Day 2-201 to Rome, NY topped out at +420 ft

Ho hum, another gorgeous day on the Erie Canal... We did have a rest day yesterday, which was almost a shame given the gorgeous weather that we have had in general. The picture at right shows a typical view of today's trip from Ilion to Rome, NY. The canal is getting narrower and is largely man made here since we are near the headwaters of the Mohawk River. We are at the high point of the eastern Erie Canal at about 420 feet above sea level. To get here we have gone through 20 locks with a lift ranging from 8 feet to 40.5 feet. We keep passing cities like Utica, but with the thick forest along the canal we usually see only a small portion of the old downtown area.

I am definitely not complaining since the remote feeling certainly adds to the overall ambiance of the trip. There is a bike/walking path along much of the canal, and we did see several bikers and one lone runner. The picture at the left shows some of the wildflowers and ferns along parts of our trip.

We left the dock in Ilion about 9:05 am after getting a pump out and purchasing some diesel fuel. We went through 2 locks with hardly any wait, and after 25.9 miles, we arrived in Rome at 1:30 pm.  We had a 45 ft sport fisherman follow us about a half mile back. Given that it is Saturday, we passed a half dozen small fishing boats and kayaks. We also passed this rather bizarre looking pontoon boats with a pirate ship look. Fortunately, they passed us with only a friendly wave and made no attempt to board us...

We are staying at the Rome City Dock and Park. It really is quite a beautiful area, and today, there was an ever changing selection of people trying their luck at fishing from the dock.

The picture at the left is looking across the park and if you look closely, you can just see the flybridge of Lucky Us docked on this side of the canal. I took the picture while we were waiting for a taxi to take us to a movie theater about 3 miles away. We went to see "A Million Ways To Die In The West". It was pretty funny, but there was a LOT of crude language.

The last picture is of a not very spectacular sunset over a dam that supplies water to the canal. Tomorrow, we will begin to go down in elevation as we head to Lake Ontario, which is about 175 feet below our present elevation. So, we are at a drainage divide where streams behind (east) us drain into the Hudson River, and streams ahead of us drain into Lake Ontario. Given that we do not have an itinerary and are dependent on the weather, we should reach Oswego, NY on Lake Ontario in a few days. The plan is to visit my brother and sister-in-law who live about 25 miles west of Oswego. They live on Little Sodus Bay off Lake Ontario so we will go there on board Lucky Us.

Okay, so I lied about that being the last picture. This one is for Grandson Will. It is a close up of the bow of the canal system tug Erie.

We love you Will (and Sarah and Katie)!

Day 2-200 Resting in Ilion, NY

Rest day in the home of the Remington Arms Company? Sure, I got to sleep in, but then it was time to head to the museum...

The mission of the Remington Museum was to highlight the contribution of Remington to the development of firearms over nearly two centuries since the founding of the company in 1816. Although they did not talk about "research", the companies "designers" made many significant contributions to the continuing development of new types of firearms.

The museum did not have thousands of guns of all types on display, but they did a very good job of highlighting the contributions that Remington has made. That continued development has enabled this company based in a tiny upstate New York town to remain at the forefront of a huge industry worldwide.

The remainder of the day included lunch at a local diner and several errands, including things like buying postage stamps, etc.

Tomorrow, we will head on west (and up)...

Day 2-199 to Ilion, NY, elevation +383 feet

Gorgeous day on the water! The temperature got into the low 70s with a light easterly breeze of about 7 mph. We were headed west (more or less), which meant that as the canal changed direction our 8mph sometimes cancelled out the breeze. The picture at the right shows the beautiful sky and the American flag just hanging down since we are headed down wind.

Our trip was 40.3 miles from Fonda to Ilion, NY, and we had 6 locks with a total lift of 105 feet, which meant for a busy day.

The first three locks were 8 foot lifts on each one over a distance of over 20 miles. Then we reached steeper terrain with higher lifts as a result. We had spent the night tied to a free wall provided by the canal system, and our dock mate was the tug Waterford with her tow of floating sections of dredge pipe. Waterford left the dock early, but we passed her after the first lock. She would also turn out to be the only vessel that we were to see going in our direction.

In the second and third locks we had groups of Amish families viewing our lock through. The second group was about 30 adults and children who were very talkative and seemingly quite interested. The Admiral fielded questions ranging from "how much did the boat cost?" to "where are you from?". We thought that perhaps this was a school outing, but they said it was a holiday, and many of them had never seen a lock before. Out of respect for their privacy we did not take any pictures of them at the lock. The Admiral said that she did see one young girl reach out to touch the varnished rail with her finger and quickly pull it back before she would be noticed. She said that it was just the cutest sight.

