Day's 36

• Newark NY - Fairport NY
• Start 7:40 am
• End 11:50 am
• Underway 2:50 Hours
• Locks - 2
• Distance 17 miles
• Av Speed 5.9 knots

WOW what a day. We only traveled 17 miles, but it was a rough 17 miles. To start we had to go through Lock 29 to Lock 30. About 5 weeks ago there was a leak in the canal wall letting most of the water out of that section of the canal. Normally the canal maintains a depth of 10 to 12 feet of water. Now between Locks 29 and 30 there are spots that only have about 5 feet of water and some spots even lower than that. Any vessel that draws more than 5 feet is not allow to transit this section, until the repairs are complete. (Nothing To Plunder only draws about 3'2") They also only allow travel in one direction at a time. When we got to Lock 29 we had to wait 45 minutes, before we were allowed to transit. In the Fairport Photo Album, you can see pictures of how low the water is.

Once we got into Lock 29, the lock operator gave us a heat map, that showed all of the critically low spots (one section was about 1 mile long) Following the heat map, we made it through without touching the bottom. Some of our friends have reported bumping the bottom.

Once we got past the shallow spots and into Lock 30, we were back into normal water depth, we were at out next challenge. Our boat needs 15'3" of clearance above the water, the next bridge after Lock 30 has a posted clearance of 15'6". That can vary depending on recent rain or lack of rain. There are no markings on the bridge to tell you the current clearance. We made it under the bridge with about 8 inches of clearance. If I did not make it under this bridge, I would have to back track about q50 miles, and hire someone to take the boat through Canada.

After making it under the bridge, as predicted is started raining. I do not mind running in the rain, but as we approached Fairport the thunder started. So we decided to spend the night at Fairport.

Fairport has the honor of being in the Guinness Book of World Records. All four corners of the lift bridge are at different heights. Also the bridge has been closed to car and foot traffic for over two years while it was being rebuilt. It just opened to car traffic about 2 hours before we arrived. One other neat fact about the lift bridges over the Erie Canal, is that when they were built, there was more boat traffic than auto traffic. The bridges were designed to be left in the up position and lowered when traffic need to pass over the bridge. Because of this there are stairs at both sides of the canal, so pedestrians can walk over the bridge while it is raised. When the bridge is down, the stairs appear to go nowhere. (See the pictures in the Gasport Album)