Day 10 & 11: Sylvan Beach to Brewerton

 Day 10: July 28: At about 5:30 a.m. I heard John get up and open up the engine room. Down he went to investigate the squeaking noise. After rumbling around down there he poked his head up and announced that the alternator was gone. It appears the bearings let go, resulting in destruction. And so the day began.

In the meantime, Jonathan and Morgan got UW about 6:00 a.m. I'm sure they will have a smooth crossing of Oneida Lake; the skies are clear and the water is calm. We were sad to see them go as it's been fun having a buddy boat traveling with us through the canal! We will have to find someone else to play Blokus and Bananagrams with!

Back to the alternator. Luckily for us we had alternators onboard. John got them out and noted the previous owner had them packed away with notation about them having been rebuilt. One was a perfect replica. He spent 4 or 5 hours taking the old alternator off and installing the new one. Removing an old part is never easy as it seems every bolt, nut and screw have been put on by Hercules. I, of course, was at John's beck'n call, climbing and out of the engine room to pass tools to him as he squeezed himself into tiny places. What a way to spend a extremely hot day. At least we are sitting in a calm spot and are not pressured to move on. 

When John emerged from the deadly engine room he was black with grease and dripping with sweat. We decided to spend the rest of the day trying to stay cool and be ready to cross Oneida Lake tomorrow morning. 

When it cooled down in the early evening we decided to take a walk into the center of town. There were lots of restaurants, stores and of course ice cream. Between the constant boat traffic in the harbor, a heavily traveled bridge over the harbor entrance and the amount of people out and about, this is a very busy place. 

As we exited the boat we stopped to talk with a man we met when we pulled in yesterday. He has obviously traveled a lot by boat. He told us all about the lake, the Oswego Canal, rivers in Canada and more. His boat is tied up at the end of the wall and he walks Sofie, his long silky eared sweet basset hound back and forth, stopping often to chat and ask John how he was doing with repairs etc. While we were chatting, a group of teens walked by, arguing about something. One boy was the obvious aggressor, swearing and continuing to follow the other group. It didn't take long before we heard sirens and watched police arrive by land and sea! Off to the paddy-wagon young man. 

Day 11: July 29: We woke to a cooler morning. The lake had a bit of a haze over it but winds were pretty nonexistent so it was a good day to cross Oneida Lake which can get snarly at times. This lake is full of fishermen as well as what I think are mayflies. Mayflies, also called shadflies and lake flies are actually aquatic insects. As soon as we got out of the harbor we were inundated with thousands of these very annoying tiny insects. Thankfully they disappeared once we left the lake and entered the harbor. At least they didn't bite. 

Here are a few pictures of the lake including one of a huge tree floating at the harbor entrance. 

We had originally planned to cruise to Winter Harbor Marina to fuel up, take on water and pump out (coin operated) then proceed to a free dock in Phoenix, the last dock before we would head into the Oswego Canal. Phoenix is the home of the "Bridge House Brats", a group of volunteer youths who assist boaters with all sorts of things, working only for tips. As luck would have it, the cloudy day turned into a stormy one. As we edged closer to the harbor in Brewerton it began to rain and we heard a few rumblings of thunder. The rain soon became a downpour so we pulled into the free dock in Brewerton to wait out the storm. No one else is here and as luck would have it there is an electrical outlet. Good fortune once again. Being able to plug in for a day gives everything a good charge. 

We thought we would only have to stay here for a bit but as the day went on the rain became more steady. Given that we are perfectly fine for the moment we will go to plan B and stay overnight. We will resume original plans in the morning.  Pictures below are: looking at the bridge from our tie up and looking back toward Oneida Lake. 

Here is our NEBO log for the short 18.5 miles we traveled in about 2.5 hours.