Days 6 to 7 Weather delay in Waterford, NY

      We have decided to take the next two days off due to the weather forecast and the rigors of three travel days. This is especially true due to the 11 locks that we transited yesterday. The lock throughs were smooth, but each lock does require work and it also results in nervous energy being consumed. Thus, we were just as happy to have the weather delay, or we would have probably taken one day off anyway...

      To review the first part of this year’s trip I have included a profile from the NYS Canal Corporation that shows the locks that we have transited and their relative lift/drop. We started in Brewerton, NY (far left end of the diagram in the photo above) and ended on Day 5 in Waterford, NY. The first two locks were east of Oneida Lake, and they were up. The canal then crosses a drainage divide between Lake Ontario and the Hudson River. Thus, the remaining locks are down until we reach the Hudson River at Waterford, NY. The diagram also shows the relative spacing between the locks. The last 5 locks on the right end are the Waterford Flight where we rapidly descended 164 feet to the Hudson River at the town of Waterford. Hopefully, this diagram gives you a good overview of this first portion of the trip.

      The photo at the left show Lock E-2, which is the final one of the Waterford Flight of 5 locks. The water level here is the level of the Mohawk River and Erie Canal as they enter the Hudson River just about a half mile east (or to the left) of here. Just off to the right is the location of two of the original locks from the Erie and Champlain Canals. There are pictures of these locks later (below).

      The photo at the right shows Luck Us moored on the Waterford Free Dock. The bridge just ahead of Lucky Us is a former railroad bridge that crosses the Erie Canal/Mohawk River to Peebles Island just to the south. The island has breast works (double mounds) that would have been used to shield cannons that protectanted the island and town during the Revolutionary War. However, no battles were actually fought here.

      Just on the other side of the bridge and ahead of Lucky Us is the Welcome Center and Marina Office. On the exterior wall of the welcome center is a plaque that marks the high water mark for tropical storm Irene, and it is dated August 29, 2011 (photo at left). Irene was the storm that caused so much flooding in this area of New York and New Jersey. The high water mark is about 15 feet above the water level during our visit.

      The next few photos will give you a quick and far too brief look at some of the local architecture. The City Hall and Police Station (photo at right) is on the main street where we viewed the parade last evening. Most of the shopping district along here is also composed of brick buildings, but most appear to be much older than city hall.

 

 

 

 

 

      The main street is parallel to the canal and about 3 short blocks away. This area has many historic houses although none of the ones we saw had received a formal designation as a historic structure. This is unfortunate since many of what look like nicely restored houses have actually been covered with aluminum siding. Thus, although they look fine from a distance, they would violate all kinds of historic preservation guidelines. The house in the photo at the leftt was built in 1880 by the owner of the Waterford Knitting Company. In the rear at the left is a lovely, large carriage house, which likely housed servants on the second floor. It is not at all obvious, but the mansion has been divided up into apartments so that much of the interior has probably been lost.

     The last photo of a house (at right) shows a Greek Revival home with beautiful columns supporting the entry roof with wonderful trim work around the top of the entry and on the roof line. Many of the foundations for the houses were made of native stone.

      The water level in the Erie Canal, Mohawk River and Hudson River at Waterford is down about 2 feet based on the amount of river bank exposed along the channels (photo at left). This is in spite of a late wet Spring with flooding back in the Oswego River just to the west of where we started on Day 1 and well to the north along the St. Lawrence River, especially near Montreal, Quebec where we hope to be in a few weeks. 

      One of the local points of interest is two locks from the original canal system. Just a short walk to the west and uphill from where Lucky Us is docked (photo at right) we can look back down through these two old locks. The original stone work looks to be in very good shape. The stones were carefully fitted together with no cement, and they have remained in position despite the effect of tree roots and ice, which can move the blocks apart. I do not know the lock measurements, but Lucky Us would possible fit inside the lock chamber with little room to spare.

      Above the locks in the previous photo is a small with a channel that runs into the distance toward the top of the photo (at left). This channel lead to the original Erie Canal. The channel also heads back to the right and leads to the original Lake Champlain Canal. Thus, this spot is a very historic point in the history of American transportation where two major transportation route meet.

      The above photos just represent some of the many sights that we saw. We also slept late and ate very well during our stay with two meals out at local restaurants each day. Thus, we are well rested and ready to begin our journey north along the Lake Champlain Canal tomorrow (Day 8).

