Erie (barge) canal

nwaring

nwaring

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Ronlord, any canal news I need to know? I checked the canal notice to mariners and all seemed good. Our plan is to enter the canal on 7/3 and arrive in Watkins Glenn on the 6th, spend a couple days and come back out. After that first low bridge in Tonawanda on day 1 am I ok to put the radar back up? My air draft is around 17' 2" with it up. There looks like there is a low bridge on the canal leading into Lake Seneca. Earlier you mentioned there are some 36DC running around the canal, are they running with full canvas up? I am around 15' 3' that way; I don't really want to drop it if I don't have to. I will keep a eye for Missy on our way back out.

Thanks
Niles

DSCN1360.jpg
 
Niles

Plan on leaving your radar down - you won't need it anyway. Your canvas will be fine, we leave ours up full time and draft about the same as you do. We are heading out on Friday, July 2. Not sure how far we are going, we are planning on spending a few days in Rochester to catch the 4th of July fireworks, then heading east from there.

You will have some long days of traveling to make Watkins Glenn in 3 days, but it is doable. What is the name of your boat, I'll keep an eye out for you in our travels.
 
Forget what I said about your name - I see it in your signature - Interlude. Dummy me.
 
Tanq

He'll be fine as long as he leaves his radar down. We have similar size boats and air drafts. Our boat has done the entire canal system twice over with no issues. The heights listed are not very accurate, there is no 15' bridge or cable. The lowest bridges we have found are the railroad bridge in Clyde, the railroad bridge on the CS canal just past lock 1, and the railroad bridge just outside of Mechanicsville on the Champlain canal.
 
Thanks guys. I was hoping to put it back up so it would be out of the way, oh well. I plan on dropping the end of the pole down on the aft deck and tipping it back to the stern railing. That will pretty much screw up that starboard side of the aft deck for line handling in the locks. If it gets real bad in the way maybe I can shove it up along the seat on the starboard side of the bridge?? Maybe I ought to take it off for the whole trip?

We are planning on arriving in WG at the end of the 4th day 7/6. We figured 3 days would be a tough push. The 4th will be our second on the canal, any ideas on where we can see some fireworks? Btw…we are traveling with a 36’ Silverton express and 37’ Larson express, they won’t have bridge issues.

Niles
 
Just went thru on a 80' lazzara that had a 19'6 air draft and had no issues. Note that we ran up the oswego to lake ontario. Western portions of the canal usually need less than 15'6. Hope this helps.
 
I have decided to remove the radar for this trip, I think it would just be in the way too much.

Niles
 
Ron, we grouped together yesterday and have changed our plans somewhat. We have decided to run the Wellland Canal and travel across the bottom of Ontario and enter the canal system at Oswego then head west and go to Watkins Glenn then back out to Buffalo. I'll keep an eye out for you. We still are shooting to push off the afternoon of 7/1 stopping in Erie before heading over to Port Colborne.

Niles
 
Niles

Should be a great trip for you - plan an overnight in Sodus Bay on Lake Ontario - really nice stop. You will pass us on your return trip, our plans have us back at Gasport on 7/11, we'll be somewhere on the western half of the canal between 7/1 and then. Feel free to email me if you need any information.

ron at rochesterboating.com

http://RochesterBoating.com
 
Ron, we are back. Thanks again for the info.

As most trips this one evolved as we went. I’ll do a write up with pics in a separate thread later. We went a total of 714 miles in 18 days. The furthest south we got was Seneca Falls. Not too long after we left Seneca Falls to start west we came to the railroad bridge just west of lock 26. The lock master called it at 15’ 4”. I am 15” 3”, we JUST made it. The rear edge of my bimini touched a little. There were a few others that were fairly tight. I saw your boat as we passed, it looked great.

Niles
 
Niles

Glad to hear your trip went well, sorry our paths did not cross. If you made it under the Clyde bridge, you are good to go anywhere on the canal - that is the lowest bridge.

Sounds like you had a good time, I know the weather couldn't have been nicer (well, maybe a bit cooler!) We stayed in Rochester for 3 days to catch the big July 4 fireworks display (simply awesome!) then went to Newark and turned around and headed home since we only had a week off.

Hope to meet you sometime in the future.

-Ron

Our boating blog:
http://boatingtrips.rochesterboating.com
 
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