43°12′8″ N 75°43′34″ W
Aug 14 – Sylvan Beach, NY

We left Little Falls at 7:30am this morning headed for a series of 5 locks – 3 lifting us up & the final 2 lowering us down.

I have 2 chartplotters running on the flybridge at all times. My main source of info is from Tiki Navigator which is installed on my laptop & the 2nd unit is a marine Garmin unit. Both systems are good but I have learned to trust Tiki more than the Garmin.

The photo below of the screen on the Garmin shows me running over land …. not a good idea on a boat …. talk about running aground!

A few miles later we were in the canal running parallel to the Mohawk River – which is not navigable in this area.

Tiki shows our location….

Garmin (at the same time) – in the other channel!

Tiki wins first prize for accuracy!

On our route today we encountered a few work crews dredging the canal.

It was interesting to see them doing their thing….

In one location a bottom dredger was sucking mud out of the bottom of the canal & pumping it over the bank of the canal into settling ponds/spoil areas & in other areas excavators were loading the muck into barges because there were no spoil areas close enough nearby for pumping.

Tugs were taking full barges away and bringing empty ones to fill.

Good to see these people at work ’cause that means we have much less chance of running aground!

It was a beautiful day to travel on the canal… next to no wind & sunny, but not excessively hot. Our trip on the canal today reminded us a lot of our narrowboat adventure last fall in England.

We are now tied up on a canal wall at the end of Lake Oneida. We will travel 20 miles to the other end of the lake tomorrow morning & enter back into the Erie Canal System. The screenshot below shows our location relative to Lake Ontario, Toronto, etc.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is a big decision day for us. After we leave Lake Oneida we have to choose between going on to Oswego, NY & into Lake Ontario or to continue in the Erie Canal system to Buffalo & then into Lake Erie. Each route has its advantages & disadvantages.

Check back tomorrow to find out which way we will go – we don’t even know ourselves yet!

Cheers!