Day 365 – Brewerton, NY to wall between Oswego Locks #7 and #8, Oswego, NY - July 5, 2012

After seeing John and Rosemary off just after 7:30am, we head out for our last lock on the Erie Canal and then a turn north toward Oswego.  It was a relatively easy day of travel and we had no incidents in any of the locks.  We occasionally have to wait for a few minutes for some of the locks to open as we are traveling just behind another group of boats.  We lock through all of today’s locks with Bob and Ivy on Karma.  This is our last day of travel with Bob and Ivy as we will be heading northeast to the 1000 Islands when we get to Oswego and they will be headed straight north to Kingston, Ontario.

We decide to stop just before going through the last lock (Lock #8) and tie up on the wall for the night.  There is plenty of space and we won’t be rocked by any wind and waves coming off Lake Ontario.  Fred agrees to see a “chick flick” with me (I really owe him for this one) and we enjoy leftovers on the boat for dinner.  The weather forecast looks decent for a trip across the southeast corner of Lake Ontario tomorrow, so we make a plan to be one of the boats through Lock #8 as soon as it opens at 7:00am tomorrow.
 
            Miles: 27.5      Bridges: 13      Locks: 7          Gates: 1

we have seen lots of momma ducks with their babies along the Erie Canal

Lock #23 - our last lock on the Erie Canal - the gates are just about open,
then it is under the gate and into the lock

decision point - continue east toward Buffalo or north to Oswego
(we don't really have a choice - our air draft is too high for us to travel
on the western portion of the Erie Canal)

our first lock on the Oswego Canal - the gates are just about open  and the
yellow bridge is just about up - we can exit when the gates are all the way
open and the bridge is all the way up

a rather unusual lock - we only go part way into the lock chamber when we
encounter this low bridge with the stop signs on it - we get tied to the
wall and then the lock chamber begins to empty...

...once the water in  the lock chamber is lowered, we easily clear the bridge

not much water is flowing over the dam near this lock

inside the lock chamber, waiting for the water to be lowered