We did see groups of their horse drawn buggies parked in the fields, as well as other groups fishing along the banks on the approaches to and from the locks. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the outing on such a beautiful day.

The canal had recently been closed in this area due to flooding so it was not surprising to see repairs underway on one of the dams. In the photo at the right they are lifting in a new piece of a moveable flood gate. The flood gates can be raised /lowered to adjust stream flow and level. Given the huge size of some of the tree stumps and logs that we have passed floating in the canal, some must have been hung up in dams and cleared manually. Personally, it seems that the canal authority does an excellent job of maintaining the canal!

                                                                                                                                                          We also saw more geese and goslings on the shore. More often than not, there were several adults and up to 30 or more goslings. It seems like there must be a good "crop" this year. We do not seem to have many geese that winter in our part of Texas so it has been a treat to see them as we migrate north. Now, we get to see the offspring who will be joining the migration south next fall...

Once again we shared the route with the railroad on the north side and the NY State Thruway (I-90) on the south side. We saw two Amtrak passenger trains and MANY freight trains. These railcars carry large containers stacked two high.

The fifth of the six locks today (Lock E-17) was the highest lift so far at 40.5 feet. It was also different due to the nature of the gate at the East end. So far, all of the gates have been two swinging doors hinged at the outside of the lock. At Lock E-17 the East gate is a lift gate that go up and down. In the picture at the left we are approaching the downstream end of the lift lock. The gate is in the up position, which allows a vertical clearance of 22 feet. It really is kind of spooky when you go under the gate, which starts to close immediately behind you.

Otherwise it seemed much like all the other locks until you look up.  Then it looks like you are in this deep (41 foot lift) "hole". Fortunately, about 15 minutes later you reach the top and can see all around. When you look back down stream, it looks way down there... The picture at the right is a view looking up from the bottom of the lock. It gives you some ides of the feeling of being in a deep hole.

We passed a dredge that was owned by the canal system. We were to learn later that this was the destination of the tug pulling the floating pipes that we passed earlier. There are many smaller streams that flow into the canal (Mohawk River). These streams carry a lot of sediment, especially during periods of high discharge, and when these streams flow into the slower moving water of the bigger river, the water slows down and sediment is deposited. Periodically, the sediment must be removed to maintain the designed depth of the canal. This is of course an ongoing process... The picture shows the drill/auger that rotates on the end of a large diameter pipe that sucks up the sediment loosened by the auger. The sediment (and water) is then piped to a settling pond on land.

 

Our destination for today was the town of Ilion, NY. The marina consists of a long concrete wall for side tie along. It also has parking spaces for RVs and the usual bathrooms, showers and laundry. The marina has this big neon sign along the waterfront to announce the marina and town. We are going to spend two nights here so that tomorrow will be a "rest" day. I doubt that it will be very restful, but at least I will get to sleep in...

 

Oh, did I mention the Ilion is the home of Remington Firearms? The museum is also on our list for tomorrow...

Day 2-198 to Fonda, NY -up 245 ft so far

We left Schenectady Yacht Club at 8:05 AM in light mist and about 60F. It was not exactly a great travel day, but the mist stopped after the first of 5 locks. I get to sit in the cold but dry enclosed flybridge while the Admiral hangs fenders and tends lines. The first lock was full of rafts of sticks and logs. The lockmaster did try to clean it out, but we had to coast through several small islands of debris with the engines in neutral. At cruising speed the bow wave normally pushes smaller debris aside, but at maneuvering (slow) speed we can easily ride over larger debris rather than push it aside. After the second lock today, I thought that we had successfully passed through/over a large raft of branches when we heard this loud THUMP. Sure enough an 8 foot long branch about 3 inches in diameter popped up behind the boat a few seconds later. Lucky! This kind of event is always followed by a few tense moments when you feel for vibrations from the propeller. Then you try the steering, then slowly increase the throttle and hope...

At 4 of the 5 locks today we passed a lot of construction work. They were repairing dams and working on flood damage both on shore and along the channel in to and out of the locks. I presume that most of this damage was from last Spring (2013), when this portion of the canal was closed for 5 weeks due to flooding and then for repairs. I am certainly glad that New York is repairing the canal system, but this tug and barge are in the part of the channel where we would normally be traveling. Thus, we got forced out into the turbulence from the dam adjacent to the lock, and after we passed the tug, we had to turn sharply to get back into the channel for the lock. Well, nothing like real world experience to improve my boat handling skills...

