Day 310 - Trapped Like Rats — Captain Father John

Miles cruised 26, fuel purchased $0, slip fee $90, daily high temperature 87°f

We were trapped like rats at the entrance to lock one on the Oswego Canal in Phoenix, NY. The lock is working but the bridge on the north side of the lock will not open. Priscilla and I walked over to talk with the lock master. There was another fellow flipping pages on a giant paper schematic of the bridge’s electrical system. The power supply to lower the guard gates is not working. The bridge cannot be raised until the guard gates are down. The electrician said it could take 30 minutes or 3 hours to determine the cause of the problem. We wished him good luck. The bridge height is only 11 feet. We need 18′ of clearance.

We are starting to collect other boats on the lock wall with us. They were also waiting to lock through.

This is our first extended delay for our entire trip. As always it could be worse. On the bright side we are tied to the free dock which is in downtown Phoenix. There is a bakery and a restaurant less than a block away and this is the home of Scooper Douper’s ice cream treats. In addition there is a concert tonight in the park next to our boat at 6:00 pm. The generator is running. The air conditioning is on. We will be fine.

At 2:30 pm after waiting 4.5 hours the lock opened. Eight boats crammed into every space along both sides of the wall. We were in a herd; the same one we will transit seven locks with all the way to Oswego.

We were the last boat into the lock. We had to make sure we were not on top of the sill as the water dropped. That would not be good to be hung up on the sill.

We will be getting into Oswego a lot later than planned. I am glad we were able to get a slip at the Oswego Marina so we don’t have to travel 12 miles on Lake Ontario to get to the next closest harbor. One boat dropped off from the herd at lock 5. The remaining seven boats are headed to Oswego for HarborFest weekend. The music headliners are Blues Traveler and Dennis DeYoung with the music of Styx.

This is the lock we were looking for – lock number 8.

Nine hours from the time we departed Pirate’s Cove we arrived in Oswego. We can see Lake Ontario is calm and flat as glass as we pulled into our slip, plugged in, cranked the AC and opened a beer. However, as with the rest of the day opening the celebratory beer was not without its drama. The bottle opener we had used for the entire trip and opened 100’s if not 1,000’s of beers broke in two. Farewell old friend, you served us well.

Carl (Chef) Wooden – quote of the day.

“A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” -William Shedd

William Greenough Thayer Shedd (June 21, 1820 – November 17, 1894), son of the Reverend Marshall Shedd and Eliza Thayer, was an American Presbyterian theologian born in Acton, Massachusetts.

In 1835, Shedd enrolled at the University of Vermont, and became a protégé of UVM president James Marsh. Under the influence of his mentor, Shedd was deeply affected by the thought of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Transcendentalism.[2] He graduated from UVM in 1839 and taught school for one year, during which time he began to attend the Presbyterian church. Being called to the ministry, Shedd entered Andover Theological Seminary in 1840 and studied under theologian Leonard Woods. He graduated in 1843.