed through some much, much rougher seas than that particular section of I-65, but perhaps the cumulative fulcrum effect was just too much. A replacement Garmin HDX24 is over 2 boat units, so it would count as ‘bad boating day’ in the Cat O’ Mine chronicles if the radar dome is toast (‘If total damages are under $1,000 after deductibles and no one is seriously injured or killed, then it was a Good Boating Day!). On the other hand, I could make a demanding Customer Service call to Garmin on this 4 years out-of-warranty item, record it, and sell the recording to Comedy Central!
Ours being such a litigious culture, I instead could sue Home Depot for their PVC pipe breaking….
Judge: ‘Mr Highsmith, what made you think that a piece of plastic sewer pipe made to gravity drain toilet waste would be a good idea for a radar mount?”
Me: ‘Bob Austin made one 30 years ago for a non-trailerable 6 knot trawler, and it hasn’t broke off yet!”
Judge: ‘Bob Austin did? Well, hell’s bells man, why didn’t you say so? The Court immediately awards Mr Highsmith a full refund of the entire cost of his PVC mount of the $12.60 Home Depot receipt entered in Discovery, as well as $0.17 for the intervening 5 years of inflation, as well as $40 labor charges for installing the bolts.’
Me and Eileen: high fives, fist bumps, jumping for joy in the Courtroom.
Well, it was just a thought.

Every 4th-5th day we’d choose a marina with a laundry. The two clear clothes bags in the bunk at our feet (pic in album) held all our clothes for 6 weeks (except rain gear and jackets). T

The Yamaha 150’s ran great…I am going to adopt the attitude of the former dealer who posted on The Hull Truth re smoking 4 strokes “If it’s peeing and there are no alarms, run it hard. It’s bulletproof. You guys worry too much.”

Our impression of the TC255 as the near-perfect couples cruising non- overwide trailer boat has solidified. At 5 weeks on board we again find that we’re about ready to get back into our home life routine again. (Yes, of course we have already made our usual reservation for 6 weeks at Stock Island Marina, Key West after Thanksgiving.)

IF it’s calm and IF you want to, you can easily cruise 25-30 MPH for 5 hours and make 150 miles on a TC255 (many dis-masted sailboat cruisers we met were incredulous). Or sip gas at 6 MPH on one engine at 1600RPM.

Pics of the last canal (eastern Erie) are in the album. We got home late last night safe and sound.

Signing off on this particular Adventure, and awaiting the next! Best wishes and safe travels to you and yours!

I have enough humility to recognize that many reasonable folks think I’m a bombastic blowhard, just because I am a bombastic blowhard. There is no right or wrong way to go boating, just do it and enjoy! (You guys worry too much!)

John

[ssobol]

PVC does not stand up well to UV. Perhaps UV exposure caused your radar mount to get brittle.

[colbysmith]

John, I'm looking at ordering one of Skipper Bob's guides. What is the exact title of the book you also recommend? Looking to order these soon so I can start planning for next summer. Thanks. Colby

[Avidmagnum12]

John
I’m sorry your PVC radar mount broke. I’ve found that the road can be harder on the boat than the water. Drawers that never open in the water somehow open on the trailer. We mite have to pass the hat 🎩 at Hontoon to buy you a new one or at least some PVC cement.

Sorry our path did not cross on the Erie. We are still going West and having a great time. Lots of free docks this way with power and hot showers. Yes....FREE

I may have to do this again next year 😇 in September.

[gulfcoast john]

Sobelle,
I spray painted the whole contraption with 3 coats of Krylon Gloss White before installing, so I don’t think UV played a role here.

Tom,
I was supposed to use PVC cement?

Colby,
We used Skipper Bob ‘Cruising the Rideau and Richelieu Canals’ (includes St L Seaway and river and Ottawa river, Thousand Islands and Lake Champlain/Chambly canal and Lachine canal).
Also Skipper Bob ‘Cruising the New York Canal System’.
And the Great Lakes Vol 1 2019 Waterway Guide includes the entire Triangle Loop.

Best source I’ve found for these is

https://www.waterwayguide.com/shipstore/

E-Book versions are the same price, but you can’t jot notes on the screen.

Amazon charged me $9 to ship another $13 Skipper Bob booklet.

New Garmin G3 US and US Lakes cards covered everything except Canada, had 2 G2 cards for those portions.

This site is also good and has the 2006 guide book with maps of the western Erie canal (there are no charts for that portion, but you can’t get lost).

http://www.canals.ny.gov/maps/index.html

Can sign up for email alerts re closures etc there.

Happy planning!
John

[colbysmith]

Thanks John. I just placed an order with Landfall for the following:

Waterway Guide Great Lakes Vol 1 / 2019 $39.95
Skipper Bob Cruising the New York Canal System $13.00
Skipper Bob Cruising the Rideau, Richelieu Canals $13.00
NOAA Small Craft Book Chart - 14786 New York State Canal System (book of 61 Charts) size NOAA Small Craft Chart Book $34.75

The only book I couldn't find was the New York State Canal Cruising Guide, 3rd Ed, 2006. Landfall listed it, but no availability. I couldn't find it on any of the links you provided either. The State website had a link to it, but been getting an error code 404 that the page doesn't exist...

I've ordered books and charts from past plans that didn't pan out that I just hold onto hoping some day... but I'm hoping this trip pans out as Rosanne is looking at trying to get vacation the last two weeks of August, first two weeks of September. And I think we can get some great recent advice from you, Bill from Mystery Girl, and Tom and Joyce off of C-Otter. Colby