We had a short wait at our second lock while a single tug came through in the opposite direction. However, this gave us a great view of another classic (meaning old) tug as it passed us on the way out of the lock. The Grover Cleveland is part of the NY State Canal System fleet  that maintains the canals. Those fenders are all real rope...

Tonight we are in Fonda, NY at a free dock provided by the canal system. We are sharing the dock with the tug Waterford and her tow of large pipes used as part of dredging operations. There was very little room for us, but the crew kindly pulled the tug back by hand about 30 feet to make room for us.

Tomorrow? We hope to have slightly better weather with no rain, low 70sF and 6 more locks. So far in the Erie Canal, we have transited 12 locks and have gained 245 feet in elevation. This is just getting started as we have quite a few more locks yet to come.

Day 2-197 up the Waterford flight to Schenectady, NY

It was not a race to the first lock this morning as we had anticipated. Rather, only the three largest boats were ready for the 8:00 am opening, and the lockmaster would only take three larger boats at one time. Like we say "Lucky Us".

When we were about to exit the first lock (Lock #2), I took this picture of the older, small locks that this bigger lock replaced. Lucky Us would not have fit into those locks, and it would have taken much longer to transit all of those locks. As it was, it took less than a half hour from entry to exit after our 20 foot lift.

When we were exiting the lock, we passed this beautifully restored old NY state canal tug, the Urger (as in "urge" or in this case push around). They have a tugboat festival in Waterford every Fall, and many restored diesel and steam tugs participate.

The modern Waterford Flight consists of 5 locks that are closely spaced as we climb up out of the Hudson River Valley along the Mohawk River.

This is the view aft as we reached the top of Lock 2, and you can already begin to see the view back toward the Hudson Valley. It is kind of like entering a cave at first, and then when the lift is over, it is like being way up in the air. So, with the experience of the first of these locks behind us, we settled in for a few more hours of the same.

So far, the locking process has been very efficient with friendly personnel. Also, the lock walls have been far cleaner with much less"slime" on them.

Here we are as we approach Lock 3. Our two companion boats are already inside the lock grabbing the lines that hang down the sides of the lock wall. The canal system opens for the season in early to mid-May, and this year heavy spring rains and floods forced much of it to temporarily close shortly after the opening. The boat in front of us spent 5 weeks "trapped" in the canal last spring when floods damaged several locks and dams. They are hoping for an uneventful passage this year (as are we).

As we were leaving this lock about a half hour later we passed more old, restored tugs and a passenger barge moored alongside the canal.

The next photo (left) shows our groups approach into Lock 4. The locks are often so close that you feel like you just got out of the last lock before it is time to enter the next one and do it all over again. The Admiral grabs a line at the bow, and then I start moving the stern toward the wall. In fairly short order, I then put both engines in neutral and climb down the ladder to the aft cockpit. If all goes well, all I have to do is reach out and grab a line. That is the theory... However, I did use our 10 foot long boat hook several times to grab one of the lines. Progress not perfection???

After the end of the Waterford Flight, we had a nice relaxing 11 mile journey to the next lock. It was a welcome break, but then it was back to work again. The photo at the right shows our travelling group of three boats after we have gone up. The dam is quite a bit wider than what is in the photo so there is a lot of turbulence downstream. To avoid the turbulence, there is a channel with both an island and some breakwaters that are connected to provide a channel with smooth water to enter/exit the lock. This lock also had a higher lift (27 feet) than all of the previous locks that were 20 feet.

Then it was just 4 more miles to the Schenectady Yacht Club where we are staying for the night. It is not fancy, but it has everything that we need like electric, water and some bathrooms that don't rock. Actually, they also have three local restaurants that deliver so the Admiral ordered up some wonderful Chinese food. The only downside is that once again...you guessed it. The pool is not yet open for the season.

We also had afternoon entertainment with racing shells of all sizes (1, 2, 4, 8) as well as a number of kayaks. They seemed to be having fun although every once in a while one or more crew members seemed to collapse in a heap (?).

The only other excitement (?) was a flock of Canada geese that did not seem to want to get out of our way. Then we saw the reason... There were several adults and 30 plus chicks feeding on bugs on the grassy shoreline. Pretty cool!

