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!

Decisions Made

Last night we had a "docktail" get together all of us in flux as to what to do about the deteriorating condition of the Erie Canal Locks.  The prognosis...grim...doing the loop that way was probably not an option.  We found that we were all having the same dilemma, discussing the situation as couples and having the same outcome every time, discuss daily, think about it all night while tossing and turning, get up the next day and discuss again!  It boosted all of our morals to know that we weren't individually going nuts over this, we were all going nuts together!  In the morning it would be one scenario and by afternoon and evening there were two more scenarios only to be repeated the next day.

ENOUGH!! 

 

 

So whether individually or as a group in camaraderie the light went on and the decision was made.  If we wanted to do the loop we had to approach it a different way.  So we decided to ready our boats to make the trek up through Lake Champlain. Today was filled with getting the sanitation systems to comply with Champlain rules, taking down radar masts and making sure we could clear the 17' bridges on the Champlain Canal, last minute groceries and laundry...although we looked pretty relaxed here didn't we??

 

Gary working on taking down the newly installed radar!  OY VEY!!!


The strategy meeting held on our boat tonight with Chuck and Jann missing from the picture.  Anyway there are 3 couples  and 1 single hander on four boats.
 

L. to R.  Gary, Ozel and Maryann..Texas, Debi and Bob..boat trucked from Washington State to do the loop and out of camera view, Chuck from Florida.


 

This is like the Dolphins leading us in Florida...the Canadian Geese coming along side our boats and showing us the way north.  A fitting beginning to this trip!


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So tomorrow morning we start our newest leg of this adventure.  We will head up the Hudson to the Champlain Canal, Lake Champlain, the Chambly Canal and St. Ours Canals in Ontario and into the St. Lawrence where we will head west to the Thousand Islands of New York, Lake Ontario, the Trent Severn Canal in Ontario, Georgian Bay, Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.

This will take us to places none of us have ever been to and we are excited to get moving again.

It will add miles to the trip but it is the only way.  They doubt the Erie Canal will open for two or three weeks, the damage is extensive from the debris and flooding.

Once again...wagon ho!

Learning A Lot

I'm glad to report we haven't been swept away by the current yet.  I've never been in a flood area before and with this little taste of what it might be like , don't ever want to be.  The locks are still closed and the water from the flooding in the Mohawk River Valley is spilling down the Hudson bringing with it lots of tree debris, logs, entire limbs, small branches, anything that was laying along the shore is being swept down here.

The water is a murky brown, on the bright side it's kind of like sitting in a sea of really chocolaty milk!  Except you don't get the Yummm factor looking at it. 

The water was up two feet this morning at 8:00 and when we checked high tide wasn't until 11:00, so it was definitely flood water.  It has been really moving all day with an added opposing wind for a little fun!  

We decided to stay here tied up to the dock.  A boat left this morning to go up the Champlain Canal (which is open) and came back three hours later with a damaged prop from hitting something in the Troy Lock.  With all the debris in the water we are better off paying docking fees than damaging our props. (Gee, I wonder where we learned that lesson???)

The Albany Yacht Club was honestly the cheapest per foot of any Marina's we checked on the way up, so even though we may be crazy, we aren't stupid!

They still have not as far as we know opened the locks to drain them. The twitter here from the locals is that the NY Canal System let go all of its (too expensive) seasoned full time lock masters and have hired a bunch of inexperienced part time people.  Evidently someone who didn't know what they were doing made a mistake and it snowballed from there.  Now they have no one that has the experience to open the locks in this situation and the people that were let go when asked to help said,  NO WAY!  At least that's the story on the docks at AYC

The day they start draining them  ought to be a real interesting day. The Hudson was running  at 75,000 cubic feet a second this morning, when usually it's about 10,000 according to the dock master and that's just overflow water.  Most of the marinas on the Hudson are ON THE HUDSON,  mostly  long face docks along the shore very different from the marinas we are used to.  At least the wall we are on at the yacht club is an area between two pier docks and we are somewhat protected.  Although we have heard numerous hits on the hull from passing debris and they have been cleaning out the stuff that piles up along and under the docks to keep it moving, although it may be back tomorrow.  Because of the tide we have been told that everything that flows travels down river ten miles and then back eight miles.  So that's a total of two miles a day forward movement.  

So the upside to this situation we find ourselves in is we are learning a lot about an area of the country we knew absolutely nothing about.  

And THAT is what it's all about!

            Although this isn't the Hudson but a pond inland this is what the water looks like.

          

Treading Water

You know how I keep saying we don't make plans because plans change?  Well we broke our rule, and guess what?????

This trip started with one thing in mind and three possible outcomes.  

The thing in mind:  Head North for the summer.

The possible outcomes:  Long Island Sound, the Hudson River & Lake Champlain, the Great Loop.

We slashed Long Island Sound when we got to New York because of the incessant SW winds, the size of the sound and the miserable time we'd have rocking and rolling....when we reached NYC we were "with the tide" so it just makes sense to let the current and tide sweep you along.  Went fine.  That left Champlain and The Loop.

The Loop was at the bottom of the list until we reached the Hudson and thought, "gee we're almost halfway", why not just do it.

This map shows the loop route in black.  We are at the top of leg 6.  To finish the entire Loop you must cross your wake (where you started).  Many do it in a year and others do it in segments and take 2 or 3 years. Some go to the Bahamas, some do the Michigan Shore, some the Wisconsin shore.

Since we love to keep moving and see different things we decided now is the perfect time. So,

here we are so excited, ready to go, thinking, " this is it we're going to do the big one, the loop, we may never get another chance."

Turns out we may not get the chance period.  We have been at the Albany Yacht Club with about 20 other "Loopers" ( with hundreds at marinas south and north of here) waiting to start transiting the Erie Canal and because of  high water and flooding the locks  have been closed for three weeks.    

