Brewerton to Minetto on the Oswego Canal.

We weren't in a hurry to leave the dock outside the restaurant, this morning. It was lovely to wake up with no boats charging past us. First look out the window at  6.45am showed overcast skies. This was quick to burn off, however. We did our usual morning things, and then locked the boat to go find a food store. This was easier said than done!

We crossed the bridge in front of the boat, across to the other side of the canal. It got hotter the further we went from the water...and walked down the main street, then another main street to a former strip mall...I say former, because it is just one more strip mall that we have come across, that has died. So many towns across America just have not picked themselves up financially, yet. They may never!

One thing that is good for us even though we might never find food....we get good exercise! As luck would have it, we found SOME food. It was a Gas Station with a limited variety of food, but enough for us to make some choices to last us the next 4 days, which is all we need.


When we returned, we researched the weather looking forward and decided to make  run for the locks on the Oswego Canal.

We were happy to leave the dock at Brewerton behind. Too many weekend boaters with no common sense or courtesy!
It was boats all along the canal leaving the town, and we were happiest when all the people and signs of civilization thinned almost to nil, the further we got along the canal.

 Lots of signs of Summer!

This boat storage unit is heated...not the chimneys! The winters here are so severe, all the boats come out of the water and into storage...either shrink wrapped, as we saw some still were, or inside these heated sheds.

 In our first lock we locked through with what we thought were fishermen, but they turned out to be county employees putting new signs up on the bridges...10mph signs with more written on them than 99% of boaters ever read!!!much to our chagrin. We were followed in by another large boat, which stayed with us until we stopped for a pump out.

 Before going into the first lock, we had to wait for this little barge to exit. It seemed to take forever!

We are amused by the little boat houses on the river/canal.

Love the signs:) only 1 mile to the second lock of the day.

 \Lots of little Light houses in yards

and then we came to a fork in the canal. Those going to Buffalo and continuing on the Erie Canal, turn left, and those, like us, going to Oswego and Lake Ontario, turn right. We did. It is a loooong way to Buffalo!

 This way to Buffalo....

 This way to Oswego...

The boat behind us also has AIS, and is following us turning right into the Oswego Canal.

 It never fails to amuse us how mother nature just carries on...and over...and under...

We pulled into the rough old dock at The Boat House, where we were welcomed by the BoatHouse Brats, an organization of youth that keeps the downtown docks and gardens in good order, and welcome boaters, taking our lunch orders and delivering it, pumping us out, and helping us fill up with potable water. We were happy to leave them a donation. It is one of the few things for the youngsters to do, over the summer. Like most other places, this town has a large share of vacant buildings in the downtown area.

 This building is historic. It is known as The Boathouse, on the Oswego Canal.

It was just behind the next Lock..#26. Lots of bridges had to go up for us to get all the way through. The day was VERY hot and humid, and I could feel the sweat dripping all over my body. As much as we could, we locked on the shady side, but we don't always have a choice.

This is the new sign, the fellas in the boat ahead of us, were putting up. Most people cannot tell you what ELSE is written on the sign. They think they can just go 10mph without any consideration for those at the bottom of the sign. Sigh!

A public boat ramp onto the Oswego Canal. It is right next to a substation.

 Huge lots with Homes well back from the canal. Lots of folks out mowing their lawns. It is Monday!


This photo shows part of the original old Oswego Canal.

  The three locks we went through today were all with road and sometimes rail bridges over the top. I guess you would want to stop, if you were our height!!:)

We are going down towards Lake Ontario, now....This one went down 25 ft. Not a tight seal, as you can see!

This was second to last for the day. There is no #4 lock, as it was deemed unnecessary. The number sequence was left as it was written.

All the locks were beside Power Plants and Dams, which meant a little tricky piloting from the fly bridge! The push of the water joining the canal, is quite strong.

 Another Power Plant....

Some lovely old homes....quite different, in these parts!

 Another part of the original Canal...this is now being used as a private Boat storage area.

We were happy to pull up to the free dock at Minetto. Not much there...a couple of people fishing on the dock who turned out to be the caretakers of the dockside park. Only allowed to stay here for 24 hrs. We tried to get electricity, but the GFI circuit in the bathrooms kept tripping! Oh well!!

We tried every which way to get some juice, but it wasn't to be.:(

 Such a pretty place. Looking behind us, back up the canal. It is wide at this point. Just as well, when the loony with a speed boat decided to do some wheelies! sigh!

We turned the genset on so we could have some air conditioned comfort. It has been simply horrid, in the heat and humidity department.. We just dripped, all day. The sun was so hot, we felt a bit fried, when we had to go out to lock through.  Thankfully we could turn the air con on in the bedroom to cool it down a bit, before turning in. The fan helps circulate the cooler air! nice:)

We watched the sun set...pretty pink!