Celebrating a return

I am sitting on the upper deck of the M/V Grande Mariner in the Oswego Harbor looking out at Lake Ontario.  My perch is one of two spaces that jut out slightly behind the pilothouse on either side of the ship.  This morning I have chosen the port side (think left; both words having four letter is how I came to remember it) since the lighthouse, a small double structure of dwelling and light, both white and roofed in red, is on this side.  It sits on a long breakwater which curves into the mouth of the Oswego River from the west.  Its right side will be illuminated soon as dawn gives way to daylight and the sun rises.  It is 5:30; we are departing at 6:00.  Our destination today is Rochester.

Since we left home last Sunday, I have been keeping the journal as usual and camera use has been high.  No surprise there.  Computer time has been another thing all together.  The choice made itself.  The rivers we have sailed – the East, the Hudson, the Mohawk and the Oswego—and the canals we have navigated – the Erie and the Oswego – have claimed my near complete attention.  The weather over these days has been variable: wet to dry, cold to hot, overcast to sunny.  With foul weather gear I have been able to be out in most of it, drinking in the landscape along the rivers and marveling at the rise and fall of the ship in the locks.  There simply hasn't been time for computers.

In both sets of locks we have been something of a spectacle, being the first cruise ship to use the New York State Canal System this season.  At almost every lock there were a few locals ready to watch us lock through.  But, no place along the system could top the greeting our ship received in Waterford where the Mohawk joins the Hudson. 

We were escorted from the Federal Lock just north of Troy to Waterford, the canal's official beginning, by a large tug boat where a cluster of state and local dignitaries, the president of Blount Small Ship Adventures, a knot of television crews and reporters and onlookers of all ages awaited us.  Waterford’s fire truck pumped a long arc of water into our path.  The return of the Grande Mariner to the canal system was an event of special note.

Last year this time Tal and I were on her first Warren RI to Chicago IL run of the season.  Because of heavy springtime flooding in the northeast the Erie Canal opened late.  We entered it on its opening day.  But the water on the Oswego Canal was still too high for the ship to use and our itinerary was adjusted rather severely.  (A tour of historic waterways by bus was an interesting turn of events.  More about that in Meanderings from 17 May to  2 June.) 

Then, on Blount’s last runs of the 2011 season two of their three ships encountered Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee while in the canal system.  The passengers required rescue, the ships ended up trapped for 70 days and the state of New York spent millions repairing the locks and canal enough to free them.  Hence, the celebratory flay waving at the advent of the 2012 cruise season.

After all that a celebration and some handshaking was in order.  I decided it was a good sign; Tal and I should sail all the way to Chicago on this try.  It was our celebration, too.

A new wrinkle

Essays detailing the past few days are composed in my journal, but I've not taken the time away from our activities to sit with the computer and  type them.  Stay tuned for posts that pre-date this one with its late-breaking news..

Well, we learned our fate after dinner.  The water at Oswego is still above flood stage, raging over the dam, meaning that no repairs from winter damage have yet been made and none of the bouys have been installed for the season -- a three day chore once the water abates.  So, the canal will not open this week and a decision as to a target opening date won't be made until sometime next week.

With our revised, slowed-down schedule while we waited to see about Oswego we were going to have to go like the wind once we entered the Great Lakes to get to Chicago by breakfast on June 2nd.  It now looks doubtful that the boat will be in Chicago in time to begin its next scheduled trip on June 4th.  In any event we will not sail the Great Lakes on this trip.

We are, however, going to get the Eric Canal experience, cruising as far as Sylvan Beach, to quote our on-board historian, "leaving the boat (and crew) in the woods."  They and it will wait it out.  Once a vessel this size is in the canal system it's trapped, and the Grande Mariner has to get to Chicago.  We will -- it's our individual choice -- either fly home from Buffalo after seeing Niagara Falls or continue the adventure overland by coach.

The option to continue on is not unattractive and that's what we are going to do.  Several of the excursions that had had to be removed from the itinerary due to our dawdling here at the beginning have been reinstated, like time in Cleveland, Dearborn, Chicago with a visit to the Toledo Museum of Art and a Mud Hens game (think Klinger!).

I'm going to bed a little sad, but content.  People at Road Scholar, Coastal Adventures and Blount are working hard to arrange experiences between Buffalo and Chicago that will continue our historic waterway theme and Tal and I are together.  I cannot ask for or hope for anything better than that.  In fact, there isnt't anything better than that.

What almost wasn't

This is a trip that very nearly did not happen.  And, it might yet end up dry-docked, so to speak.  Rain has been falling for some time in New York state.  The Erie Canal has been able to be opened, although one lock might still be troublesome for our ship.  But, the Finger Lakes are draining at a furious rate and the water is so high on the Oswego Canal (which connects the Eric Canal to Lake Ontario) as to make it unusable.

So, the published itinerary has been altered radically, slowing down our progress in hopes that the magic date of May 27th will actually mark the canal's opening for the season.  At any rate, we are aboard, afloat, cast off, underway!

This our first view of the Grande Mariner from the coach which transported us from the Johnson & Wales Inn in Seekonk MA to the dock in Warren RI.  I'll work at getting a better shot from a dock along the way, a shot without junk in the foreground.

I feel sorry for those who planned and who are leading this historic waterways trip -- for the long-established and now undone schedule, for the last minute scramble they're going to have to handle through the coming 15 days.  While I have a disappointment or two related to stops we'll not longer be able to make, I don't feel particularly sorry for myself or us passengers.  We are off on an adventure!

Nancy Hauswald, program manager for Coastal Discoveries in Belfast ME, the company offering this trip for Road Scholar/Elderhostel, wrote us a letter about the situation in the Oswego Canal which awaited us in our cabins.  She included this quote from "The Wind in the Willows" (Kenneth Grahame):

Boats ... in or out of 'em, it doesn't matter.  Nothing seems really to matter, that's the charm of it.  Whether you get away, or whether you don't, whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular, and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not ... The Mole waggled his toes from sheer happiness ... 'What a day I'm having!' he said.  'Let us start at once.'