Day 5 off eastward to Schnectady, NY

     Today got confusing… We left Fonda at 9:00 am with our original destination of Schenectedy, NY for a distance of about 30 miles. We got to Schenectady at 2:30 pm in great weather, and we had breezed through 5 locks with almost no delays. The lock throughs were quick since all of the locks only had smaller drops of 11 to 15 feet. We only had 24 miles more to go to reach Waterford at the East end of the Erie Canal. However, there were 6 more locks with a total drop of 196 feet. Feeling confident after our quick lock throughs so far, we decided to head on to Waterford… I will not make you wait for the answer, which is that we made excellent time and arrived in Waterford about 5:00 pm. The 11 locks in one day is a record for Lucky Us, especially given that we did all of this in only about 8 hours.

      It does not seem like it at times, but the Canal System does remove trees and other debris from the canal. The photo at the right shows the visual proof in the form of the tug Waterford with her barge loaded with trees removed from the canal. Talk about a never ending job… The flowing water and the wakes from boats are continually eroding back the banks and dropping more trees into the water.

     As we were approaching Lock 8, I called the Lockmaster from about a mile out to request a lock through. He said to hurry because he was bringing up 3 boats, and he would be closing the lock after he took us down. We slipped right into the lock as soon as the last boat cleared the lock. The reason for the closure was that he was going back down to lock through a commercial shipment of 6 beer vats destined for the Genesee Beer Brewery in Rochester, NY. We had seen pictures in newspapers and pictures on TV, but we had missed the first shipment as it passed us during the night. The photo on the left shows our view as we exited the lock. There was one tug with 2 barges with 3 vats in each barge. According to one newspaper account, the tanks hold the equivalent of 2,000 barrels, or 27,560 cases or 661,440 twelve ounce servings. The wording was not clear as to whether the numbers were for one tank or all 12 together. In any event the numbers are impressive. While we were in the lock, I noticed a crowd of people gathered on the shore with more cars arriving to see the big event.

      The photo at the right, which I found on the web, shows a view of the locking process taken from above. As you can see there is only room for one barge and the tug inside the lock. Thus, the tug will have to tie off the barge and go back down to retrieve the other to lock it up. The lock closure was not a huge problem if we had not made it through, but the delay would have been more than an hour. Almost all of the pleasure boat traffic on the canal has been in the opposite direction from us. The line up of boats below the lock was already starting to grow as we left.

      The last five locks are very closely spaced as little as 0.15 miles apart, and they are known as the Waterford Flight. These five have a total drop of 166 feet down to the level of the Hudson River at this location. We were so busy going rapidly from one lock to the next that we did not have time to take any pictures, but it was a fun trip down. Just before we reached the Waterford Flight we did pass these very attractive twin bridges (photo at left). Just after these bridges we went through the last of the guard gates on the canal and almost immediately arrived at the first lock.

      When we arrived at the town of Waterford, we could not get a dock space on the floating dock with power so we tied up in front of a tug barge pair on the free wall. We knew that others would be running their generators so we were prepared to do that. However, we decided to head into town for dinner after giving Lucky a long awaited trip ashore. The downtown area consisted of 5 blocks of businesses along Broad street, which was only three blocks away from the canal. As we reached Broad Street, I noticed a lot of people standing about as if they were waiting for something. I asked a lady, and she said that the “Memorial Day Parade” should be here in a few minutes. We thought that it was a little unusual to have that parade on Wednesday, May 24, but sure enough the parade started passing by in about 20 minutes. The photo at the right shows the color guard leading the parade. By this time we had been seated at a local café, but we had a marvelous view out the window.

 

      As befitting the meaning of Memorial Day, there were mainly veterans from all wars participating, and the crowd showed their appreciation. Of course, there were also plenty of fire engines and little league teams. I just love small town parades, and once again, the Loop adventure had lead us here at the right time…

      The last parade picture (I promise) shows a really good looking fyfe and drum corps strutting their stuff. Like I said, what fun!

       After dinner we went back to Lucky Us and turned on the generator to charge things and to cool the boat down for the night. There is an exhaust blower in the engine room, but the large diesel engines have a LOT of hot cast iron at the end of a day’s run. So, even though it had cooled down outside the air conditioner helps to offset the heat coming through the floor from the engine room. The photo at the left shows the beautiful sky overhead above Lucky Us as we neared sunset.

