Getting stuck in the mud in the Erie Canal……

It was early morning on the 6^th day out of New York City, traversing the Erie canal to reach Lake Ontario when we hit the bottom. We were really stuck. The depth sounder said we had 4’4” and my keel is 6’6”. This meant that two feet of my keel were firmly stuck in the thick mud at the bottom of the canal. We were trying to make good time to get to Oswega to get the mast put on the boat. Oswega Marina does not work on weekends. If we missed the Friday afternoon deadline, we would be in Oswega until Tuesday because Monday is a holiday in the US. I tried to reverse, but the boat would not budge. I then tried to force the boat forward, but this got us stuck further into the mud. I needed help…..

After an 8 day passage from Dominican Republic to New York City, Neil, Ben, and Steve flew back to Toronto. My friend Sam, volunteered to help me bring the boat from New York City to Toronto. He arrived early on a Sunday morning, just before Steve left on an afternoon flight. We fueled up with diesel to prepare for the 2 days of motoring up the Hudson River to Albany, the start of the Erie canal and locks.

The Hudson River is beautiful. Many years ago there was a story about the river catching fire because it was so polluted. Today there is no evidence of that. Along the way, there are people fishing and enjoying the clean water. We saw a fisherman actully catching fish as we motored by his boat. We watched as he put the catch into an icebox presumably for dinner. He was planning on eating it! We passed the military academy, West Point and thought about some of the graduates such as Douglas MacArthur, Edgar Allan Poe, and Robert Lee. The sun shone and it was warm making the passage pleasant and uneventful.

The beautiful Hudson River in the early morning with a passing train reflected in the the clean water

Just south of Albany New York on the banks of the Hudson River lies the Scarano Boat yard. They make huge 90 foot sailboats and cruisers. They also agreed to take off our mast. The Erie canal has many bridges and the 74 foot mast would not fit underneath many of them. The mast was removed with a huge crane and wrapped up. A transport truck was to pick it up in a few days to bring this to Oswega, where we could put it back on for the voyage across Lake Ontario to Toronto.

We began the next part of the journey. The Erie canal and the 30 locks we needed to negotiate. The first 23 locks would take us up to an elevation of 350 feet. Each lock is between 10-35 feet in elevation. The process is to enter the lock and motor along side of the concrete wall. Sam would grab a rope at the bow and I would grab a rope at the stern. As the water flooded into the lock, the boat would rise. There was a great deal of turbulence and we would have to hang tightly onto the rope to keep the boat from banging against the sides. At the end of each rope was a plastic weight that would allow the rope to hang vertically. As we came up the 4th or 5th lock, the rope got stuck in the bow’s cleat. A piece of the plastic broke. The force from the rising boat caused a 2” sharp chunk to skewer Sam’s ankle. It pierced his thick running shoe lacerating his ankle.

We discussed our options. One option would be to find a local emergency room and spend $2000 to get the one-inch laceration sutured. The second option was to convert the cockpit into a temporary operating room so I could suture this myself. Although I retired as a surgeon about two years ago, I convinced Sam I still knew how to suture a laceration. I cleansed the wound, infiltrated the area with xylocaine, and sutured the wound closed. After few Advil, Sam was ready to tackle the next lock……

While motoring up the Erie Canal, it is imperative to follow channel markers. It is important to keep the green buoy on the port side and the red buoy on the starboard. The Erie canal was built in the 1800’s and is maintained now strictly to transport pleasure cruisers. It is dredged to maintain a minimum depth of 8 feet. It was after lock 19 that we hit the bottom. The first time we hit the bottom, we were able to power through the mud and avoid getting stuck. The 2nd time…..not so lucky. We were carefully following the channel markers. The red buoy was 10 feet from the starbord side, as we tried to stay in the middle of the channel. The boat speed went from 5 knots to zero as we wedged the keel into the mud. We found out later that this particular marker had drifted into the shallow waters after getting dislodged…..

We were travelling with 4 other power boats in a line when it happened. They waved to us happily as they motored by in deeper waters…..

Motoring after lock 19 before getting stuck carefully following the channel markers

The lock system monitors channel 13 on VHF radio, so I called and anounced that I was stuck in the mud. Initially there was no response. I tried the telephone number but all I got was an answering machine. I was surprised to get a response from someone on S/V Sea Jay who was motoring north. They said that they were on a sailboat and were to meet some friends later on in the day about 10 miles away. They offered to help us. They said they were from Owen sound, but were spending the summer on their boat in the Chesapeake. I explained we were very stuck and I did not think a tiny sailboat could help us. She said that they get stuck all the time and they were brilliant at getting out. “Us sailors have help each other” she replied. They would lower their dinghy and do whatever they could to help.

Stuck in the mud…..

The mighty S/V Sea Jay to the rescue………

By the time S/V Sea Jay arrived to help us, we heard from the lock master. They were sending a tugboat to pull us out. We thanked S/V Sea Jay for their kind offer to help, and sent them on their way to meet up with their friends. It is very reassuring to belong to such a supportive group of adventurers as the sailing community. It is never possible to know when trouble will arrive. The only certainty is that one day as a sailor it will happen. When trouble comes, to know another sailor will help, even if inconvenient, is conforting. It is a measure of pride for me to belong to such a group.

The tugboat arrived and were a fun group of guys. They wanted to get paid in Molson beer….but sadly, our boat was dry…. They agreed to pull us out anyways.

On the move again. We arrived at Lake Oneida, the headwaters of Oswega canal system and our descent into Lake Ontario. We docked at the Oswega Marina at 1 PM on the Friday before the holiday weekend. They agreed to put on our mast! After rigging the boat, we headed out onto Lake Ontario for the 18 hour voyage back to Port Credit.

Leaving Oswega after stepping the mast at sunset for the 18 hour voyage to Toronto.

The waters were calm, but air was very cold after the sunset. Sam and I did 3 hour shifts throughout the night to watch for other boats. It was the first time I have ever seen the stars reflecting on the water in the calm flat water of Lake Ontario. The moon shadow provided a path to follow to Toronto until the moon disappeared in the west at 2 AM. This made the skies light up with millions of stars. It was a beautiful passage. At around noon, we were getting close to Toronto.

View of Toronto after the 2100 nautical mile journey from the Dominican Republic 15 days earlier.

The 2100 nm voyage was over. I was thankful for arriving safely. I was grateful for my competent and fun crew of Steve, Neil, Ben and Sam. We dodged some of the storms that other boats could not. We heard from Bob on S/V Pandora who cautioned us from entering the Gulf Stream if the conditions were adverse. We were 700 miles away from the closest shore. He was only a day or 2 behind us. He described on his blog battling 40 to 50 knot winds on the high seas. At one point, he had to sail east to west and back again to allow the northern storms to pass. We were much luckier than most and managed to avoid that storm. It’s great to be back in Toronto after spending the winter on S/V Ileana in the Caribbean.