6/17/2018

After our rainy day on Sunday we waited in Ilion on the chance we could see Brian, our grandson.  He could get away long enough to have lunch with us.  What a joy to see him!  A really great young man….but, OK, I’m a little prejudiced.

We continued on up the Erie Canal past Utica to near Marcy, NY where we spent the night on a free lock wall at Lock 20.  A quiet spot, but the mosquitos were bad.  The lock tender came over to chat and needed to borrow bug spray from us.

This is the highest point we will reach on the Erie Canal, 420 feet above sea level.  Of that, about 405 feet are gained through locks.  From here on the locks will be down until we get to Lake Ontario.  I don’t know for sure what happens then, but I’d guess we’re going back up again.

This part of the Erie Canal is characterized by low marsh-like geography.  Since we’re near the high point of the Mohawk River you would not expect high ridges around the canal.  Quiet, and no road or train noise for a change.

This morning dawned with rain forecast for the morning.  We tried to wait it out but ran out of patience.  We started in the late morning hoping the rain would stop as predicted.  It didn’t, and it was a constant rain all day long.

While we were waiting we heard the lockmaster trying to call our friends on Crow’s Nest.  He couldn’t raise them.  When I talked to him I learned the fire department came in their boat, tried to pull them off the rocks and then departed by itself.  When I got to a spot where I could see their boat it was in the same spot and our friends wouldn’t respond to the radio.  I think the fire department removed them from the boat pending bigger equipment to try to extricate them.

We continued on up the Erie Canal through the rain.  There wasn’t much to see with the poor conditions.  We went through two locks including a 40+ foot lift at Lock 17 in Little Falls.  That is the biggest lock so far for us, and the largest on the Erie Canal.  There is a lock in Tennessee that we will go through later this year that is a 97 foot lift.

We tried to stop in Herkimer at a place called Gems Along the Mohawk.  There are tour boats that operate from the dock there, and there is a restaurant and store selling locally sourced gems.  When we got near the dock we discovered we were aground, or about to be, so we backed off pretty quickly using as much engine power as needed.  We stirred up plenty of mud.  We went on to the town of Ilion where we are docked tonight at Ilion Marina.

Ilion was originally a milling town established in the Revolutionary War era.  In 1817 Eliphalet Remington started a factory here producing firearms.  The building is still here, as is the firearms museum, but the state politics and taxes have driven the manufacturing work elsewhere.  It is a shame that happened.  We may be able to visit the museum in the morning.

On Saturday we left the town wall in Amsterdam, transited through six locks, and tied up for the night on a free wall at Lock 16.  We are now 320 feet above sea level, with almost all that altitude gained through locks.

This stretch of the canal and Mohawk River are lightly populated and have attractive views of forested hills and ridges along both sides of the canal.  The main train tracks and the New York Thruway (toll freeway) parallel the canal because of the advantageous geography, so there is often train and road noise.  We tied up on a lock wall last night for free, and this spot is far enough from both the tracks and freeway to have tolerable noise levels.  Now if the bar down the canal had not played loud music…well…

The lock mechanisms are fascinating machines.  I got to spend some time talking with the lockmaster at Lock 16, a young man working his first post-college job.  He was really working to get boats into and out of the lock safely, along with helping a commercial barge lock through.  That involved tying up the barge and coordinating the recreational traffic.  Commercial traffic has priority, as it should.

Unfortunately friends of ours on a boat called Crow’s Nest were maneuvering to be out of the barge’s way, and went up a side channel where they shouldn’t have gone.  They went hard aground on some rocks.  They don’t want to call a towing service because this situation is treated as a salvage, meaning they normally seize the boat.  I think the local fire and sheriff departments are sending a boat to try pulling them off.  We are not capable of towing, and we draw too much water to be of any help.  We’re hopeful they can get off without breaching their hull or sustaining any injuries.

Today (Friday) we continued along the Erie Canal to the town of Amsterdam.  This stretch of the Erie is still a largely rural area, or maybe it is becoming one again after the industries in this region departed.  Along the way we went through four locks, a couple of which were challenging because of the winds.  We are getting better at this.

The views from the canal are intriguing, but not really breathtaking.  It is attractive nonetheless.  This entire valley was once a major part of the country’s industrial base, but with anti-business politics the industries have just gone elsewhere.  It has left an area that is appealing, but which has unaffordable taxes.

Amsterdam is a town that is trying to hang on.  The downtown has a few shops, and a couple good restaurants, but overall there isn’t a major employer to keep people grounded here.  It’s unfortunate.  There is a very attractive public library building, one of the many libraries built by Andrew Carnegie.

I used too much cellular data, and so have to be on a data budget until our new billing month starts again.  Thus our blog posts may be delayed as is the case today.  We didn’t have WiFi available yesterday, so two are being posted today.  Sorry about that.

Today (Thursday) we transited the rest of the Hudson River, made a left turn at Waterford, and are now in the Erie Canal.  We went through six locks today.  They are simply amazing machines.

We left New Baltimore about mid-morning today in a lousy rainstorm.  After an incomplete attempt at a pumpout (emptying the head or toilet holding tank) we went north through the rain.  It was an uneventful trip, and with the rain there wasn’t much to see.  We passed through Albany and Troy, and arrived at the first lock on the north side of Troy.  Just past that we went through Waterford and turned into the Erie Canal.

The beginning of the canal is a series of five locks, each lifting about 33-35 feet spaced over a couple miles.  When the lock chamber is ready for us we enter, go over to a wall, catch the hanging ropes, and hold the boat in place by hand as the lower doors are closed, the chamber is filled, and the upper doors are opened.  We then drop the lines and drive out the upper end of the lock.  Sounds simple, but there is lots of turbulent water at all steps of the process.  It’s hard to stay in place and not damage something, especially the boat and one of us.

