Eight locks in one day! Newark to Seneca Falls, NY

It’s rare that I’m awake early enough to catch a summer sunrise, but here is today’s.

We had an aggressive goal of getting through five locks when we left at 8:30 AM. We called the first lock, 28B, from the dock, and it was ready when we arrived. Like the bridge tenders, the lockmasters are really good about asking for your travel plans and sharing it with the locks and bridges down the line. The system worked, and we rolled through all five locks before 2:00 PM with no problems, except for a slight delay at 27A, because the lockmaster wanted to chat. There were a few more hours of expected good weather, so we decided to press on to tomorrow’s planned stop at Seneca Falls, only 10 miles further, with three more locks (although the second and third were a flight). We turned south onto the Cayuga-Seneca Canal, which connects the Erie Canal to Cayuga and Seneca Lakes in the beautiful Finger Lakes Region and borders the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. 

We called the first Cayuga-Seneca lock on the radio from a mile away as we saw the doors opening for two other vessels, and the lockmaster held it for us. He seemed a little frazzled, and we found out why when we exited the lock and saw smoke coming out of one of the control panels. As we drove away, the last thing we heard was the lockmaster shouting to his assistant “stop what you are doing!” 

We exited the flight, after setting a Dragonfly record of eight locks in one day, and arrived in Seneca Falls just as it was starting to rain. We tied up to a free dock with no services and got our boat secured and our cockpit enclosure up before the heavier rain began. We ended up spending the entire evening inside, but are expecting good weather tomorrow. Map Link: Seneca Falls, NY

Addendum from yesterday’s post. We passed through Palmyra, NY, birthplace of the Latter Day Saints movement, better known as the Mormon Church. In 1820, Joseph Smith said God and Jesus Christ visited him on the family farm and he published the first Book of Mormon here in 1830.  Map Link: Palmyra, NY

Today’s photo journal: 

The canal is much wider and wilder now

This deer swam across the canal in front of us

“Welcome Loopers!”, seen in Lyons, NY

We’ve seen a lot of these rental canal boats

This why we left our mast at home