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.