The Locks

Door closed behind uswith water leaking in the cracks. We have been lowered all the way down from where you see the color change on the walls.

I never thought i would see kayaks in a lock.

Erie Canal

So this morning the mast was taken down and I was on my way at 10:15. I am now in Spencerport...so about 67 miles today (11 hours). I took a lot of pictures...it rained giving everything extraordinary color. You will be seeing them over the next few days. I went through 15 lift bridges and two locks. The lock are not nearly as intimidating as I thought they would be, plus every one is very helpful. Tomorrow will be more locks...they take up more time than the bridges. Time for bed....

First day on the Erie Canal

Rolland (brother in law) helped me on my boat get to Tonawanda NY to get the mast taken down. We traveled through the night taking 36 hours to get to Buffalo. It was a little tricky navigating since it was "pea soup" out side, (as the locals call it). Yesterday was Rolland's departure back to put-in-bay where Deb and the girls are. So today is the start of my adventure across NY in the canal. We did one lock already...I am glad to just know how it goes before I do this on my own. The guy here at the Marina is doing a good dubey by getting me going today rather than waiting for Monday and regular business hours. It's pretty crazy, the first fixed bridge is about 25 yards away...so this point is the very last point a sailboat can go with the mast...

more pics

Detroit River

Going through the Detroit River (or is it called the St Claire River). Regardless, there was nothing boring about it. First half was awesome...the current just whips you right along giving you good mileage for the day. One bummer was I got grounded x2. The first time was when leaving Algonac, MI. It was a stickler...it must have taken me about an hour to get out. Then it happened again when getting out of the way of a freighter. That one was easy to get out.

The last two days of travel have been very divers. The river had all kinds of things to watch, houses, industrial stuff, parks, swamp...(you'll see in the pictures). We made it through the maze of fishers intertwined in the channel of the St Claire lake, and then through the last leg that leads to Lake Erie. The very last part of the channel was awesome...this very long canal lined with the green and red lights. The picture I took doesn't give the feel of what it was like at all.

We ended up finding a marina on the west side of Lake Erie and now are at Marina at Put-In Bay. Its an island in Lake Erie. Tomorrow is the big stretch across the rest of the lake if all goes well.

A late entry...

So June 22 was my birthday. I am now 27 years old. My birthday included traveling from Hammond harbor to Harrisville Marina. We traveled our normal 60-80 miles that day (i don't remember how far that particular trek was). I finshed your book Jenn (by Wally Lamb). Once we reached our destination i was bombarded with homemade cards and some candy from my nieces Jannelle and Bianca. Then we went to the local Restaurant and had a nice meal and rehydrate with lots of water. I checked my messages on the phone to find a couple of Happy Birthday wishes; the best one was being serenaded with the Happy Birthday song by my sister Marcia and her family in Vermont. It was a good day!

Mackinac Pictures