      Once again, sleep came early after an exciting day on the water…

Day 4 off 40.3 miles to Fonda, NY

 

       We set off from Ilion a bit later than planned at about 9:00 am. Terry (aka the Admiral) helped us with lines, and then she was headed off to drive back to Texas for some family events. Ann and I headed off east for a 40.3 mile trip to Fonda, NY with 6 lock along the way. It was warming up (hopefully) to a high temperature in the low70s with scattered clouds. The Mohawk River Valley is often narrow from here all the way to the eastern end of the canal at the Hudson River. The valley sits between the Adirondack Mountains to the north and the Catskill Mountains to the south. It was and still is the main transportation corridor from New England, including New York City, to the west. The does not seem to be much civilization along today's route so most of the photos will be of locks. Lock 17 (photo at right) has a drop of 40.5 feet, which makes it one of the highest locks on the canal system.  We went in first and were followed by the canal system workboat. The work boat was in transit so we actually went through three locks with her. The water leaking though the upstream end of the lock is coming through the gate that sits above the lock sill (or bottom of the entry channel).

     The last photo was taken over the stern and the next photo (at left) was taken looking over the bow. You can see a small fishing boat about to exit. On the down stream side of this tall loch the gates would have to be about 60 feet high if they swung open and closed. The tall locks have a fixed gate down to about 25 feet above the water. The lower portion of the gate is raised and lowered as a single gate, which evidently requires much less work (or energy). Since we are going under a “wet” gate, we do get a bit of a shower as we pass through.

      The third photo (at right) is looking back at gate 17 as the work boat exits. There is no dam connected to this lock as is usually the case. The dam is upstream back to the west on another branch of the Mohawk River.

     The Mohawk River Valley is quite narrow in the picture at the left. The railroad is right along the river edge as it passes the hill that is formed by the limestone bedrock that is resistant to erosion by the flowing water. There should also be a road along the railroad on that side. On the other side of the river (and canal) the NY State Thruway is also close to the river, and they had to create a large roadcut to make room for the highway. The narrow valley here has always funneled the transportation (e.g. horses, wagons, the early canal, etc.) through this narrow river cut.

      The photo at the right show a view of the dam at Lock 13. The photo was taken from the flybridge of Lucky Us as we are in the lock chamber. Here the canal is still following along the Mohawk River. You get a good view of how long the dam is and of how much water is pouring over the dam.

      This photo (at left) was taken looking back at the lock, dam and highway bridge after we have exited the lock. Compared Lock 17 in the earlier photos this Lock 13 only has a drop of 8 feet. The canal is within the Mohawk River through this area. Here the river has a low gradient (or “slope”) so unless you want to dig a new channel, there must be dams every so often to raise the river level in sort of a stair step like fashion.

      Just as you were about to scream “no more lock pictures!” we passed this lovely old “woody” or wooden boat (photo at right). I can only guess that it dates from the post WW 2 era. Maintaining any wooden boat is a labor of love, especially with all of the varnished mahogany. The owners of these boats scoff at the “new-fangled” fiberglass boats, but they definitely require less maintenance.

      Our destination for today was the Canal Corp free dock at Fonda, NY (photo at left). The area along the canal is dominated by this old crane an LOTS of grass so Lucky Girl was quite happy. They have a large shop area out of view to the left where they seem to fabricate large steel components for the locks. For dinner Ann and I set out for the little town. However, it was hot and sunny so we gave up and ate at the local burger/ice cream shop about a half mile away. The shop was also across the street from the local fairgrounds, which has continuously hosted an annual fair for 175 years. They also have weekly stock car races as well as “dirt drag racing”. My hamburger was decent, but the hand dipped ice cream was GREAT! The electricity on the dock was free, but we only had one 30 amp circuit, and in order to fully run the air conditioners and charge all of the batteries, etc., we need two 30 amp circuits. Thus, we did run the generator for several hours to cool things down and charge the house batteries. While the generator was running we also watched the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Boston Celtics on the satellite TV. As seems to always be the case, after another day on the water, it was once again early to bed (and knowing me -late to rise…).

Day 3 Rainy days and (on?) Mondays...

