Beautiful Downtown Brewerton NY

Or, as most of us have said, “wherethehellisbrewerton?”

We all got the dreaded email on July 1, after a week of heavy rains throughout Central New York, “Mariners are advised that the following sections of the Canal System have closed to all vessel traffic, effective immediately, due to high water levels and excessive currents caused by heavy rainfall overnight…”  We were just one more day away from getting out of the Erie Canal System into Lake Ontario when the bad news hit.



We’re at a marina in Brewerton NY, just north of Syracuse, which is jam packed with boaters who are stranded by the canal closure.  We’re tied next to 3 Grand Banks trawlers, whom we docked next to way back in Waterford NY, and whom we’ve traveled with all along the Erie Canal.  Most of us are Loopers, heading to various routes through or around Canada, eventually ending up in Chicago to head south in the inland river system.

One of our many Looper dock parties!



So, when a bunch of Loopers all end up at the same marina for a while, the only thing to do is to have dock parties every evening & tell sea stories.  If we’re together long enough, we all will run out of sea “stories” and have to start telling stories that are actually true!

 

 

 

One of the gorgeous wooden boats in Clayton

Since we’re spending the 4^th of July here (and probably several days more), we rented a car to visit the places we had planned to visit once we got out of the canal system.  In addition to seeing Fort Ontario in Oswego NY, we drove to Clayton NY to visit the Antique Boat Museum, which has the largest collection of wooden boats in the country. 



Interesting mermaid bow ornament

 

 

 

We were told by our friends Bob & Gail, about this museum several years ago when we lived in Chattanooga, so it’s been on our bucket list for a while.  And we weren’t disappointed.  Most boats are from the early 1900’s, and have so much varnish on them that the varnish factory must be working overtime.  I got a special kick out of the wooden boats built by Lyman of Sandusky Ohio.  When I spent summers with my grandmother on the Lake Erie islands in the early 1960’s (yes I’m that old), I saw many Lymans all around.  And now they’re in a museum!  (Reminds me of the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola.  When we toured that place, they had one of the helicopters that I had actually flown in 1972-1973 on display!  How old does that make you feel?)



Port & starboard (red & green) running lights made into the owl's eyes

A familiar ol friend!  The rake of the bow allowed them
to take the waves of the lakes easily.

 

Antique racing boats

 

Our other excitement this week was my having surgery on the back of my hand to remove a questionable growth.  It had been festering for 2 months & I had had enough.  We luckily got an appointment with a surgeon right away, so now I’m in “sick bay”.  It’s a pain in the buttola to have some of our doctors in New Orleans, some others in Chattanooga, have our legal residence in Florida, and be in New York when we need medical attention.  Ahhhhh, the life of a full time cruiser!  During the upcoming weeks while my hand heals, Sue might have to become the Deck Ape Apprentice.

Visiting Clayton with Canal captive boating friends
Curt & Susan from Baltimore

And then last night, I get a phone call from a boater friend from New Orleans whom we haven’t talked to in several years.  We initially met her & her husband just before we bought our boat in 2008, and we ended up buying the same kind of boat that they had.  They had lost their previous boat in 2005 when the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed right over their marina.  It was really a surprising and welcomed phone call.

 

 

For now, the best way to make us happy is for the NY Canal Corporation to get rid of all that water & open the canal so we can GO CRUISING!