The Locks

Several have asked for an updated map of our route.  This rather crude rendition shows where we hope to go.  We started in Southwest Florida and that is where we plan to end up hopefully before Christmas.

The last two days will be ones we will never forget.  We did our first lock through, since we have done locks before we knew what to expect.  The  is the Federal Lock at Troy N.Y.  you have to go through this to get to the Erie and Champlain Canals.

 

This is 'Luv n' Life ' going first into the lock.  If you look you can see the "waterfall" to the left creating the turbulence. This is what Gary calls a "spillway".  It is a dam that holds the water back next to the lock.  Because the water is so high it is "spilling" over the  top.
Going in was a little tense because we were not only fighting the current from the overflow of water but the debris in the water. Big limbs, you can see them to the right of the boat, logs and lots of small stuff . Even the can bouys were buried in the turbulence. 

This is Chuck on Luv n' Life enjoying his achievement as a single handed captain. This means he doesn't have anyone but himself to yell at when things go wrong but he has to handle the entire job by himself!!  Luckily everything went smoothly and no yelling at self ensued.

After a successful lock through, things got interesting. 

Tie A Knot (stripped down) is 16 1/2 feet from the water to the top of the solar panels.  The water is high due to all the flooding but several calls to lock personel gave us the same answer. "If you can get under 17' you can do the waterway".  So ok, all is good with the world.....

Until you see the bridge that is supposed to be 19.5' !  We had extreme reservations on clearing it.

Sooooo  after some thought and rapid heart action...we (meaning Gary, remember I don't give recommendations anymore after our last fiasco, hint: props) decided its either try it or turn around and go back and we did NOT want to turnaround and do that. The added challenge with this bridge was that not only was it low, it had port and starboard lights hanging down under it another 8 " or so in the center span. 

It went like this....Gary got us close to the bridge, I took over the helm and he jumped on the aft hardtop to "sight" the bridge.  Under his direction, (which I am proud to say I followed to the letter), I inched us under the bridge between the lights while ducking my head like it might get lopped off!

We made it with FOUR INCHES of clearance. 

TEAMWORK!!!

Only we were just beginning.  We did two more  bridges the first day with a clearance of 6" and 8".  Talk about tension, this is cruising.  Hours of boredom interlaced with moments of sheer terror!

All four boats pulled into  Mechanicville and tied up to the free dock (you know how I LOVE free docks)  in utter exhaustion from the 20 miles we had travelled that day.  I kid you not, we left at 9 am and by 3 pm had traveled 20 whole miles!  At this rate we'll finish the loop when hell freezes over.

Then there was yesterday.  We led the way through four locks and we had picked up another boat in our 'flotilla'.  Mike and Yoletta on 'My Therapy'. We had another couple of 6" bridges but the MOMENT of the day was when we made it under a railroad bridge with TWO INCHES of clearance!!!  The boats behind us said it was a nail biting moment even for them.  I'm pretty sure under their breath they were saying "those people are NUTS"!   Yup, that's us in a nutshell. 

We again arrived at a free dock in Port Edward N.Y. exhausted and spent. I don't know how many miles, maybe around 35 Our 'docktail' get-together  was a chance to relive the day, relax and unwind. One of the boats that had been with us the first day showed up and we met Hank a retired Marine who served 30 years in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.  He had interesting stories to tell.  He was in his late 80's or early 90's and was making this trip with his daughter and son in law.  We thanked him for his service to our country and his reply was "It was my pleasure".

                                               That's Hank in the red cap

The water was down 10" this morning HOORAY....and we just slid under three 17' bridges.  We left this morning with 'My Therapy'...the boats we started with wanted to stay in Port Edward for the 4th.  Nothing going on there though so we thought we'd take advantage of the nice day and the lower water levels.  We'll meet up again I've no doubt.  

The down side of this cruising life is making  new friends quickly and having to leave them.  We forge friendships quickly because we are all cut from the same cloth and have so much in common.

The upside is meeting them again along the way, somewhere, sometime.

The ponies all lined up in a row with fenders ( the white balls hanging off the sides) dangling..to keep us off of the lock walls.

Here we are at the front of the lock waiting to be raised up.

On the lock walls there are ropes hanging down at 20' intervals.  You pull in grab a rope and hold yourself to the wall while the lock is going up.  If you are going upstream the locks raise you downstream they lower you.  As mate I get the job of securing us to the wall and then Gary runs down from the helm and grabs the second line.

And here we are after being raised 19'

 

 

This is how high the water is.  All you can see of the dock is the bench and top of the swim ladder.

 

We thought this might be some sort of monitoring station for flooding.  We saw about five of them in different locations.

 

They have a huge dredging project on the canal.  We were led around two barges by a tender .

200' of barge and push boat going into the lock.

 

The locks seem to be showing their age the further north we go.

 

The 'spillway' by the lock

The debris field at one of the locks

 

Today at Lock 9 (out of 12) we started to go down back to sea level.  We dropped 16' and made it under another low bridge with about 10" that's encouraging.




Coming in up and going out down...

The friendly lock tender at Lock 9 wishing us a safe journey...
I told him if he'd smile and wave I'd put him on my blog....

So as it stands it is 10:30 am and we have gone through 3 locks with 3 more to go and two of the lowest bridges on the waterway. Our travel time has been much faster with only 2 boats...and no local traffic at all.  LIFE IS GOOD!