Back on the water again. The canal has been open for 2 days and we were getting work done.
The props were reconditioned, the shafts were checked, the seacocks on the mains were serviced and the zincs on the hull, shafts and trim tabs were changed. We did a sea trial after all the work was done and the vibration was gone and everything sounded great.
While the work was going on Lenore and I rented a car and went to the Finger Lake area on Wednesday. We visited Canandiagua Lake, Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake. All the lakes are picturesque nestled in the mountains. Cayuga and Seneca Lakes are connected by canals to the Erie Canal but I am not sure the marinas are suited for a Champ III size boat as the only boats we saw on the lakes were pontoons and runabouts. The Towns of Canandiagua and Geneva on Seneca Lake were fairly large and had what appeared to be a thriving downtown area. All the buildings were fairly old but well maintained. Cayuga lake on the other hand appeared to be a bedroom community with a blinker light but the Cayuga Township offices were right on the lake in a park setting. The lakeside park we stopped at by Canandiagua Lake had some rather unique fishing houses. They are all lined up next to each other and one side fronts on the water and the other side faces the next row of fish houses. The park we stopped at on Seneca Lake had an ice cream stand that had wine ice cream. I had a raspberry chardonnay. First thing you taste is the raspberry and then you taste the chardonnay. The sign said 5% alcohol. Check out the pictures we took.
We had 8 locks today between Brewerton and Oswego, but not a lot of mileage, 33 miles. The locks were all waiting for us with only one where we waited for the lock to come up with a boat and for the boat to leave the lock, maybe 15 minutes. The weather was great without a lot of wind and sunny all day. We were in the Oswego Marina by 1:30 so we had the rest of the day in Oswego.
The Oswego Marina is not real large but caters mostly to charter fishing boats. We were out of place size wise as was the 45 Silverton aft cabin that came in late in the day. The marina had good access to restaurants and shopping.