Phoenix to Oswego

As promised, the locks opened at 7 am. When we parked on a wall in Phoenix there were already 11 other boats there. And two others joined us in the evening. We figured it would be a big rush for the first lock through, and a number of boats had their engines running at 6:30. One of these was a h-u-g-e tri-maran that took up a full width in the lock chamber. So only 5 boats could fit. We were the 6th.

We did enter the chamber at 7:45 for the second wave.

The locks themselves were no trouble. Everyone took the same positions at each of the locks so getting in and out wasn't a problem. Well... getting out was a little problem every now and again.

We're docked against the huge blocks, put there
to keep boats from drifting onto the land.
But it makes for a tricky on/off the boat.

Since we were traveling down river that meant all the dams and spillways were waiting for you as you left the lock. And with the very high water, this made for an interesting exit at lock 3. You could see water spilling over the river banks and into our exit. I left the chamber very slowly to give the first boat time to get through the thrash. A thrash it was. Tossed left and right -- he did power through it but it looked dicey.

That was my plan: powering through it. I put the spurs to Cat-n-Dogs and we forced our way into the churn. It's such an odd sensation when the boat turns on you and you aren't the driver. You feel like you've lost control. I did manage to keep her straight(-ish) and we got out of it without incident. But there was a great deal of spin-the-wheel-left-now-spin-it-right-now-back-back-back!

Other locks weren't as bad, just a bit jostling. 

Pudgy Pug's maiden voyage

We got to the Oswego Marina and our new dinghy and it's motor was waiting for us. Russ spent a fair amount of the day unpacking and assembling (not that the dinghy needed much assembling, just attaching the motor to it).

Oswego is on Lake Ontario, which is currently 3 feet above it's normal water line. They had a tremendous amount of rain and snow these last few months. Oswego is barely above the water line now. The canal was closed for a darned good reason -- waaaaaay too much water.