Looking at the weather the entire East Coast is in a dismal weather state.  So what do we do, wait, turn back, who knows.

Taking things day by day is the only plan of attack at this point.  Whatever happens, happens..

Albany Yacht Club...reasonable rates and great people.  Seems the yacht clubs are very welcoming to transients....and there is a camaraderie amongst the staff, yacht club members, and slip dwellers that  is easy going and comfortable. There is even a higher up in the NY canal system here so every day we get an update.  "Canal will open on Friday, no wait maybe Saturday, ummm, might be Sunday.  With the way it is raining right now may be June 2014!!

 

 

Tie a Knot beyond the green top on the pontoon boat.
 

Ozel and Maryann's Belgium Water Dogs
 

 

Gary on Broadway in Renssalaer
 

Downtown Albany from the bridge walkway.
 

This building was so fabulous.  We thought it was the capital building (Albany is the capital of New York State) but it was SUNY, the State of New York University headquarters. It was originally owned by the Delaware & Hudson Railroads.  It is a fabulously restored building.

 

 

 

The Capital Building...completed in 1899 at a cost of $25 million dollars.

 

 

Home of the best corned beef sandwich I've ever had...melt in your mouth tender!

 

USS Slater museum in Albany
Canon Class Destroyer Escort  from WWII
Out of 563 Destroyer Escorts the USS Slater is the last remaining Destroyer Escort afloat today.
All of the D.E.s were named after sailors killed in the early years of WWII.


 

The Rensselaer Amtrak Bulding
 

West Point and Catskill Creek

Well NOAH (further to be known as Ma & Pa Weather due to their computer male and female forecasters) has come through this time.  Tonight it was rain, thunder, lightening, hail, wind, we've had it all and so far come through it fine if I might say.

So,  I figured it would be a good time to keep this blog thing rolling along.  We travelled 10 hours on Saturday from Croton-On-Hudson and anchored just south of Catskill Creek where we planned to meet Elaine and Lawrence from Elle &I.

The next morning we got a slip at Catskill Marina where we met up with our great chauffeur (thanks, Lawrence) who took us to Wal Mart, where he waited probably 40 minutes with his 15 items for us to find and check out our 73 items, dropped me at the laundromat (the one at the marina was in-op of course) and came and picked me up 2 hours later!

The bright side of doing the laundry was Gary had to put away all of the purchases from Wally World, some things just work out.

Later we were invited to dinner on Elle & I and it was fabulous.  Elaine is the Iron Chef of the Magma Grill.  She whipped up a sauteed chicken dish and grilled lettuce with balsamic/maple glaze that was to die for.  It pays to have friends who can cook!!!!  Thanks again, Elaine.

This morning we filled up with water, took showers, washed down the decks, and tossed the lines at 11:30.  Then we traveled a whole 2 hours to our next anchorage, whew, what a day!!

The sky is now brightening and hopefully this is it for today. Well, I took a break for dinner and that wasn't it for the day!  Things are heating up again.  Is this global warming???  We have thunder, lightening, cars, and trains....quite the cacophony of noise.  I'll have to break out the new earplugs tonight.

Here are some more photos....I'm beginning to feel like a travel log of photo ops....but it's just beautiful up here...

 Bear Mountain Bridge..north of Peekskill

The Hudson has railways on each side...the west side has freight trains and the east side is the Amtrak route..

Idyllic setting......

Another Vintage Beauty nestled in its aerie on the hill

West Point....

Ok, my first thought was "If the way you entered West Point was by the water, I'd say, " Umm, I don't think so,sorry, changed my mind" ....Does this not look like a maximum security prison?......

Gary said that's probably exactly what the cadets feel like.....we were very underwhelmed with West Point.  Go NAVY!! 

But they do have a sense of humor....  notice the roof..."Beat Air Force"

Bannerman Castle on Pollepel Island..  http://www.bannermancastle.org/island-history.html  If you're interested in it's history click the link. It is short but informative.

Just upriver from Pollepel was the City of Newburgh where the topography flattened out

Then in another hour or so (which means about 10 miles :-) in Tie A Knot talk) the hills started again.

Esopus Light

He flew right over us turned, landed and pulled up to a house on the hill.

 Another Great Lighthouse

THIS IS FOR YOU WAYNE....Yummmmm

We were north near Stuyvesent when we saw this old brick building nestled in the woods.  Have no idea what it was but it has vegetation growing out of the stack..I looked but couldn't find any info on the net.

 The largest debris we've seen yet...an entire tree trunk.  Lots of debris in this river.  But at least it is usually spread out enough that playing 'dodgem' isn't too taxing on the pilot.

Our current anchorage.  You can ignore the 'just ok' that's me being too lazy to get a new arrow!  

 Anchorage view to the West

We are very close to the Amtrak track to the East and the road beyond it.

 Luckily traffic on either this far north is not heavy.

The BUG of the week....the Cicada.  At Catskill Marina they told us they only come 

once every 17 years. We heard them before we saw them.  I kept saying "what is that noise", when Gary finally heard it he thought a bearing was going and ran down into the engine room. It was kind of like the palmetto bugs or crickets in the trees but louder. Then they started to land on the boat.

Lucky us!  They were about 1 3/4 inches long and were very attracted to our

white boat.  If we picked them up (yeah, I'm not scared) and threw them over board they would just fly around and landed back on the boat.  Kept me busy.  They're like the Florida 'Palmetto Bug' in that if they land on their backs they can't right themselves.

And finally....Ricky Bobby....notice the cut on the arm...he said "you know if I didn't bleed I wouldn't get the job done right"!  

 

Later.....