Our original plan had been to cruise on to Pittsford before reversing course. However, upon leaving the dock at Fairport, we neglected to lower our mast thinking that the lift bridge just ahead of us would raise high enough for the mast to clear. Well, it didn't. Our first clue was the terrible sound the mast made striking the bridge and then the crash when the mast fell onto our dinghy, which we carry on the upper deck. We broke off the anchor light, search light, navigation light, VHF and GPS antennas. Luckily, we did no damage to the bridge. The Fairport lift bridge is listed in the Guinness Book of Records for several reasons: one end of the bridge is higher than the other, it is built on a slant and no two angles on the entire bridge are the same.
The damage put a damper on this part of the trip. We felt like we had to get things repaired as soon as possible. So we headed back east with a goal to have the repair work completed at Winter Harbor Marina.
On the way, we stopped overnight in Palmyra. We had previously passed up their nice waterfront dock several times always with the thought of stopping next time we passed. We were glad we finally made the stop. It is at a park, nice and clean, free and has water and electric. A boater's dream. We walked into town to Mark's Pizza and brought a pizza back to the boat for dinner. Very good!
Again we stopped at Baldwinsville for the night and then on to Winter Harbor the next day. We arrived early and they were able to haul us since we also planned to get the bottom painted and have some gelcoat/fiberglass work taken care of in addition to having the mast fixtures replaced/repaired. Parts had to be ordered so we were at Winter Harbor about a week.
We crossed Oneida Lake and pulled into Sylvan Beach, a busy resort area, with a beach, nice restaurants, shops, and its own amusement park. This was another free dock, but no electric or water at this stop. We stayed a few nights and went on to Illion. Illion charges for dockage, $1.00/ft., but we had heard that it was a nice stop and that the Remington Firearms factory tour and museum were worthwhile visits. Remington has been in Illion since the early 1800's. It employs about 900 people and runs 3 shifts a day 5 days/week. No wonder there are so many guns on the street.
General Herkimer, who fought during the Revolutionary War and has a town named after him, had a home along the canal. It is now a State Historic Site with a small dock overlooking the grounds and home, picnic table and grill. Tours of the home and site are Wednesday through Sunday. Unfortunately, we arrived on a Monday. It was a nice stop. We will have to stop again for the tour. Very quiet except for the occasional passing train and excellent scenery.
The following night we docked at the terminal wall at Lock 8. We will go through the lock in the morning. We learned to dock above the lock on the west side since the water falls along the canal cause a lot of turbulence below the lock. We had tried docking on the east side of Lock 8 on the trip up. It didn't work.
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