Day 138 - Crossing Oneida Lake

I was excited to be leaving “the ditch” for Oneida Lake today.  It felt good to be on open water again, even though it wasn’t for very long.  We did not leave Mariner’s Landing until 10:55 am.  There was not much activity in the marina except for a few small boats fueling up and a lady in the RV closest to us feeding the ducks.  The morning was warmer that it had been the last few days and sunny.

We passed by the Canal View restaurant and out onto the lake.  The break wall to the north was almost completely underwater.  A fair number of fishing and recreational boats of all types were out on the lake or anchored by Sylvan Beach.  Captain Randy drove close to the northeast shore near the town of Cleveland where we got a close look at the homes on the shore.  For the most part, they are more modest than homes we saw along the Atlantic or the Hudson. A few islands dot the center of the lake, Frenchman Island and Dunham Island are the 2 largest.  A tower with a green marker light sits on Frenchman Island. 

 

 

At the western end of Oneida Lake the water narrows to a channel, the Oneida River.  Our marina, Ess-Kay Yards, is located about a half mile down the channel on the port side.  We pull in to the fuel dock at 12:33 pm for diesel and a pump-out before heading to our slip.  We check in with Tammy and Kim, our very friendly dock masters.  We will be leaving the boat here for about 3 weeks. 



 

 

As we settle in, we all hear a loud popping noise – it turned out to be our water hose rupturing.  So you know by now what that means: the captain gets to go to West Marine for a new one.  Luckily, Ess-Kay has 2 courtesy cars for boaters to use and we had booked one for 6 pm for dinner.  Captain Randy found a West Marine in Cicero, a short ways from Brewerton, and we headed there at 6.  We picked up the hose and went back to Brewerton for dinner at the Waterfront Tavern, whose outdoor deck faces the channel.  It was a beautiful evening and the captain was finally able to get rum!  A guitarist and saxophone player entertained us and the tables were full.

After a light dinner we drove to Sprinkles for ice cream, another popular spot.  We would have liked to sit outside on the boat when we got back, but the mosquitos were out.  For 98% of our trip we had managed to avoid bugs, but not this night.