Lyons to Palmyra

Happy 120 years old, Urger!  I urge you  to read the note at the bottom of this post.

And . . . .Oops!  I read the timer wrong. Bidding for Grouper, in Lyons NY,  ends about six hours from now. 

Lyons is a county seat, but it’s possible to take a photo of lock E-27, right in the town,  such that it appears to be rural.  A row of buildings to the right separates the canal here from a major street, Water Street;  to the left, there’s a strip mall along NY-31.

Lyons is the home of Muralmania, and it shows;  this was one of two murals just west of lock E-27.  The next lock, E-28A, is about a mile away.

Just before getting to lock E-28A, you see the section workshop buildings.

That’s Route 31 paralleling the canal.

At the top of the lock chamber, you have a great view over into the Lyons Dry dock.  Whatever is in the dry dock during the navigation season is surplus, in need of repair, or beyond repair.  Grouper is there, its rusty stack with its yellow ring visible in the foreground.

Staged and waiting for deployment are a set of tugboats, dredges, and a quarters barge aka “floating lodging,” like the one being auctioned off with bidding ending late this afternoon.  To repeat, I’d misreported closing of bidding in an earlier post, but today it ends.

We negotiate another low rail bridge before coming up to lock E-28B, about 4 miles to the west of E-28A.

 

In the port of Newark, I catch up to Sweet Love, a small trawler I caught at the Narrows last August.  The lovely storefronts in the village disappeared thanks to the misguided efforts in the 1960s called “urban renewal.”

West of Newark at Wide Waters is the hamlet of Port Gibson, Ontario County’s only port along the Erie Canal.  During the 19th-century iteration of the canal, this was a port.

The bridge here has just been refurbished.

From there, the canal narrows as we head west.  The rain started falling as well. 

 

 

We had miles and locks to go, but we called the trip “over” when we got to the Port of Palmyra, because of a breach in a spillway ahead. 

All photos, WVD.

Sign the card here to celebrate Urger‘s 120 years.  Its future too is threatened.

Small Craft 25

I’m always out looking for new sightings, and this is one . . . James C. Miller, based in Port Jefferson.

By the amount of freeboard in the stern, I’m guessing she could take on a fair amount of cargo.

Emily Miller is a sweet launch.

To me, this work boat was complete unidentifiable.  It appears to have had a rough life.

This anchored Parker might be in the channel?  Nah . . . foreshortening with such a large ULCV is misleading, and the Parker here is doing “bridge safety” work, while keeping a fish line working too.

This Bayonne line boat had me fooled at first; with the orange collar, I thought it was doing a USCG inspection.

USCG 28144 26144 . . . I’m guessing this is a Metal Shark 28 Courageous 26′ trailerable ATON boat.

This small cat survey boat called Ronald P. Jensen is one of the Rogers Surveying boats you see in the harbor, and beyond. Red Rogers is another.

 

Sweet Love appears to be a Ranger tug.  They started small but now go up to 41′.  I love the bicycles up high here.

And finally . . .  this  crowded Hunter 45 is called Naked Truth.  Interesting naming, her tender is called Little Lie.

All photos, WVD.