      The weather forecast for today was about 70% chance for rain and/or thunder showers with a high temperature of about 60 so we made the decision late last evening to take today off. It turned out to have been a very good decision since Terry and I both slept about 11 hours. I guess that the busy time loading the boat and then travelling 2 days in the cold finally caught up to both of us.

     After a very late breakfast, Terry and Ann set of in the car for some grocery shopping and a visit for Ann to the museum at the Remington Arms Factory just about a quarter of a (crow) mile from Lucky Us. We get a good view of several of the (old) multi-story factory buildings for Remington from the salon on Lucky Us. We had visited the museum during our stop here on our first Great Loop in the Summer of 2014. The photo at the right shows the sign for the museum that was prominently displayed in the marina (also conveniently about 50 feet from Lucky Us).

      The photo at the left shows one of the informative displays. This one explains the use of “gauge guns” during the early part of the 20^th Century. The gauge gun is a perfect example of this model of gun, and it was used as a benchmark to test the correctness of individual parts produced on the assembly line to assure quality. The advent of computers has since made the gauge gun obsolete. Of course, it is a gun museum so they also have thousands of guns just sort of sitting there…

     In the middle of the night Terry heard a scratching and bumping noise outside the hull. When she went outside she discovered this large log wedged between the boat and the dock wall. She managed to get a rope around it and pull it down the dock and tie it off. Nice work! And oh, by the way, thanks for not waking me up to “help”… When we leave tomorrow, we are leaving the tree and our rope here with the marina to worry about (photo at right). However, since we are heading downstream, we will not have to deal with the log again if in fact the marina just cuts it loose after we leave.

      One important kitchen item that did not work when we got back to the boat after the winter was the single burner, induction cooktop. Terry ordered a new one from Amazon to be shipped to Winter Harbor Marina, but it did not arrive before we left. It did arrive yesterday so we spent the afternoon driving some 80 (road) miles back to pick up the burner. We did a stop at Home Depot and Bed, Bath and Beyond as well. Timing was also perfect for an early dinner at a waterfront restaurant near Winter Harbor. We had eaten Walleye there last week, and we noticed a sign for fresh perch so…  If you are new here on this blog or may have forgotten, I really like Perch! It is a small but tasty fish in the Great Lakes. After dinner, we had a nice drive back to Ilion with only scattered rain on the trip.

      The forecast for tomorrow is for a high in the 70s with only scattered clouds. We plan to leave the dock about 8:30 am. Sadly, Terry will depart tomorrow for the long drive back to Texas.

Day 2 to Ilion, NY

      We are backing away from the dock at Rome (photo at right) on our way 25.9 miles to Ilion, NY. I had not mentioned it earlier, but we have long time family friend Ann Mowery from Lorain, Ohio. She will be with me for 2 weeks while the Admiral leaves on Day 4 to drive back to Texas for some family events. She will then fly back to Syracuse on June 7. Ann will be leaving near the end of May to return to Lorain and go to her niece’s high school graduation. So, Lucky and I will be alone to work on Lucky Us. Sound complicated? Yup. Today, Ann will be following along in our car, and tomorrow, Ann will be onboard while Terry follow in her car. There are scattered clouds, and it is expected to only warm into the upper 60s.  So we are bundled up for the trip today.

     The water levels have been high everywhere we have gone, and there were some concerns that the canal might not open as scheduled. Thus, water levels remain high, and there has been some debris, including this whole log with some of the roots sticking up (photo at left). The floating debris is easy to see, but as always, we worry about the “invisible” logs floating just below the surface.

      On our way to the Hudson River Valley we will pass through seven of these Guard Gates, which are used for flood control (photo at right). They can also be used to lower the water level for maintenance in a segment of the canal. They are not beautiful, but they are part of the trip...

      We pass a variety of (old) tugs and their barges in our trip. This is the tug Erie and behind her is a crew boat (photo at left). In the general area of the Hudson River, Erie Canal and St. Lawrence River there are many restored tug boats. There are a number of week long festivals in this area that feature tug boat races, pull offs, etc. Sounds interesting, but we have not been around when a festival was happening.

      Lucky Girl spends most of each trip in her kennel on the flybridge. However, she does wonder around to stretch and in this case, get some loving (photo at right). The center window in the enclosure was open today so I had a chilly breeze blowing on me. Thus, a nice warm dog in my lap was actually a good tradeoff for some serious scratching of Lucky’s ears.

