In which Rick has a nervy b about bridges ...
We continue our voyage westward towards Fairport, our western most point of travel for the year. AGAIN-this section has many low bridges - common “looper” wisdom says that your boat should be no higher than 15 ft to make it through. We measured our boat some time ago and came up with a height of about 15.5 feet. As best as I can tell, Rick is worried about one coming up that is 15.6. We could always lower the upper canvas Bimini top on the boat and we would be plenty low enough, but we are a bit lazy and don’t feel like lowering the top, so we will venture forward and Rick will be nervous each day until we make it under the bridges. (Just between us, I think he's kinda into living on the edge!).
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More trees teasing fall colors to come
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I may be getting a bit “loopy”, but I made Rick appreciate this grouping of 'feral free-range' lawn chairs.
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As we cruise down the canal we often come across ruins from the original canal. This ruin is an aqueduct that carried the canal over the river. It is interesting to think that this is a “bridge” for water.
Here is a screen shot of our destination today - Clyde. (Notice how close we are to the big finger lakes) In our reading about the canal we learned that the towns along the original canal are spaced by the distance a team of mules could travel in one day, 13 - 15 miles.
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| Major debris in the canal-it’s all one big tree. Luckily we spotted that through the binoculars before trying to drive in between the pieces that are above the water. It was also helpful that the people on the boat coming the other direction were waving their arms and yelling to be careful. |
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| The underside of a bridge! I mean, I'm not gonna lie - this | is pretty close to my head.
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Rick continued to be DRAMATIC about bridges, and we traveled with the radar mast down. Before each bridge I would take the helm and Rick would climb up on the top of the back deck (with a tape measure-I’m not making that up) to look over the top of the boat. If the height looked good he would give me the green light to proceed (it's not like I wasn't going to slam it in reverse). For today we passed easily under all the bridges but I am sure he will come up with a reason to be anxious tomorrow. It's good to have a hobby ...
Clyde is a small town with a dock wall large enough for about 3 boats. They have a small “welcome” sign but that’s about it. The best thing to happen in Clyde was that we met fellow boaters Mike and Dana on the beautiful cruiser Journey. We had seen the boat in B’ville but didn’t get a chance to meet them. They have been traveling part of the year on Journey since 2010 and when not cruising they are RV’ing around the country.
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| Blue Horizon & Journey in Clyde, NY |
We joined them on the dock area for docktails and had a great time getting to know them better. They have great experience and since we’ve been thinking about RV life after this boating phase we asked lots of questions. They too will leave their boat at Winter Harbor over the winter so we are more or less on the same schedule.
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| On the dock in Clyde with Journey in the background |
The day ended along the beautiful Erie Canal and only the train horns broke the quiet as we said good night to Mike and Dana.
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