Erie Canal 2027 resources

[A&Etug]

Our plan has been to get used to our Cutwater 30 s le this year 2026 and take care of needed maintenance.
With the intention of traveling to the Erie canal as we grew up on it and want to travel it, at least to the Finger Lakes with the intention of being gone for a month.
Our current port is Catawba Island/Port Clinton Ohio.
I envision getting to the canal entrance in 3 stops, Erie Pa, than the canal entrance.
Aside from the NYS canal chart and waterway guide, anyone have any thoughts?
We both grew up in the Spencerport area/Rochester but its been a few years since we have been back , we also belong to great lakes cruising club.
Any resources would be helpful, Thanks

 

[CaspersCruiser]

Sign up for the New York Canal System Notices to Mariners. Their alerts are very timely and are delivered to your choice of text or email or both.

Sign Up for Notice to Mariners Alerts

By signing up for Canal Notices and Alerts, boaters can receive the latest information about Canal openings/closures, water levels, construction and other elements affecting navigation on the Erie, Champlain, Oswego and Cayuga-Seneca Canals. Residents, businesses, and other stakeholders around...

www.canals.ny.gov

In late July, I trailered my boat and cruised the eastern half of the Erie Canal. I didn’t get all the way to Waterford because flooding closed the canal below Lock 13 for three days. I was lucky. I had just passed Lock 14 when the canal was closed. I was alerted to the closure by a Notice to Mariners text.

Look around the Canal System website. It has a variety of navigation resources.

I used Navionics and Aqua Maps on an iPad for navigation. Navionics has the best depth information, but Aqua Maps has better map detail features. It also displays both Waterway Guide and Active Captain information. Navionics displays only Active Captain since both are owned by Garmin. The Waterway Guide reviews of marinas are more up-to-date.

BEWARE: When I was on the canal, there were areas with lots of large mats of floating eel grass, especially in and near locks. It was impossible to avoid them. My raw water intake on the bottom of the boat got clogged up with eel grass three times. The strainer only had small bits of grass in it.. I had to enter the water and get under the boat to clear the intake. It presents exactly like a failed impeller— the engine temperature rises with increasing rpm and will overheat. I needlessly changed an impeller the first time it happened. I have owned this boat nine years and it is the first time I have experienced a clogged raw water intake and I’ve been all over the eastern U.S. with the boat.

 

[A&Etug]

WOW!
Thanks for MUCH Useful Information!
We intend to do the western end and end up in the finger Lakes-Wine Country, before turning around to go back, ! We Will surely be aware of the EEL grass, did you just clear it by hand?, I hope you did not suffer any damage!
Did you enjoy your trip?
any highlights?
Much Thanks!

 

[CaspersCruiser]

At your Erie, Pennsylvania stop on the way to the Erie Canal, I recommend staying at Wolverine Marine. They have a nice lay along transient dock, good showers and you’re right downtown with several restaurants nearby. There’s also a nice maritime museum a couple blocks away.

A huge advantage of Aqua Maps navigating the Erie Canal using an iPad is it will display the canal mile marker at any point by tapping the display over the canal. I used that feature constantly.

I cruised the western Erie Canal in September 2018. It’s a PERFECT Ranger/Cut trip. I’ll just comment on your planned itinerary over the Cayuga-Seneca canal. I just cruised it to get to/from the Erie Canal for my eastern Erie Canal trip. I launched my boat and stored my tow rig at Barrett’s Marine at the western end of the Cayuga-Seneca Canal so this was my second trip over it.

To get to Cayuga or Seneca Lake from the Erie Canal on your eastbound approach, turn right at MM 201.8 and enter the Cayuga-Seneca Canal. In four miles, you will come to Lock CS-1. After transiting CS-1, continue straight to enter Cayuga Lake or follow the marked channel around to the right to stay in the Cayuga-Seneca Canal that will take you to Geneva and Seneca Lake in 17 miles. There are three more locks to transit to get the Seneca Lake, Locks CS 2 & 3 are together just below Seneca Falls and Lock CS 4 is at Waterloo.