       The Admiral took this picture of Lucky Us in Lock 19, which was the second and final lock for today. She took the picture while standing on the catwalk across the gate at this end of the lock. The photo gives a good perspective of the size of a typical lock chamber. What you cannot see is the 10 to 15 mph wind blowing toward Lucky Us. The wind makes it difficult to hold the boat up against the lock wall as the water goes down. These locks were built to hold a commercial tug and two barges, but there has been almost no commercial traffic on the canal since the early 1970s.

      This photo (at right) of Ann Holding the line near the bow. The lines are tied off at the top of the lock and hang down along the wall with a small weight at the bottom.  My job is to get the boat close enough for her to grab that line, and then I have to bring the stern over to the wall so that I can go (run?) down and grab a line near the stern. I am sure that it looks like one of those crazy fire drills in an old silent movie, but it works well most of the time…

     …and as if on que, there I am at the stern holding my lock line (photo at left). I look pretty relaxed, but that is because I have already been there a few minutes. In most canals it is possible to actually go through the locks singlehanded (i.e. with no crew), but I would think that would not be very easy unless the boat was fairly small.

      Our series of photos of a typical lock through ends with this photo looking back at the lock after we have exited (photo at right. You can also see some water leaking through the gate on the upstream side. The bridge is a railroad bridge, but there is also usually a road bridge near the lock as well. There were no boats waiting to enter the lock, but this channel is narrow so if you had to pass boats anxiously trying to rush into the lock, it would be quite close maneuvering.

   After about 5 hours we reached our destination of City Marina (and RV Park) at Ilion, NY (photo at left). We had first docked opposite the office so that we could get a pump out, and then we pulled the boat back to where she is moored for the night. We went into town and had a nice dinner at a local café called the Knight Spot. Their specialty was ice cream, and as you entered, you had to walk past several coolers full of ice cream. Well… After dinner, we all abandoned our will power and sampled really excellent ice cream. Ya gotta love these small towns!

Gonna sleep well!!!

Loop 2 - Year 2 Day 1

      We delayed our departure until after 9:00 am when the fuel dock opened so that we could get fuel. The photo at the right shows Lucky Us at the fuel dock with Lucky Girl giving the attendant the benefit of her extensive cruising experience. The attendant asked about how much fuel we were going to get, and I replied "I think a little North of 350 gallons." The final tally was 349.65 gallons. What's impressive is that we have 4 fuel tanks and no fuel gauges. We have clear plastic tubing that runs down the sides of each tank, and we have added reference lines every inch. "Experience" has taught me that each inch represents about 6 gallons. So, a guess of anywhere near 350 gallons was at best pure luck...

     The folks and facilities at Winter Harbor are great, but in a cool 58F with partly cloudy skies we departed at (a rather late) 11:00am  to head east on the Erie Canal. The photo at the left also shows most of their limited docking facilities. Their main business is winter storage, but they do have dock space for about 15 transient boats in the summer. They also have a fuel dock with usually the best prices around. The view is from Lucky Us looking back to the west.

     As we headed east on the canal, we are also travelling upstream on the Oneida River that flows out of Oneida Lake a couple of miles ahead. In about a mile we passed the reproduction of Fort Brewerton (photo at right), which was taken earlier from the road. This fort and several others that we have seen along the canal actually date from the Revolutionary War. The original earthen works were laid by the British in 1759. We are heading east to the Hudson and Champlain River Valleys. Those valleys run N-S and much of the War of 1812 was fought up and down that region. Lots of history along the way...

    The video at the left shows Lucky Us cruising east about at the location of Fort Brewerton. The video is in real time and gives you a good idea of just what our 8.3 mph cruising speed actually looks like. About 20 mph faster and we could water ski... Seriously though, when we talk about how relaxed it is to travel at this speed, maybe this video will give you an appreciation of what that is like.

      We had 3 bridges before we entered into Oneida Lake, including the railroad bridge in the photo at the right. Once out into the lake the Admiral and I settled in for a delightful 2.5 hour cruise down the nearly calm lake. This is when it finally settled in for both Terry and I that our next Great Lakes adventure was truly underway. Indeed, it was a VERY good feeling.

