David & Mariam’s Adventures

The cool thing about living at the marina is getting to see a lot of activity, even when you have to work. David has been putting in extra hours this week finishing up some deadlines so we’ve spent most of this week at the apartment.

For instance, you know that contraption (boat hoist?) the marina’s use to lower and lift boats out of the water? Well, apparently it can be used for other items as well.

One of the many things David is fascinated with are trains. His grandparents owned a train station in Ocean Springs, MS called the Whistlestop. David told me several stories about his visits there and one of his favorites was he and his brother leaving pennies on the rail. So on one of his breaks, we took a walk to the rails and placed some pennies on the track which is located right next to the marina.

When the train came by the next day, we had to go out and find the pennies. David placed 4 pennies on the tracks but we only found three. [dsm continues] They did not roll well, and it is unclear whether this is due to pennies changing from mostly copper to zinc cores in 1982, or just due to light rolling loads. Finger Lakes Railways maintains only modest traffic on the track behind the marina. We see a pair of old EMD engines and a few cars of what could be grain moving around (presuming them empty). I have joked with Mariam that there must be a coffee shop along the route behind us – it is clearly not their money making track (though they recently rebuilt it – it looks lovely). We have seen a couple of passenger cars at their depot – seemingly in good condition. They should put them to use around Seneca Lake! The track is as close as 10′ from the western shore of the lake running north-south. Summer money-making opportunities! I also waded through overgrowth to have a look at a lovely snow plow. It remains connected to some vandalized old engines and a caboose. In restorable condition. I hope they keep it that way.

We also checked out the boat tours of the lake. A quick (1 hour 15 min) tour of the north end of Seneca Lake takes off Thurs-Sun afternoons so we checked it out. Since it was a weekday, there was only one other couple on board this large covered pontoon boat. We got a narrated tour of the historical sights along the way on a nice sunny day.

We enjoyed the tour so much, we decided to do the Lock 4 and Waterloo Power Plant tour the next day. This tour is sponsored by the State of New York so it is free, and it leaves right from the marina. The tour was quite interesting as we journeyed through the canal system towards Waterloo.

The Cayuga-Seneca Canal connects the Erie Canal to both Cayuga and Seneca Lakes, eventually leading to the Atlantic Ocean via Lake Ontario. The locks were completed in 1818 – a total of 4 locks along the Seneca River, raising and lowering boats a total of 42 feet. On our tour, we were able to go through lock 4 before heading back to base. That was the highlight of our tour.

The downside was the weather – it was cold!! Morning temperature was 52 degrees and it didn’t get much warmer than that at the time of our tour at 11am. The high was 60 degrees that day. We’re so soft!

After this, the guys spent a lot of time getting the mast ready. They replaced all the lines and then hoisted the mast horizontally on the sailboat. They then used a crane to lift the mast to its upright position. I’ve never seen this done so I found the whole process quite interesting.