I highly recommend a stop at Seneca Falls. The town canal wall has free power and water, showers for boaters and a free self-serve pumpout. Several downtown eateries are a short walk. On Tuesdays through mid-October, there’s a farmer’s market from 2pm-6pm.

It is widely believed that Seneca Falls was the inspiration for the fictional “Bedford Falls” in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.” There’s a bridge over the canal from which, in 1917, a man actually did dive into the water to save a drowning person. There are other similarities and geographic place names mentioned in the movie that relate well to Seneca Falls. There’s a small museum dedicated to the movie.

Also in town is a National Park Museum dedicated to the Women’s Rights Movement, which was launched at Seneca Falls in 1848.

Regarding the eel grass, yes, I did clear it by swimming under the boat and pulling it out by hand. Swimming under the boat is harder than one might think. I got pretty good at it! The picture in the post above was taken when I trailered the boat. That grass was sucked up while maneuvering to the boat ramp. I don’t want to scare you away from your planned cruise. When my wife and I cruised the western Erie in mid-September 2018, we had zero issues with eel grass. Maybe with this year’s hot weather, it’s worse than usual.

Have a great trip!

 

[A&Etug]

Many Thanks for your quick reply! Found there is no cost THIS YEAR, to do the canal, hopefully it will be the same next year!
Like doing the loop, one wants to enjoy and do it slowly, and we both agree one month for us would be fine, its the journey, not necessarily the destination!.
We are starting in advance and making like AAA a trip Tic!
If anyone thinks of anything else feel free to send it our way.
Many thanks again!

 

[Paperbird]

Just returned home from 3 weeks on the western Erie Canal.

Fantastic trip; highly recommended. Launched our R25 at West Canal Marina where we got permission to leave the truck/trailer for the duration and turned around in Newark. Used a combination of Garmin chart plotter, AquaMaps on an iPad mini and Skipper Bob cruising guide for general info. At Lockport, we also picked up some general canal pamphlets that included phone numbers for each of the locks and bridges, which turned out to be necessary. Supplemented with cell numbers we gathered as we went along. Bridgetenders and lock masters were very helpful and usually called ahead to notify the next bridge/lock that we were en route. Most towns had a free wall with power, water and pump out. Local restaurants were within walking distance everywhere. Gas was available and reasonable.

Wx in August was pleasant and boat traffic was light, making it easy to find a spot each night. We were told the western half has more small towns and the eastern half has more wildlife sanctuaries. We loved the western half and will definitely plan a return trip.

HTH. Enjoy your trip!

 

[A&Etug]

Many Thanks for the Input! Our homeport is in the Western Basin of Lake erie and we have sailed east and North so we are not concerned about distance, so we plan to go from our home port to Tonawanda to enter the canal. We found that we burn 9/10th of a gallon of diesel per hour at 8-9 mph. That is great burn rate!
Hopefully, next year diesel will be back to $3 a gallon. We wanted to go in july/august but I had a thought!
My wife and I met at the Spencerport volunteer firemans carnival (the annual fund raiser) in 1967 and have been married for 54 years, hence I thought that we would return to the carnival, it is held the first week in june so we now intend to leave mid to later may to end up at the right time there but hopefully the weather will cooperate.
Now we are just getting ready to put her in heated storage for the winter. We are working on getting the boat ready for the trip, First on the list is get our helm seat fixed ..AGAIN.. due to another broken shoulder bolt when I flipped the seat-it broke- oil and filters changed and make sure the generator runs-we have never used it as the boat is less than a year old to us!
The only other items on the list are mostly cosmetic, the helm seat is the current big deal 😳.
Thanks again, I will keep everyone updated

 

[GTilley]

I really appreciate this post! I have a new 25, and I live just north of NYC. Doing the Hudson into the Erie is one of the reasons why I got the RT to begin with! Ideally would love to do the Triangle Loop as well! Looking forward to taking this journey myself. Really appreciate you all sharing your resources!