We're On The Erie Canal!

Saturday, June 23, 2018
5,680 miles
Day 447


Mike and I returned to True North on Wednesday and Greg on Thursday.  We spent Friday tinkering with a depth finder that wasn't working.  Well, Mike and Greg did the tinkering while I visited with a Looper boat that we hadn't seen since last summer in Ludington - Craic.
Shady Harbor in New Baltimore, NY is a nice marina but we were more than ready to be on our way Saturday.  The marina didn't open until 9 am and we needed a pump out before we left, so it was about 10 when we headed north again on the Hudson River.  Our original plan was to go 22 miles to Waterford, spend the night on the wall at the visitor's center and start west on the Erie Canal on Sunday morning.  Brian Donovan, the owner of Shady Harbor came to see us off while we were at the pump out dock and encouraged us to skip Waterford and continue to his other marina in Schenectady - Mohawk Harbor Marina.  The carrot he dangled in front of us was an Elton John Tribute concert at the marina.  "It's only 5 and a half hours - you can make it!"

The Erie Canal connects the Hudson River with Lake Erie, shortening the time necessary to get goods from the East Coast to the Great Lakes and beyond.  Construction of the original canal began in 1817 and was finished in 1825.  It was basically a ditch filled with water.  Mules or horses would walk beside the ditch and pull the boats through.  Before the Erie Canal was built, Philadelphia was the busiest port on the east coast and also the most populated city.  It didn't take long after the canal opened for New York City to claim that distinction.
The current canal was built between 1905 and 1918.  Which makes 2018 the centennial celebration and the fees for pleasure craft using the canal have been waived!  You have to be thankful for the little things . . .


Entering the Troy Lock, before the Erie.  This lock is maintained by the Army Corp of Engineers, so is technically not a part of the Erie Canal.


Another milestone!  At Waterford, NY, we turned left off the Hudson River to enter the Erie Canal!
(We've heard that the Champlain Canal to Lake Champlain is very pretty, but you have to be able to get under a 17 ft. fixed bridge, which True North cannot do.  We hold our breath every time we go under a 20 ft. bridge!)




The Corning Museum of Glass - a floating demonstration barge.  It was in Poughkeepsie when we were there and we tried to get tickets but they were all sold out.  My Dad was a glass blower for Dow Chemical Company.


It was tied up on the wall in Waterford, and we had to wait for the lock to open, so I got to hear some of the presentation.  As you can see, it was a cold, rainy day to travel.  It seemed as if every time we went into a lock where Mike and I would have to be outside holding the boat in place, the rain came down harder!


The audience on the Corning Barge.


Each lock had a sign as we were exiting that told how far we went up - Lift: 33.55 ft.
And the distance to our next lock: .28 miles
On the inland rivers, the locks had names.  On the Erie Canal, the locks are numbered.


Leaving Lock 2


Lift:  34.5 ft.
Next Lock: .28 miles
We went into Lock 3 with another boat - Gold Loopers Monterey.  They remembered meeting us in Marathon in the February of 2017!  In this lock we saw for the first time something that we had been warned could happen.  Rob, on Monterey, had cleated a rope from the pipe in the lock wall to his boat. (wrapped the line around the cleat and left it unattended).  Somehow the line got caught and he had to quickly get a knife and cut the rope.  With the tension released, his boat immediately rocked back and forth.  We never have a line without someone (Mike or I) holding on to it in a lock, so we don't think this could happen to us.

Couldn't get a picture of the sign from Lock 4.
We were held up at the Troy Lock as the lock was in the up position and so the chamber had to be emptied for us to enter.  At Lock 2 on the Erie,  a boat was already in the lock going up, so we had to wait for that chamber to empty.  At Lock 3, a boat was in the lock, but headed downstream so it was a short wait.  Finally at Lock 4 - 7, we experienced what we had anticipated (and heard) about the Erie Canal - the lock master contacts the next lock master to inform him (or her) that we are coming and we were able to motor right into those locks without a wait.


We went up 33.25 feet and the next lock was only .16 miles!
It was always interesting for me in a lock, standing in the back of the boat (the lowest part), to see what appeared once the chamber was filled and we floated to the top.


Lock 6 marked the end of the "Waterford Flight".  Boaters need to be sure when they enter Lock 2 at Waterford that they can make it through Lock 6 before the locks close for the day (usually 5 or 6 pm) as there are no anchorages or marinas or dock walls within these five locks.



Ok - I'm not going to post a picture of every lock sign we go through, but our first day on the Erie was exciting enough to do so today.  The Erie Canal goes all the way west to Buffalo, NY.  (a boat has to clear 15 ft. to do the western Erie).  We will go through 24 locks before we turn on to the Oswego Canal.


We were a little surprised that much of this portion of the Erie Canal is really just the Mohawk River.


The 5 and 1/2 hour trip turned into 8 hours with the delays at several locks, but we docked at Mohawk Harbor Marina at 6:10, just in time for the Elton John tribute concert.  Brian Donovan was there to greet us.  It was a 45 minute car ride from Shady Harbor for him!
We were cold and wet and hungry, so we didn't use the offered wrist bands to walk around to the front of the stage (this is our view of the back of it from the boat) as we could hear the music just fine.
"B-B-B-Benny and the Jets . . " and "Philadelphia Freedom" rang out while I made chili and we all took hot showers.
The band closed with "Saturday . . . Saturday . . . Saturday nights all right".  As the crowd sang along, it was the perfect ending to our first Saturday on the Erie Canal.

Unique and Random Photo of the Day:


It even has a steering wheel inside!
Different boats for different folks!