      Four miles past the east end of Oneida Lake we came to our first lock for this year. Initially we are headed up until we cross a divide and head down over 300 feet into the Hudson River Valley. The photo at the left is looking out from the lock as we are abut to exit after a lift of 20 feet. There were 3 pleasure craft waiting to enter once we had cleared the lock. Construction equipment at the lock is not an unusual sight since maintenance is pretty much ongoing all year. This was the second day that the locks were open so it was a treat to have new lines hanging down the lock walls. To steady the boat during the locking operation it is best to have someone at both the bow and stern to grab lines. After the lines have been in the water for a few weeks, they tend to get very "slimey", and they only get worse as the summer goes on...

     We had one more lock today and travelled a total of 35.7 miles before reaching our destination of Rome, NY. We docked at the Rome City (free) Dock, which also provided free power but no other amenities. We went into town for dinner and then back to Lucky Us where sleep came easy. The photo at the right shows Lucky Us at the dock. The photo is a little misleading since to get from the wall to the boat it was necessary to walk across two rows of 16 inch pilings that were all cut off at slightly different angles and lengths. Executing that maneuver carrying Lucky Girl was not the highlight of my day, but when nature calls...

      All in all, Day 1 was a fine start to the cruising season.

Loop 2 - Preparations for Year 2-May, 2017

     After 6+ months at home in League City, TX, we spent several weeks organizing gear and clothes to return to Winter Harbor Marina in Brewerton, NY (near Syracuse, NY)to resume our Second Great Loop adventure. We had a wonderful winter break with the highlight being LOTS of quality time with Bob (son), Jill(daughter-in-law), and the Grandkids (Sarah, Will and Katie) as well as The Admiral's family (her father Jim and mother Carita, in particular). This time has been well documented on Facebook, and I will not repeat that here.
      Over the winter we had some service work done on Lucky Us. The two, huge storage buildings must total several acres in size, and they are heated to 65F to allow for various contractors to work on the boats. We had the aft cockpit door removed and rotten wood around hinges restored and the overhead hatch in the master stateroom was removed and re-caulked as well as treating some rotten wood. The hatch has leaked for years in certain directions of driving rain so that repair was long overdue. We also had several mechanical issues addressed, including re-packing the drive shafts on the main engines as well as the shafts on the two rudders. Lucky Us also had two coats of (blue) anti-fouling bottom paint.
     The New York State Canal System is now under the control of a different state agency, and one of their first moves was to delay the opening of the canal from May 1 to May 19...

     While delay this was a big disappointment, it only cuts our travels shorter by a minor amount since the weather up North is still slowly warming up, and we would have lost some (much?) of this time to weather delays any way.  Oh well, we have learned to be patient and go with the flow.

      We left Texas on Thursday, May 11 fully loaded to enjoy a leisurely 6 day trip to Winter Harbor, including a two day stop in my home town of Lorain Ohio. We had taken only one kayak back home for the winter because the Admiral wanted to buy a new kayak. She bought a really neat Hobie kayak that has a removable pedal powered system. Lucky Girl (our dog) loves the new kayak since it is more stable and wide enough for her to move around the entire kayak. We had to be careful not to use the "k" work around the house as she would get excited and head for the door...

     The photo at the left show the Admiral and me standing behind a beautiful, blooming rhododendron, which is evidence of the late Spring up north. We both had sweaters and jackets on for basically our whole stay in Lorain, Ohio.

    We arrived in upstate New York about 3 days before the opening of the canal system, and we stayed with my brother Hank and sister-in-law Joan. They live on a small bay off of Lake Ontario about a 40 minute drive from Lucky Us. Great accommodation as well as the fact that Joan is a great cook! Once Lucky Us was launched, we could start moving our gear aboard. The indoor heated storage meant that we could leave most of the boat untouched, but we still had to put things away and do provisioning at the grocery store.

   We did have some excitement during the start up process. It was in the form of a hail storm (photo at left). The larger teak board is 3 inches wide, which shows that some of the hail was dime sixed. We did get several holes in the port (left) side windows of the enclosure for the flybridge. Along with Lucky Girl we were huddled in the salon. The noise of the hail hitting on the fiberglass deck above our heads was quite impressive!

     By Saturday, May 22 we were ready for the next big adventure to start. So, the daily blog continues below...