Tuesday
June 13, 2017
We have been moving so fast, it has been difficult to post. Also, the WiFi has been terrible. We left the Albany Yacht Club on Sunday, June 11, and headed west on the Erie Canal. What an experience. The first five locks were one after another, without a breather in-between. Some loopers looked down at us as we waited for the water to fill in the lock. They stated we would need a drink after that day. We made it through 7 locks and stayed the night at Schenectady Yacht Club in Rexford, NY.
The next morning we left before seven and headed through eight more locks and 53 miles to St. Johnsville Marina. That was another exhausting, almost 9 hour, day.
Today we took it easy and went through 3 locks to the small town of Ilion, NY. Here we toured the Remington museum. That was really cool!
The Erie Canal is really beautiful, but we expected more small towns and docks to stop at. There is very limited dockage so far. There were a lot of beautiful anchorages on the Mississippi river system. Here we haven't passed any. Good thing the marinas we have visited are very inexpensive compared to the New Jersey coast.
Two other loopers traveling the canal with us.
The reflection early in the morning was magnificent.
We took the lead on day two with 3 looper boats following us.
Here we are sitting in a lock. This debris shows you what high water does to the canal.
Elwood has his lifejacket on waiting for the next lock. We all wear our lifejackets in the locks.
This is a Guard Gate. It comes down to keep too much water from flowing down to the Hudson River.
Waiting to get into Lock 17 on the Erie Canal. This is the only lock in the United States that raises up above the boats which then pass under it. The only other one we know of is in Canada.
Everybody's in and the door comes down...
Lock 17 flooding...
Just as Joell was taking a picture of the geese family, Mike sped up. He had slowed down to a crawl as 3 different geese families crossed the Erie Canal. Didn't know he was so nice, did you?
