June 6 Our first lock on today’s agenda. Required: extra fenders, life jackets and gloves on,
knives at the ready and we brought along a pair of crutches to assist pushing
our boat off the lock walls.
Made the executive decision to shove off and head for
Waterford, NY. We have been told that
Waterford is the perfect launching point as it is at the confluence of the
Champlain and Erie Canals. There is a
free dock there and if you are lucky enough, you might score one of the slips
which has both power and water. Based on
the weather and that we had pretty much done everything there was to do at
Shady Harbor Marina (a lovely place to stay, but somewhat remote), we
started back up the Hudson at 10:30 (seems to be a trend here). Today would bring us our first lock in Troy,
NY which, admittedly, we were both a bit unsure of, despite all the reading we
have done in preparation.
Our sister ship, Resolute, had gone through about an hour
ahead of us and contacted us with some helpful tips. At their suggestion we radioed the lock
master about 1.5 miles out and requested an opening and he said he’d be ready
for us. This worked out great because
the area just in front of the lock with a four knot current is not the place to
wait around. Observer was a little
squirrely getting past the entrance to the lock, but once inside it was pretty
calm and all went according to our best case scenario.
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| Approaching our first lock in Troy, NY. The dam is to the left and the lock opening is in the center of the photo. |
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| View of the dam over the lock wall as we were being raised up |
We were also told that the current at the Waterford town
wall / dock was pretty strong “have best lines ready to go and be prepared for
the current”. There was an opening for
us and Pete and Pat from Resolute took our lines and helped get us secure
before the current could push us away.
Safe and sound and psyched to be at our new destination.
Trip Advisor and others had recommended McGeiveys for dinner
(a short walk away) and we had a great meal served by a very entertaining
waitress, Lisa.
Unusual siting of the day: we saw on two different houses
where someone had rigged their downspout over the sidewalk and tree lawn. Gets the water away from the foundation and
serves as a great parking space holder, as long as you don't mind getting your car drenched from the rain run off.
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| Down spout suspended over the tree lawn onto the street. |
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| Tim takes photos of unique houses on his bike rides around the area we are visiting and insists that I include them in the blog. Hope you enjoy them as much as he does! |
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