O Canada, or Was That Oswego?

I'm sitting on our deck looking up at the stars in the blue sky. It looks like a night sky put in motion like you might see on a National Geographic special, but it's 6:00 in the evening, the sky is blue and the "stars" are little puff balls from the cottonwood tree at the back corner of our property. There must be millions of the little things. They accumulate like snow all over the place. I have had to place a protective cover over my glass of Scotch to keep the little cotton balls from landing in it. The cover is actually a pamphlet entitled "Welcome to the Oswego River and Canal" which has a direct relation to our trip to Canada.

This past Wednesday, June 18, 2014, we woke up at 5:00 am, had breakfast and arrived at the dock at Fair Haven at 7:00 am to begin our sail across Lake Ontario aboard the Schooner Sara B. with Skipper Sue and Skipper Chris. The Sara B is owned by a limited liability company of which we are a part. [Skipper Sue, in her parallel life, is the well known author, Susan Peterson Gateley, who has written a number of books on the history, folklore and ecology of Lake Ontario and the surrounding area. You can learn more about her here.]

 Sailor Bill

 Skipper Sue

Skipper Chris

We loaded aboard, via dinghy, our backpacks, food, foul weather gear, cooler and bedding and we headed North for Canada. About an hour or so into the trip, the seas were beating and the winds were whipping in an unfavorable direction. Old Man Winter had forgotten to go to his home and he made us very cold. Three days before Summer we were all in our winter foul weather gear. The final straw was that fog was spotted on the horizon and concern arose about crossing shipping lanes and navigating Canadian shoals in poor visibility. We collectively decided to tack and head for friendlier waters.

Friendlier waters were found in Sodus Bay. Initially, I was a little disappointed because we can drive to Sodus Bay in about forty minutes and I was looking forward to overnighting in the wilds of Canada a little east of Toronto. Sodus Bay, however, proved quite agreeable. We found an anchorage were we could only see trees on shore. It reminded me very much of Second and Third Lakes in the Adirondacks near Old Forge. A quiet night was spent there.

Sodus Bay

We awoke the next morning to a fog and a light north wind. Since we wanted to go North, the wind was of little help. We could motor there, but the idea was to sail, a much different experience, so, after consulting the marine weather forecast and sticking our fingers up in the air to determine the wind's true direction, it was decided to head east to Oswego. My only prior experience with Oswego was when Anne and I drove through there on our way home from Alex Bay and I have to say that with major road construction and travel through an industrialized part of the city, I was not very impressed. The harbor, however, was a different story.

We were graciously afforded dockage at the H. Lee White Marine Museum. Hopefully, it was the antiquity of our vessel that was prized and not the antiquity of the crew. We arrived as the museum was closing, so we declared "Happy Hour," relaxed, had dinner, relaxed some more, took delightful, hot showers at the attached boating education center, relaxed some more, witnessed a beautiful sunset, listened to Taps begin played at the adjacent Coast Guard station and went to bed.

Anne on Sara B.

Sara B. at dock in Oswego

Does he plan to drive that boat?

I was expecting to be awaken by Reveille being played, but, that was played later. I guess the Coast Guard is more laid back than the Army. We munched on some donuts and banana and began our day. Chris and I walked to the nearby marina to get ice and noticed a sign for several harbor and park walks, so after getting the ice stowed, we set out for a walk of a little more than a mile around the harbor and marina. The harbor was being dredged so we diverted to a spot where we could observe the crane loading a barge with muck. We learned a lot about the history of Oswego harbor from Sue. After viewing the harbor today, it was amazing to find out about the amount of industry, shipping and even yachting that took place in days long past.

Tug pushing barge from harbor dredging.

There was a farmers' market in progress a relatively short walk away, so we opted for more exercise, bought honey, some strawberries and some muffins. After lunch on board we visited the marine museum which included a self guided tour of the USAT Tug LT-5 (Major Elisha K. Henson) which is still operated for educational purposes. There was also a massive Erie Canal Derrick Barge that we toured. After we finished with the museum, Anne and I were pretty tired of walking whereupon Skipper Chris and I declared that Happy Hour had mercifully arrived. We remained the rest of the evening on the boat.

World War II Tug LT-5

Anne on LT-5

Saturday dawned bright and sunny, although with not much wind. Docked near the museum is a metal hulled schooner, The Ontario, which has been undergoing restoration for the past twenty six years. It is almost finished and quite good looking. One of the other LLC members, Rich, has been quite active in the restoration. We walked down to visit with him and watch other volunteers splicing rope and doing other boatly chores.

Sue had been talking about the Oswego Canal and a restored 1901 tug that was docked about a mile away at Lock #8. We learned that there was a flotilla of several hundred kayaks heading for the lock, but we didn't see them. One kayak type canoe and a sailboat that were transiting the lock tied up waiting for the water to drop and we got to talking with the Canadian sailor, who, it turns out, was completing a transatlantic voyage by himself. He had sailed from Newfoundland to Ireland and then from Gibraltar to Antigua and then on up the east coast.  He had a day or two to go until he reached home in Toronto.

 Canal Tug Urger 

Canadian sailor homeward bound

On the way back to the boat, Anne and I stopped at the Oswego Railroad Museum which was a nicely done, mostly HO gauge layout of the Oswego harbor and surrounding area. A very knowledgeable man by the name of Billy walked us through the layout and explained the history of the New York Central and Lackawanna railroads in the area.

When we got back to the boat Rich was there and we had a nice lunch. It was now close to 2:00 pm and we hoped there would be a little bit of wind to sail back to Fair Haven. There was a little wind, but not enough to fill the gaff rigged main and fore sails, nor the stay and jib sails. We tried to sail, but finally gave up and fired up the old Thornycroft diesel and motored back to Little Sodus Bay. The weather was still nice so we ended our voyage to Canada with a tasty dinner at the Pleasant Beach Hotel and Restaurant.

We didn't get to Canada, but when we moved up here, I set a goal to visit and learn about the places nearby. Sailing along with Southern Shore of Lake Ontario, seeing Chimney Bluffs from the water, overnighting in Sodus Bay and visiting Oswego were great ways to experience the Silver Waters of the Inland Sea.