September 12, 2024 No love at Spencerport or Pittsford - on to Bushnell Basin

 Thursday Sept 12, 2024  Holley to Bushnell Basin  34 miles and 8.25 hours

The day started out wonderfully.  Beautiful morning.  Sunny and warm.  We decide to take a hike to see the falls that are the main attraction in town.  Not too far away from the canal and the trail was well marked. It led down to a nice open grassy park for viewing.  Nothing very big but scenic.  The hike delayed our start a bit but shouldn't impact an early afternoon arrival to Pittsford. 

On the town wall in Holley

Holley Waterfall

Several lift bridges to navigate today.  We hail the operator at the first one in Brockport for an easy passage.  Says he'll notify the Spencerport operator we're on our way. We arrive at the first of the Spencerport bridges called Adams Basin.  It's about 4 miles from the Spencerport bridge but we expect the operator to be in the control house since Brockport supposedly contacted him.   We radio on CH 13 as required but get no reply.  Politely wait a few minutes and radio again.  Still no reply.  We call the cell numbers listed for the bridge operator.  No replies there either.  We call the Brockport Operator to see if he knows anything.  Says he'll contact the operator.  We wait and wait and wait while keeping an eye on the parking lot below the control tower for a vehicle arrival. Nothing.  Call Spencerport numbers again.  Still no answer.  Call Brockport Operator -"Sorry for the delay.  I'll call them again".  He never has told us if he actually made contact with Spencerport which was odd.  We wait some more.  By now we have been idling at this bridge for well over an hour.   So much idle time that Martha gets the drone out and takes a few pictures.  We call the Spencerport numbers a third time.  Amazingly, someone answers.  It's the Spencerport Operator!!  His response - "Sorry, I was out cutting grass and didn't hear the phone.  Be there shortly".  Several minutes later a car comes wheeling into the parking lot and soon the bridge is up and we're on our way.  He meets us at the Spencerport bridge for a quick lift and we're finally moving again.

Martha's drone shot of us waiting at the Adams Basin Lift Bridge

Our idling track while waiting at the bridge 

Done with lift bridges for the day we now work our way to Pittsford which requires traversing locks 33 and 32.  Lock 33 needs to fill before we can enter which seems to take an unusually long amount of time.  He finally opens the gates and we get through.   Drop 25' and head for nearby lock 32.   Get the distressing message from lockmaster "Captain please hold your position.  We'll need you to wait a few minutes.  The Pittsford tour boat will be coming upbound, turning around and we'll have you go down with them."   So more delay on an already delayed day!  A half hour later we hear the tour boat captain stating he's headed to the lock.   We wait some more for the lower gates to close, fill the lock and raise him up. He does a quick circle in front of us and heads back into the lock with us following closely behind. We get locked through and finally make it to Pittsford.  

Tour boat Sam Patch circles around and heads back into Lock 32

More problems!! The south wall is the primary transient dock but no boats are there. Signs are posted along it "No Dockage Allowed until Sunday". Seems some sort of festival is starting and they need the waterfront clear.  There is a spot on the north wall that looks long enough for us but it's at the extreme western end of that wall.  We slowly approach.  Depths are reading good until they're not! We're within a few feet of the wall.  Then the alarm starts sounding and depths quickly disappear.  We're stirring up mud and I'm hoping that is confusing the alarm.  Nope. The bow thruster stops being able to push us sideways.  I'm assuming the stabilizer fin has made contact. Just then I feel the unmistakable sound of a prop strike and the starboard engine kicking off.  Thankfully, all this is happening at idle speeds.   We abandon the tie up and after a push off the wall by Martha using the extended boat hook pole, we are able to use the bow thruster and port engine to get away from the wall.  The starboard engine starts up fine.  It's getting late but we decide to push on to Bushnell Basin.  I remembered seeing the floating town dock there as we passed it heading west.  Seemed like it could have questionable depths but no mention of any issues there in any reviews.  It's just a few more miles down the canal.  The engines are running fine and I'm not feeling any vibrations. Once I can run higher rpms or get hauled for the winter we'll know if there is prop damage.  For now all seems OK. Approaching Bushnell Basin, we hear live music coming from a venue alongside the canal.  With the docks in sight but evening approaching, we see 2 canal boats coming the opposite direction and headed in.  We can only hope there is room for all of us as I'm not sure I've got a Plan C at this point.  The three of us do fit but fill the entire dock.  It wound up being a delightful night.  We headed down to the Aurora Brewery for a much needed drink and listened to the music.  Then enjoyed some Abbotts Frozen Custard from the shop at the docks before calling it a day.  And what a day it was!!

Journey for Sept. 12, 2024