My Erie Canal / 1000 Islands Trip

Greg

Active Member
Mar 27, 2008
1,310
North Jersey
Boat Info
2003 480 Sedan Bridge
Engines
QSM-11's
Thought I’d post about our vacation this year. It’s a bit long but I threw in some pics. We left from our home port in New Jersey, cruised up the Hudson River, made a left at Waterford and went out the Erie Canal. We then turned right at Three Rivers Junction and headed up the Oswego Canal, crossed Lake Ontario (that was fun) and headed into the Saint Lawrence River. Made it all the way to Canada.

Of course the day before we were to leave the washer/dryer aka. Wrinkle-Master, stopped working. It turned out to be a bad main power connection. The contacts over heated and melted the solder joints loose.

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Fixed that and headed out with the bikes bungeed to the bow rail, looked a little funny but we actually used the bikes so it was worth it.

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Here’s where we made the left to go to Waterford. I originally wanted to go out the Erie, through the St. Lawrence, then back down through the Champlain Canal. But there are low fixed bridges on the Champlain that we wouldn’t clear. Should have done this trip last year with the 340. Oh well…

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Here we are in the first of many locks. I think this was the most boats we locked through with, most of the time we were the only boat in the lock. I asked a few of the lockmasters how many boats they put through a day the average was about 12. Oh look a 340 Dancer…

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I made some fender boards to go through the locks. Just some 2x8’s with some holes drilled in them for the lines. While I was sitting at my desk planning them I was going to use pressure treated 2x10’s but man were they heavy. I cut them so they just fit under the back bench seat in the cockpit. I figure I’ll keep them on the boat. I could have used them a few times when over-nighting at places with pilings.

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Passed this on the Canal, pretty neat.

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Stopped to meet my parents just before the tallest lock on the canal. I think it was a little over 40 feet.

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Sylvan Beach was a good stop along the way, they had all kinds of rides and stuff for the kids. It was also kind of neat watching the sunset over water, don't get to see that much on the east coast.

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Here is where we turned to go up the Oswego Canal. Out west on the Erie there are also low bridges.

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A view from the next to the last lock on the Oswego Canal, just before we get into Lake Ontario. I wanted to get past all the locks that night so we could leave early in the morning to cross the lake. The locks open at 7:00am, and they say that the Lake can get pretty rough as the winds pick up.
Most of the nights on this trip we docked for free. All through the canals different towns provide free docks, many with power and water. Although this day we did have to get water while we were in the lock. We asked the lockmaster where the closest place to get water was, he called ahead to the next lock and they let us fill up inside the lock. There was a spigot on that white building next to the lock.


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This is from the restaurant, there is Lady TAZ in the lower right all ready to cross the lake in the morning.

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Got up early and headed out. About halfway through the lake it started to get a little rough, I forgot to latch all the doors closed and the fridge flew open and dumped its contents on the floor.

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First stop was Clayton, we visited the antique boat museum. That was pretty cool, all kinds of old wooden speedboats. We also got to tour George Boldt’s Houseboat, the guy that built Boldt Castle.

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Boldt Castle and Boldt Yacht House were next on the list. This guy started building this enormous castle on a private island for his wife, about 4 years into the construction of it she died, so he had everyone stop working on it, and he never returned.

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That’s not the Castle, that’s only the play house.

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Nope, that’s not it either, that is the power house, where the generators were to produce power for the island.

Here’s the castle

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Got up the next morning and went go-kart riding near Alexandria Bay. One of the longest tracks in North America and I kept all the wheels on the track.

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I then had a surprise in store for the kids. We were spending the night at Singer Castle on Dark Island. That was incredible. If you are ever in the area you should check it out. They give public tours from 10 till 5, but then they kick everyone out and it was just us and the caretaker on the island. He gave us a special tour and took us through all the secret passages, tunnels, and the dungeon. We were actually alone in the castle while he took the staff home, and picked them up the next morning.

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After our special tour, they served us dinner, we got to pick which room in the castle we would like to eat. We chose this room.

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After dinner we were free to roam about the castle and explore on our own.

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Then it was time to go to bed.

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The room we chose for Breakfast the next morning.

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After Breakfast, the caretaker had to leave the island for a while to go get the staff. So we again got to snoop around and check out the castle.

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The water was so clear up there you could see straight to the bottom. Amazing…

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Time to move on, goodbye Castle…

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Then we headed back out across the lake, which was quite a bit calmer this time, even though it was later in the day. The winds were only like 4 knots or so.

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Then it was back through the canals and the locks, where the water wasn’t quite as clean as up north.

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Early morning “smoke on the water”

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Passed this on the way back. I wonder if this is legal?

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So there you have it, everything went very well, no major boat issues, genny strainer got plugged with seaweed in one of the locks, and I had a heck of a time getting it opened, bent my spanner wrench. I put anti-seize on it when I put the top back on. We put 83 hours on the mains, and burned a little over 1200 gallons of diesel. Now I can start planning my trip for next year.
 