Day 2-196 to Waterford and the Erie Canal

We made a symbolic turn west today. We have travelled east along the Gulf Coast from Texas to Fort Meyers, FL. We then crossed Florida via the Okeechobee Waterway to Stuart, FL. Since then, we have travelled north up the east coast and then up the Hudson River to about Troy, NY. At Troy we went through the Federal Lock. After the lock, we could have kept heading north into Lake Champlain or we could turn west into the Mohawk River and enter the Erie Canal. Now, we are heading generally west to Chicago, IL where we will start south back to the Gulf of Mexico (and ultimately HOME). The picture at the right shows the Hudson River near Troy, NY. Since we left New York City, the river has gotten much shallower (150+ feet to more like 25) and narrower (from 3+ miles to less than 200 yards at places).

The clearance under fixed bridges has gone from 150 feet to 25 feet at Troy, NY (see picture at left). The commercial navigation here is mainly tugs with barges and smaller tour and cruise "boats". So, now we will have to lower the radar mast several times and a couple of times we will have to remove the enclosure on the flybridge. We knew this in advance, and it is all part of the ever changing nature of our trip.

Waterford is a pretty little town named originally as a place where you could ford or cross the Mohawk River. Now it is the jumping off point for folks like us who are doing the Great Loop. It is Memorial Day, but we did have our choice of three restaurants downtown that were open. I had a steak and cheese submarine for lunch, and it was heated to perfection. There were several Memorial Day celebrations in the local area, and we could hear the patriotic music in the distance.

Waterford has done a great job of attracting transient boaters with a free dock ($10.00 for electricity). The Welcome Center contains the Dock Master's office, Welcome Center, store, bathrooms and laundry. We enjoyed our stay and did what the city wanted... We went to the grocery and ate lunch out. Several of the 9 transient boats were staying multiple nights and one was doing a "crew" change.

Our view from the dock was of the Lock #2 of the Erie Canal. The canal is run by NY State, but they count the Federal Lock on the Hudson River as the official lock number 1. Go figure?

Of, course, much of the original canal is gone, but on a walk after dinner, we did see some older small locks that were part of what was referred to as the "Waterford Flight". The five locks in the present Waterford Flight each have a lift (or drop) of 20 feet. As we walked toward the lock in the picture above, we saw 5 small locks (picture at left) that were replaced by the present one.


So, tomorrow morning we are off west when the locks open at 8:00am.

Day 2-195 relaxing stay in Shady Harbor Marina

It has been a while since we stayed in a marina with a loaner car so we took advantage and went into town for lunch and grocery shopping. It was a nice break, and I was out of ice cream so I had more than a passing interest in the grocery store.

When we arrived yesterday, the Dock Master said the pool was still closed, but he added that it was now clean enough for swimming. I then checked, but the sign said Pool Closed. However, today when we returned from shopping, the sign now read (see photo at right).

Now that we are well away fro our natural air conditioner (the Atlantic Ocean), the temperatures have been in the low 80s (F). So, today was the first day that I wore shorts for a full day. The pool looked so inviting that I put on my swimsuit and headed for the pool followed by a less optimistic Admiral.

For all of you "nay sayers", I have photographic proof... Admittedly it took about 5 minutes to ease into the chilly water, but I even swam 2 laps. Whoop!

Yes, it is Memorial Day weekend, but summer is indeed finally here! This was about 2:00 pm, and at that point I am pretty sure that I held the record for the "oldest swimmer" for this year by about 58 years... It may be several weekends before that "record" falls.

In case you are wondering about the Admiral, well she was a little more timid, but she did at least get her feet wet.


Shady Harbor Marina was a nice stop, and we might have stayed longer if the two boats in front of us had not been Party Central. So, we have made plans for an early departure to get to the start of the Erie Canal.

Day 2-194 onward to Shady Harbor Marina in New Baltimore, NY

As far as we know, there seems to be nothing "shady" about Shady Harbor, and from what we have seen, there is nothing very "new" about New Baltimore... However, we are staying here for two nights, so we may learn more when we explore the local area tomorrow.

We left Rondout Creek at about 8:00 am, and made our turn north or up river at the Rondout Lighthouse. The lighthouse sits at the end of one of two breakwaters that line a very nice entrance into Rondout Creek.

The weather was still okay with low clouds and no haze, but that was to change soon with (very) light drizzle for just over half of our 42.1 mile trip. The tide was with us for the entire trip today so we made the 42.1 miles in just 4.5 hours from dock to dock, which is an excellent time, especially since the chartplotter had estimated 5.2 hours.