After the five stairstep locks we passed through some guard gates.  These are guillotine gates that are lifted above the water.  In extreme weather conditions, or in cases where lock maintenance is ongoing, these gates are lowered to seal the lock from the Mohawk River and divert the water through bypass channels.  It is a simple, well designed system that works largely passively.  Today it lifted our 50,000 pound boat almost 200 vertical feet in all.

Tonight we are on a free wall in Crescent, NY.  There is a bridge nearby and a gas station up the hill, but not much else here.  No power or water of course, but we don’t need that.  A pretty good stop for us.  Tomorrow we will go to Amsterdam, NY.  We heard from friends there is a good pizza joint near the (nearly) free dock, so we will probably check that out.

We stopped in New Baltimore, NY almost a week ago thinking we would stay for four days.  I had trouble with an alternator on one engine, and it has been six days.  We plan to leave in the morning and go to the start of the Erie Canal in Waterford, NY.

For reasons I can’t explain the marina here has labeled our dock the “Sin Dock”.  I can’t imagine why.  Really.  We have enjoyed being here, and the docktails each evening have been fun.

Over the past weekend the marina held a pig roast as an annual event.  There was a band that was pretty good.  And the camaraderie with others like us really made the event.

As we approach the Erie Canal we will need to deal with many 20 foot clearance bridges.  Our normal boat configuration needs about 23 feet, so we have to remove some things and lay the radar arch back.  We are set now for the next week or so of low bridges.  We think we can clear a bridge around 18 feet.

Yesterday we continued up the Hudson and are now in New Baltimore, NY.  This town is a few miles south of Albany.  We are at a marina that caters to our Great Loop cruising group, and there are probably 30 looper boats here.  The real advantage is we have lots of socializing with others in the group.

This stretch of the Hudson River is at the north end of the mountainous region.  Thus the views aren’t as spectacular.  We did get a few shots of local towns as we passed through, and is still a picturesque area.

We did get boarded by the Coast Guard for a safety check.  Everything was in order, and we were on our way quickly.  Very professional crew.

Unfortunately when we got the marina the tidal current was stronger than we wanted.  We planned to arrive earlier, but were fighting the current all day and were later than anticipated.  As we were trying to enter a fairway perpendicular to the current I did not handle the boat well, and we bumped an anchor on a moored boat belonging to friends on CU Later.  Thankfully there was no damage to their boat, and we sustained minor cosmetic damage that will be easily repaired.  It was a learning experience that I think can improve my boat handling.

And Marilou reminds me that I haven’t been putting dates into the blog.  So here goes.  June 7, 2019.  THHHHPPPPPPPTTTTTTT!!!

Yesterday we departed Croton-on-Hudson, bought fuel at a local oil company dock, and continued north up the Hudson River.  We very much enjoyed talking with the fuel dock attendant, Ryan, a college student working a summer job.

This stretch of the Hudson is wide and deep, and for the most part has steep banks on both sides of the river.  It is a visually pleasing cruise as the pictures show.  Along the way we passed Newburgh, once the capital of New York, and the US Military Academy at West Point.  It is easy to see why the Americans thought this a strategic point in defending the river from British warships.

We spent last night at Poughkeepsie Yacht Club.  This is in the town of Hyde Park, just north of Poughkeepsie.  Hyde Park was the home of FDR and the Vanderbilts, and today it contains the Culinary Institute of America.  The CIA is one of the premier chef schools in the country.  Unfortunately we didn’t go there for dinner…alas, leftovers.

Today we plan to continue north to Shady Harbor Marina.  This is a common stopping point for people who are on the Great Loop, and we expect a large number of docktails while we are there.  The marina is also famous for hosting an annual pig roast, scheduled for this Sunday.  We will stay there four days.

This morning we departed marina at Liberty Landing and started north up the Hudson River.  We passed alongside the western shore of Manhattan, under the George Washington and Tappan Zee bridges, and are in a marina in Croton-On-Hudson.

We got a good view of western Manhattan as we cruised up the river.  We had no idea there were so many ferry terminals on both the New Jersey and Manhattan shores, nor did we realize how rough the water might be from the wakes of the ferries running between the terminals.  Waiting through the weekend was a good idea as the weekend knuckleheads weren’t present on the water.  At least we could be sure the ferry captains would drive professionally, and they did in every instance.

In this part of the river the Hudson is wide, deep and has high banks on each side.  It is a very pretty river.  As we got further north the west bank no longer had high cliffs along the shore, and this allowed the wind to have some fetch on the mile or more of open water.  The ride wasn’t terrible, but the seas hitting the side of the boat caused some spray.  The wind was at least 15 knots with gusts well over 20, so together with the spray we got cold.

The marina we are in has a great dockmaster, but overall it is disappointing.  It is tied with a condo development and has strict rules on what is allowed.  We will be here for a couple days while we wait for our forwarded mail to arrive.

We spent the last two nights at a state park marina in New York harbor.  We are actually in New Jersey, but we’re still calling it NYC.

This has been an enjoyable visit.  We got to visit our old haunts at Columbia, and remember our student days.  We also had lunch at the restaurant where I used to have breakfast every day.  While there I asked about the guy that worked behind the counter almost forty years ago.  It turns out he has passed, but the manager there said he was his godfather.  It’s funny how you can remember someone who was so kind to you so many years ago.

Today we visited Ellis Island, the primary east coast entry point for immigrants until 1954.  It was not open where we were here years ago, so it was an interesting visit.

We are leaving tomorrow to go up the Hudson River.  We will stay in a marina at Croton-on-Hudson for a couple days while we wait for our forwarded mail to arrive.