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!
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