On the way out of the creek, we passed more tugs at the maritime museum (remember, this picture is really for Grandson Will). Altogether we counted 7 tugs at this one location. Pretty cool. Two of them had very tall smokestacks like they were still coal burning tugs. Most of the conversion of tugs, trains, etc. from coal to diesel was completed in the early 1950s so those tugs had been well maintained for a long time.

The views today were clear enough, but the sights were few. That is not to say that it was a dull trip since the tree lined shores and occasional islands made for beautiful scenery. Anyway, today will probably go down in the history of this blog as the "day of the lighthouses". This is the Saugerties, NY Lighthouse, which is a nicely restored brick structure on an what looked in part to be a bedrock island or hazard to navigation. Remember, we are going up stream so the river is narrower, shallower and now is flowing through more resistant (to erosion) bedrock.  The Saugerties Lighthouse is also a B&B and can be reached by walking from the land.

As luck would have it, the next nice view is the Hudson-Athens lighthouse at the southern end of an island just offshore of Hudson, NY. It is red brick with (real) stone corners and foundation. This one was built to last!  The north end of the lighthouse base was designed like a bow of a ship to protect it from the ice flows in the winter and spring. 

 

We only went under two raised, fixed bridges across the Hudson River today and neither was very pretty, although one had the marvelous name - Rip Van Winkle Bridge. The Admiral kept a close watch on me and although I desperately needed nap, I managed to stay awake. 

 

Well, most of you know me well enough to know that I am really a very modest person - NOT. When we finished docking at Shady Harbor, the Dock Master told the Admiral what a nice job that I had done docking Lucky Us. That was a nice compliment, but then the Admiral said something like "Yes, he has gotten pretty good at docking".  Sweet music to my not very modest ears. Maybe in a few more years I can work my way up to (just plain) good?

 



Day 2-193 North to Rondout Creek (near Kingston, NY)

Another "not the nicest weather day" on the way north to the Erie Canal. We left Croton-on-Hudson at 7:20 am with far less haze but more clouds. About a half mile of shoreline along the marina had these waterfront condos. BTW I checked and they sell for about $434.00 per square foot... Well, that's a lot cheaper than waterfront condos in New York City.

Today was full of very different sights from nature to history, and the tidal currents were less strong and mainly in our favor.

We saw an abundance of trains with commuter trains on the east bank and freight trains on the west bank. The picture on the left shows a commuter train entering a short tunnel.

Keep in mind that historically the Hudson River Valley and the Mohawk Valley/Erie Canal were very important transportation routes. The route is still very busy today judging by our experience today.

Just to balance things out, here is a freight train and a tug pushing a barge on the other side of the river.

You can now relax! I am sending many other train pictures to Grandson Will via e-mail. That said, I am tempted to add one more train picture showing a freight train emerging from a tunnel under West Point...

There are very few bridges across the Hudson River, but here is a picture (at left) of the Bear Mountain Bridge with a tug and barge. Don't look too closely because you might be barely able to make out a freight train going along the far shore.... We also went under the Tappan Zee bridge, but it is being replaced by a new bridge and is not very pretty at the moment.


We are starting to (trying to) make the transition from mud bottoms everywhere to having to worry about rocky bottoms. The shoreline today was often solid bedrock, and in places the channel was very narrow with steep rock walls.

We passed by the US Military Academy at West Point. I was really (un)impressed by how many of the buildings were literally crammed together. However, the area has steep hills and very little "flat" space, except for some flood plane. Flood plain derives its name from the fact that the area regularly floods (and deposits sediment), and much of the low lying flood plain was utilized for athletic fields.

Speaking of athletics, we got a laugh out of the sign painted (?) on the roof of the basketball arena.

We passed a small cruise ship headed down river. In the summer season there are small cruise ships like this that have routes as far as Chicago. Might be a fun trip someday.

Our trip today ended at Rondout Yacht Basin up Rondout Creek on the west side of the Hudson River. BTW "Rondout" is pronounced "Roundout". I just know that you wanted to know that... Any way you pronounce it, spell check still does not like the spelling.

Going up Rondout Creek we passed the maritime museum, and it had several tugs on display outside. The red one is actually a fireboat, and after dinner we watched it cruise past our dock with a group of passengers on a cruise.



Two more days until we are ready to enter the Erie Canal and head west. There is no official halfway point on our trip, but symbolically, we will turn west into the Erie Canal and go toward Chicago and then go south from Chicago headed back "home".