Chapter 66: Leaving Oneida Lake - Final Leg Begins...

Log 66
Leaving Oneida Lake, NY

5:15 AM
Saturday, July 22, 2000
EssKay Yards
Brewerton, NY.

Day 83

Our final leg has begun.
Deb, Terry, Jeanie, and I left Chicago at about 2 and arrived Syracuse at 4:30 eastern time. We thought we were going to have a problem when we were on the plane, and they announced that we should grab our stuff, and leave because the plane was broke, and they needed to find us one that worked. The good news was they found one that would fly very quickly, and we ended up only being about 35 minutes late arriving Syracuse. I would have bet a fair amount of money that that would not have happened, but it did.
Once we arrived in Syracuse, we got a taxi, and headed toward the boat. Along the way we dropped the girls off at the grocery store while Terry and I went to the liquor store. Liquor is very expensive here. They say they have a “sin” tax and things are 50% to 75% higher than at home. (The cab driver told us that cigarettes are $5 a pack. YIKES)
Terry and I finished quickly, and had the cab driver take us to the boat, and our plan was to come back and get the girls once they got finished. That would allow Terry and I a chance to unpack some things, and to get the boat ready. Everything went great. We unpacked things, and went to the marina and got the charts we would need for the rest of the trip. (I would love to have just ½ of the money back I have invested in charts that I’ll never use again)
The girls had no problems at the store, and we had the owner of the marina pick them up when they were done. (It was less than 5 minutes away)
By 7:30 we had all of our provisions for the first week, the boat was organized, we had eaten dinner (carry out Chinese) and we were sitting back to relax and plan our trip. I went in the engine room and got out the fishing poles so Terry and I could fish a little. As it turned out I went casting, and Terry went fishing. He caught a couple of large mouth bass right next to our boat. (That’s the same area the Steve Larry caught his fish when we were here 2 weeks ago) He is getting geared up for the big ones we think we’ll find up in the North Channel. The fishing must have tired him out, because almost as soon as he came in, he announced that he was done for the day, and heading to bed. We all followed.

Today…
Our plan is to head out about 6:30, and get to the first lock at 7AM. We have 6 locks to go today, and then we’ll be at Lake Ontario. Depending on the weather (The weather channel says it will be mostly sunny, and 70 degrees) we may cross Lake Ontario, and head to Kingston, Ontario, Canada. That would put us in good shape to join the Trent-Severn tomorrow, and get a jump on all of those 42 locks.
We have a long way to go, and some unbelievable territory to explore.

I’ll keep you posted…

BK