WOW... What a TRIP! I am glad you and your family had a nice/safe time. Thank you for sharing that. Beautiful pics!
 
Greg - that looked like an awesome trip, how did you get special treatment at the castle? Great write up and pics by the way.
 
Great post Greg! I was thinking about doing a trip like that. How many days were you gone?

I love the castle. Did you have to pass through Customs to enter and leave Canada?
 
Thanks, it was a great trip. Everyone had a great time, weather was great, It rained two nights while we were sleeping - no problem there. It showered a little while we were on the go-carts - which made it that much more fun. We were gone for two weeks, we left Saturday Morning, made it back home Friday Morning (last Friday). As far as special treatment in the castle, they did make us feel special, but they rent out the Royal Suite at night. They have a website singercastle dot com. Scott, the caretaker, was great.
As far as customs, yeah we did have to check in. I brought our passports, but didn't need them. It was actually kind of a joke. It was all done by payphone.
 
Great pics and nice explanation--glad you had a great time.

Next venture--let me recommend Champlain Canal - lake C and then on to Montreal and maybe Three Rivers. Have done both the 1000 islands and Champy--and would venture to say Champ would be as enjoyable--scenery value will be off the charts.
 
Great pics and nice explanation--glad you had a great time.

Next venture--let me recommend Champlain Canal - lake C and then on to Montreal and maybe Three Rivers. Have done both the 1000 islands and Champy--and would venture to say Champ would be as enjoyable--scenery value will be off the charts.

I think that would be a nice trip, but as I said in the post, I really wanted to make a big loop, out the Erie Canal, up the Oswego, through the St Lawrence, then down the Champlain. But there are low (15.5') fixed bridges supposedly that we wouldn't clear with our new boat. I should have done that trip last year.

I wonder how hard it would be to remove the hard top? :huh:
 
Very cool trip. thanks for sharing.
 
Greg, Great trip. Do you have details on where you anchored and the marinas you stayed at? We where thinking about a trip to Montreal from Toms River in our 340. BTW did they give you boards for your fenders? or did you bring them with you? Thanks for posting...
 
1200 gallons, that doesn't seem too bad. I would have thought that it would be more.

did you have to idle though the whole canal? I remember reading that's it's 10mph all the way?
 
Rod,

The Fender Boards I made from regular doug fir 2x8's. I was planning on using Pressure treated 2x10's, but when I got to Home Depot and picked one up I changed my mind. I just drilled holes in them to tie the lines through. I drilled a big hole right through the flat side, then a little 1/2" hole through the edge into the big hole. Ran the line through the little hole, put a stopper knot in it, and the knot rested in the big hole. That way the line wasn't rubbing on the lock walls.

All through the canal you can tie up at most of the locks for free. However most don't have power or water. The places we stayed that had power/water, that I can remember were:

Waterford - Nice floating dock at the visitors center, free water and power. We actually stayed in the spot reserved for the state police. It was the only spot left and the guy there said it would be ok.

Amsterdam - Nice place, they had a floating dock and a wall, we chose the wall. Free power and water. We walked to town, they had a little mall, grabbed some chinese food.

Marcy - Another nice place, right at the edge of a lock, free power and water, they had a little park with a covered picnic area. We grilled on the boat that night at sat at a picnic table right next to the boat.

Canajoharie - They had a floating dock with free power and water also, but we got there late (around 9:30) and the floating dock was full, so we tied up to a wall and a barge. One of the people there told me locals keep their boat on the dock even though it is supposed to be for transients.

Up in the 1000 Islands we stayed at the Clayton town dock one night, 1000 Island Yacht Club one night, Riveredge Resort one night, and Singer Castle the last night.

Mike,

As for the speed limits, yes it was slooowww going a lot of the way. It's not 10 the whole way, a lot of it was like 45 and 35, although there are spots that are 5mph. The real problem for us was our wake, have you ever seen the wake of a 480 DB in a shallow, narrow canal at 10 mph? Holy crap. I got yelled at a few times. I was trying to be very careful, but sometimes you round a bend and there is a fisherman standing in his little rowboat.

Greg
 
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Very nice...

Hey... I think you are competition to writing about traveling on a 480 DB!

I assume you were more comfy than in your Sundancer?
 
I still have a ways to go before I have enough material for a book, but yes I was much more comfy...

I am looking for someone to travel down to the Bahamas with me though.
 
did you make it into any of the finger lakes along the way?
 
We didn't get to any of the Finger Lakes, not enough time and out west there are low bridges again. We had to turn north at the Oswego Canal. People we ran into said the western Erie Canal is much nicer, the docks are nicer, some even have free laundry, scenery is much nicer, etc. We went through Lake Onieda, and Lake Ontario though.
 

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