Not much happening, except Rain & Netflix

Friday, was not the travel day that we had wanted, but rather we sat patiently in the town of Brewerton at the Ess-Kay Marina and watched the rain pour down for most of the day. It was the remnants of Hurricane Debby and yes, she did us in and kept us tied up to a dock. The State of New York has shut down a series of locks and drained most of the water from the canals between Lock 6 and Lock 16 to allow for high levels of flood waters to collect and avoid any flooding of the towns nearby. We passed through Lock 23 Thursday. In the meantime, the State has now closed more locks to prevent any boaters from travelling close to the drained canal area. What does this mean for us? Well, we can go one more lock, but no further than Lock 21 and that's it. We are now "Ground to a Halt."

Ess-Kay Marina and Fuel Dock

Our stay in Brewerton is really timely and we are fortunate to be here during the canal shutdown rather than tied up to a lock wall with no where to go. This town sits on the Western end of Oneida Lake, which is 37 Kilometers long and for us that should be a 3-hour cruise. Our plan is to leave on Saturday morning around 9 or 10 am and boat to the other end of the lake where Sylvan Beach is located and the Erie Canal continues. It is a tourist area with a beach, a small amusement park, several restaurants and a 1,000 foot concrete wall for boats to dock, and it is free. We are thinking that if we can get to Sylvan Beach, and when we get a Notice To Mariners that lets us know when the canal will reopen, we will be 3 hours closer to NYC and can make up time later this coming week. Maybe they will open a portion of the locks first (possibly 6 or 7 locks) which will allow us another day of travel getting closer to NYC.

While on the boat watching it rain, we also watched a Netflix movie (or two) and did some additional cleanup of the boat. Because of the heavy rains, the exterior was clean but we had some water at the helm and aft and that needed some attention. Captain Paul spent his afternoon getting everything Spic and Span while Kyle took Jan and Cynthia for a dingy run into Lake Oneida and did some exploring of the Brewerton area by water.

There was virtually no boat traffic today and we do not expect anything tomorrow which means, when the locks open, we will likely have a free run eastbound to the Hudson River.

Our stay in Brewerton, at the Ess-Kay Marina, has been excellent. When we left Canada we paid $2.02 for a Liter of Diesel Fuel and at this marina we paid $1.32 per Liter after converting it to Canadian Dollar and taking into account the gallon vs Liter size. Who ever said that Americans pay too much for their fuel? So pricing in the US is definitely less costly than at home.

The Ess-Kay Marina has a bit of history that is impressive and noteworthy. It was originally ACE Boatyards, but in 1972 the owner passed away and it was sold to George Mann and renamed Ess-Kay Marina, in memory of their young daughter that drowned and whose name was Sara Kellogg Mann. They used initials from the child's first and second name to come up with the marina name (SK) . The Mann's had six daughters and after the loss of the youngest, the other five all worked the marina as young children. In 1996 George's wife died but he decided to put more effort into the marina and added a 70-ton travel lift (a boat crane on wheels) as well as a full service shop for boat repairs. Over the years, they added a fully stocked chandlery which is really stocked with all kinds of products, washrooms with showers and fuel for transient boaters.

In 2006 George died, and his daughter Kim, who had worked with him at the marina since she graduated college in 1977, took over running the business along with her husband Ethan, and today they both manage the marina business and it is still in the Mann family ownership. While we have been here for two days, we have watched Kim fuel boats, assist in docking, run the store, answer the phones, and coordinate all the service work for the marina. She has been doing this for 50+ years. On top of that, they loaned us their car so we could go into town and do some shopping, and they make this offer to all boaters that stay in their marina. Such an amazing operation and one that is highly regarded on the Erie Canal.

Here are some photos of the area taken by Cynthia as they went on their dingy ride with Kyle. If you look closely at the one house photo (it looks a bit like a castle) you will see a Mannequin, standing in the double doorway, and wearing a T-shirt that says, No Wake !

Tomorrow we are planning to move to Sylvan Beach, and after some navigational planning, we see that the small lake has potentially 3-foot waves, but they should be aft (behind us) and we can deal with that.

Mostly, we want to get good news that the rains were not too bad, and the canal will re-open soon. We will keep you up to date on our status.

Oh yes, in a previous blog, I stated that Port was the right side.... well that is not Right! Port is the LEFT Side. I did know that, but simply made a typo or maybe it was just late at night and my brain was not in gear. I guess this was a tiny Hallman Experience.

Thanks for the replies and all the comments and questions. If you keep up with Questions, I may publish a Special Blog addressing these items - Sounds like fun if you can keep these queries coming.

No Nebo Log today - Out To See 111 didn't move.