Erie Canal -- Brockport to Newark

 Tuesday, July 18 -- Brockport to Newark -- 52 miles (and 4 locks)

We got underway at 10:15 after a quick walk into town to get some cash, coffee and pastries. It took us 7 and a half hours to get to Newark, which works out to averages of 8 mph and 15 minutes per lock. There was also lots of lift bridges. The locks and lift bridges were always ready for us and the operators were always very polite and friendly. The State of New York works to make the canals a nice experience for boaters. 

Interesting sights along the way today included the lift bridge and town dock at Spencerport,

an old dormitory barge for canal workers,

the intersection of the canal with the Genesee River just south of Rochester,

and rental canal boats passing by. We passed four of these during the day, and there was one tied up at Newark when we arrived there. John spoke with the guys who were renting it and they said theirs had two bedrooms, two heads (but just one shower), a galley and dinette and cost about $700 a day.  

 

We saw this boat tied up at the town dock in Pittsford. It was custom-built in the Netherlands. A guy we visited with in Brockport had visited with the owner of this boat earlier and told us about it. It is a beautiful boat and very distinctive. John thought it looked familiar and found a picture of it that we took in Charleston, SC during our intracoastal trip last summer. So these folks obviously get around.

There were lots of boats tied up at the public docks in Fairport, which supposedly was one of the earliest towns to pick up on the tourism business that the canal offers. 

Just past Macedon we passed this lock from the original Erie Canal. 

We had a big audience watching us exit Lock 29 outside of Palmyra, even though it was drizzling. There were usually onlookers at the locks -- often fishing as well as onlooking. 

When we pulled up to the town dock in Newark we were chagrined to find the town in the middle of some sort of food festival that included live music, which was not only loud but not very good. The Captain nearly lost his mind at this discovery, but the nice volunteer lady at the welcome desk assured us it would be over by eight, and she was right. We missed most of the noise while we were at dinner in town, and all was quiet when we got back to the boat. The funny part was that she told us that they do this festival just once every summer. Oh well.