Unforecasted rain greeted us in the morning, but we decided to leave notwithstanding, as the winds predicted tomorrow and afterward spurred us to leave rather than be held up a further several days.

Oneida Lake has a pristine clean feel. The knowledge of all those large fish of the lake – 7 foot sturgeons, 2 foot wide-mouth bass and gigantic rainbow trout – make us feel we are gliding over a deep and mysterious kingdom.  The fish finder verified that there were some small and big monsters lurking beneath.

Lighthouse at Sylvan Beach

View across Oneida Lake under grey skies

Islands in the Oneida Lake

After the traversing the 21 mile length of the lake, we arrived at Brewerton and washed the flies and lock grunge off off Salty. We also spent a great deal of time agonizing over and trying to fix mal- or non-functioning electronics on the boat.

Brewerton was once known by the native Americans as Techiroguen, when the explorers, Samuel de Champlain, Robert de La Salle and Jesuit Simone Le Moyne visited the location in the early 17th century - all young French men from La Rochelle, Rouen and Beauvais - all very, very far from home in what must have been a very alien place.  

We left the Dutch origin towns way behind in the Mohawk Valley. The towns since Canajoharie were all founded by German and English settlers in later times.  But now here at Oneida Lake, we’ve reached the former Francophonie lands originally staked out by the French from les Grand-Lacs to Nouvelle Orleans. Once the British took over this region after the French & Indian War in the mid-18th century, and the Americans took it from the British after independence, Oliver Stevens built Fort Brewerton in 1789 to defend the passage between Lake Ontario and Albany, a strategic stretch of commercial passage of vital importance for the new United States.

Fort Brewerton replica

Otherwise, Brewerton (also part of Cicero NY) is a very small town with a town center lined with old wooden buildings and a picturesque waterfront on the Oneida River.   

And of course, there is also ice cream here.

Tomorrow we head up the Oneida River, rejoin the Erie Canal and then veer off to the Oswego Canal on our way to Lake Ontario.