Locks 16 through 18

Well, here we are at Ilion. Yes, we finally were able to move 20 miles through the oft closed section of the Erie Canal. We got to lock E16 bright eyed and bushy tailed as the 5th boat to arrive at the door upon opening. The NY Canal Corporation had decided to fit as many boats as they could in the lock and then have us travel in a group to the following lock at 5 mph, not knots. Knots are faster than mph. There were 9 boats in our group. This was the section that closed the canal for a month in the middle of May due to damage on the levee walls. Going through that section was somewhat relaxing as there were some boats that couldn’t go as slow as 5 mph. They would put their boats in gear, get close to the boat in front, take their boat out of gear and glide. For them, it was probably nerve wrecking. While we can go up to about 16 knots, we have no issues with going less than 5. We get very good fuel economy at that speed.

At lock 17, they were only using the south wall so they had to break our group in half. That meant only 4 boats could lock thru at a time. Rather than have three locking groups, the lock master requested one of the smaller boats come in and raft off of one of the larger boats. It was a 40 foot lift in the lock. We volunteered and in we went. Kevin held the rope at the stern of our boat to hold the two boats in and the male owner of the boat held us fast at the bow. It can be a wild ride in the locks when the lockmaster is in a hurry. They open the fill water valve all the way and in comes the water from the bottom of the lock creating a lot of turbulence.

We are now in the town of Ilion NY. Ilion's claim to fame is not the Marina/RV park, but is the home of Remington Arms. It was started here in 1816. Once the canal opened in 1825, they were able to ship various guns down the canal towards New York City. According to Remington's website, their headquarters and manufacturing are still located here.

Ilion appears to be the only town with a marina before we get to Sylvan Beach at Lake Oneida, a distance of 39 miles. There are thunderstorms forecast for tomorrow and we don’t want to cross a 20 mile long lake in that kind of weather to get to Brewerton, NY where there are wonderful marinas with courtesy cars. We could have left today and tie up at dam walls along the way, but they don’t appear to have any amenities. So, tomorrow, we will get going early to catch the first 8:00 am lock thru and dodging rain on the canal and try to get to Sylvan Beach, NY. The forecast for crossing the lake looks better for Sunday and onto Brewerton, NY.