Farewell Great Lakes and hello Erie Canal.

Arrived at Port Colborne after three uneventfull days of sailing from Mentor Harbor outside Cleveland. The marina is right next to the Welland Canal entrance so we got our act together early and checked in with "trafic control" at 7:30AM. Since we knew this canal gives priority to the commercial freighters locking through, delay getting the go ahead is a real possibility. The initial time we were given was 2:00
PM which turned out to be 5:00PM.

We locked through with two other sailboats and arrived Lake Ontario at 1:00AM the next day. While locking through the 5th of 8 locks the first mate caught a locking line in the eye and was in immense pain.
After visiting the pharmacy in Niagara on the Lake, Ontario, Canada (which is the most beautiful town visited so far, sorry Cleveland and Sturgeon Bay) the next day, we're happy to report all is well  now. It is worthy to note that the 1st Mate showed up for her duties like a true "seaman" for the last three locks.
A bit of info to note on these locks; we were locking down so the turbulence is less than locking up when an average change in elevation is 46 feet forced into a lock about 40 X 1000 feet.  It took 5 minutes or so for all this to happen. 

Spent a very HOT day at the Niagara on the Lake Sailing Club before moving across the southern shore of Lake Ontario. A stop in the little resort town of Sodus Bay, population 1100 and three churches (the crew picked the Methodist one for Sunday worship), was a welcome rest for two days.
The town puts on concerts in the park over looking the Lake on Saturday afternoons. We biked over to enjoy two brothers performing Irish and other Folk songs.  Quite nice, actually.

Arrived Oswego, New York later in the day Monday due to a series of thunder bumpers that came through while on our 25 mile sail there. 37 Kt winds were anti-climatic after our 57.5Kt experience on Lake Huron.  Too windy to take the mast down so we continued to ready HD to be demasted the next day. The Captain performed all the prep work with guidance via phone from Chris who we met at Eldeans in Holland.

Tuesday morning Bernie at Oswego marina assisted by two hefty helpers and the crew accomplished the de-mast-task flawlessly. The mast with her rigging had to be readied for shipping to the Hudson River by the crew. Thanks to Chris' info and the first mate laboring alongside Captain, all was neatly done and given the OK by Bernie as the best mast-packing job he has seen. Hopefully the trucking company will treat her kindly as well and arrive in the same shape it left Oswego.

The crew is currently enjoying an extended shore leave of 4 days. It is "Harbor Feast" in Oswego with a expected 300,000 people to participate in the concerts, vendors, food and fireworks which are supposed to be second to none.

Since the MRI taken in Cleveland didn't show any tear in the Captain's rotator cuff, the first mate, who is also a self-proclaimed medical doctor, made arrangements to have the shoulder rehabbed with all the shore time available.

Food in Oswego is excellent. New York pizza, yea! 

Next stop - The Erie Canal.

Waiting 10 hours to go thru the locks...at least near downtown!

Those walls kept getting higher and higher.

We loved Niagra on the Lake-Prince of Wales Hotel was gorgeous!

Taking a break from the action.

Red sky at night....

Nice town to go back to

Bernie and Pete "into action"

Bernie and 1 of his hefty helpers

Successfully down!

What a job wrapping for shipping!

Our first "back-east" style dinner...scallops and sweet potato fries
at a little hole in the wall restaraunt near the water in Oswego.
Preceded by NY pizza for appetizer and NY pizza for dessert.

Peace and Love.