The End of the Canal...and Why Lift Bridges Make us Nervous

 Medina Take 2

We had a very quiet night in Medina.  Medina embraces the Canal and boaters, from it's welcome sign to it's water and electric.  It's a very nice little town.

Although it was lightly raining I had to walk over and get pictures of these gorgeous murals.

But I couldn't wander too much because we needed to be on our way.  Our destination for today?  North Tonawanda and the end of the Erie Canal.

I should take a few minutes to more formally introduce you to the crew.  I'm so glad Dan has great friends who not only can do the trip with him, but are capable Captains with a tremendous amount of experience on the water.  Please meet Captains Steve Wunder and Duane Morton.

I met Captain Steve Wunder about 6 years ago.  It was my first season on the Canal and because of a paperwork snafu Dan's renewal for his Captain's license was held up so we had to start the season with an additional Captain on board.  Captain Wunder is a legend on the Canal, and frankly I was a little scared to meet him.  But he is one of the most caring people I know, about his friends and family, pets and certainly the Erie Canal.  Steve is a Navy veteran and joined the New York Canal System in 1981.  The following Summer he met Peter Wiles, Sr and has a great story about their first meeting.  Honestly, Steve has lots of great stories!  But that meeting with Peter Wiles started a friendship that later included the rest of the Wiles family.  Steve became a tugboat Captain on the New York State Canal System and is now retired, but is still very active with and passionate about the Canal.  Because of his vast experience on different types of waterways (and his humor) it's been wonderful having him on this trip.

Captain Duane Morton has been a Captain for 25 years.  A jack of all trades, Duane has been a teacher, a school administrator and an electrical contractor, but his favorite profession has been Boat Captain.  He has been with Mid-Lakes Navigation for many of those 25 years, starting with the Gateway, then the City of Syracuse, then the Judge Ben Wiles, the Barbara S. Wiles and on occasion, the Emita.  Duane and his wife Sue enjoying taking their boat on trips on Lake Ontario.  Duane has a tremendous amount of experience with charts, radar and various navigation systems which comes in very handy on this trip on the Great Lakes!  Plus his electrical and mechanical knowledge will hopefully not be needed on this trip, but if it is he's very accomplished and can get the job done.  He's an invaluable member of the crew for this voyage!

Back to the trip!  While you are traveling the Canal you get to see interesting things.  Like baby geese...

And gigantic metal chickens...

We were making great time, and then we got to Lockport.  And their lift bridge.  Remember Knowelsville?  Yep, this one did not work either.  As we approached we could see hear the bells, see the gates drop over the road and the bridge tenders frantically moving around, but the bridge did not go up.  Oh no, not again!  We were only a quarter of a mile away from the end of the System!  But, broke is broke, so we tied up and waited for them to get the bridge working.  Someone said a few days ago, "Shouldn't they test those locks and bridges before boats come through?"  Well, they may, but the real test is the first boats coming through, and we were certainly one of, if not the, first of the season for most of these places.  But it is so frustrating to be delayed for things completely out of your control.

They kept working at it and about 30 minutes later they lifted the bridge and we went through.  At least it was a shorter wait than the day before!  And we were on our way.

On our way to the locks in Lockport we passed Lockport Locks & Erie Canal Cruises.  The crew on 2 of their boats waved goodbye and wished us well as the owner of the company, Mike Murphy talked with Dan on the radio.  The Canal tour boat community is small and the Emita leaving affected a lot of people, so it was nice to get their sendoff.  If you are on the Western end of the Canal, definitely go for a trip.

Locks 34 & 35

Locks 34 & 35 are the only double set on the Erie Canal and between the two locks will raise your boat 50 feet.  The double locks are alongside the famous "Flight of Five".  The significance to us is these will probably be the last Erie Canal locks the Emita II will ever pass through.  Personally I can tell you all I was thinking about during the first lock was operational, because you need to pay attention when you are rising so high.  Here we are approaching the chamber.  You can see the Flight of Five on the right side of the picture.

 We enter and the lock gates close and the lock tender lets the water in...

And a few minutes later we have gone up about 25 feet!  The gates in front will open and we will repeat the process one more time to complete the 50 foot rise.

As we entered the second chamber the significance of this moment hit me.  I am honored to have been one of the line handlers for the Emita's last lock on the Erie Canal, ending her 44 year career on the System.  And yes we took a selfie to mark the occasion!

And then we locked through. I'm not going to lie, I started to cry after filming this.  And Dan hugged me and laughed at me!  

 One final horn blow under the bridge, and we were gone. Onward to Tonawanda.

You know you are in Buffalo Bills country when...

Tonawanda

I'm going to be honest with you, I don't know that I've ever been to Tonawanda, and certainly not by boat.  What a great boating area!  There is a lot of history in Tonawanda about the old Erie Canal, the Barge Canal and Railroads, which they are happy to educate you about through great signage around the docking areas.  I love to learn about a place when I go, so I was happy.  I would definitely like to come back here at some point.

The boaters are here!  Summer is coming!

Very cool railroad bridge

Before we even docked we wanted to get prepared for tomorrow's trip out onto Lake Erie so we stopped at this Marina for fuel.  

While we were fueling up a pair of barn swallows flew through the open hatch and into the boat!  One got out safely, but the other hit a window hard and stunned itself.  Captain Steve scooped him (her?) up, let the little bird catch it's breath, and after a few minutes it flew out of his hands to safety. We aim to serve on the Emita! Always an adventure!

Once we had our fuel topped off, we could finally dock.

But the work for the day was not done.  Dan spent some time installing radar on the roof which will help guide the Emita safely through the Great Lakes.  He needed to wait to install it until here because of low bridges earlier in the Erie Canal trip.

And when you are one of the first big boats of the season on the wall and when you are working on your boat, people come over to say hi and ask questions.  We had a lot of visitors!  But this was a cool story.  A young couple came by and saw the name of the boat.  They started asking questions about it and when we said she used to be a ferry boat in Casco Bay, this young woman said, "I knew it!  My mother rode this boat in the 60's and has talked about it!"  What are the odds of striking up a conversation with a stranger in a city 145 miles away from home, whose Mom rode the boat back in Maine that you are delivering to Indiana?  I love how small a world we have when you talk to people!  I asked her if I could take her picture and tell her story, and she included her baby who is now a 3rd generation Emita II fan!

It's been fun to reconnect with people on this trip, and our last visitors of the day were special friends of mine from Buffalo, Kevin and Mary Beth.  They are also members of the Tonawanda Island launch club and traverse the area we are traveling tomorrow quite often.  Kevin even brought charts of the area with him which was very helpful for the Captains aboard as he told them what to expect, while I showed Mary Beth around the boat.  It was very helpful and great to see them!

And yes, gotta selfie!  Shortly after we said our goodbyes, had dinner onboard (cooked by Captains Dan and Steve!) and went to bed.  We have a big day tomorrow!