And They;re off!

Thursday, June 27th

Tom and I took a bus from Phoenix to Fulton, which is at Lock 3. I had been texting back and forth with a Larry who had been stuck their with four other looper boats. Larry told us Fulton was having food and music by the water so we went. It was fun and we had a chance to look over the lock and town. After spending a few hours we agreed that we much preferred Phoenix.  While in Fulton the long anticipated text arrived.  The Oswego was opening in the morning. There were now 12 boats behind us in Brewerton waiting for the canal to open.  Add this to the five of us at Phoenix and it was going to be a busy day on the Oswego. Upon our return to Laughter we discovered that several more boats came in and tied up to the wall right outside the lock. Now the dock was buzzing. Would the new boaters respect the fact that the five of us were here first? Would they let the five of us pass them and go first? Is someone going to speak up about it?  Should someone assign numbers? A maximum of 6 boats can squeeze into the lock at a time so who's in first?  At one point there was a gaggle of guys discussing these questions. Tomorrow morning is going to be an interesting?
The lock was scheduled to open at 7:00. By 6:30, coffee in hand the guys were discussing again. Several of the new boats up front already had their engines warming up. By 6:45 three more boats were jockeying around at the entrance to the dock area. They had left Brewerton at dawn to arrive by lock opening. Apparently Tom either volunteered or was elected to say something via radio to those who tied up in front of us. Their response was not pretty so, as they say in racing,  Start your engines! The bold pulled out and passed those who were trying to cut in on an appropriate line. We just watched the show because our starboard engine wouldn't start! So down in the engine room Tom goes to bleed the air out.  Done in record time we made the second group to enter the lock and were on our way!

 Lock 1 has a low bridge just after the lock. When the lock doors open to leave the lock the bridge must also be raised for us to pass under.

                           One of the other boats took our photo with all the fenders. you are required to have fenders down on both sides of your boat for the Erie and Oswego canals in case they want to raft a smaller boat off of yours.

The dam released water close to the lock making the water a challenge when we left the lock.