Friday, June 29

Another beautiful day for a morning walk.  Crossing the bridge over the canal, we see our boat :)

An 1892 schoolhouse converted into a beautiful home on the canal.

After running some errands to the local grocery store, ACE hardware :), and even a McDonald's for breakfast! . . .  we twisted up the engines and were on our way; westbound on the Erie Canal.

Went through 5 locks today, including the lock with the highest lift of 40.5 feet!

Lock 17 is one of the highest lifts in the WORLD!  It's so high, that there's a guard door, instead of gates to open to the lower pool.

Heading in!

Guard gate is closing!

Captain Dave takes a break after that!

While Skipper Krystina, drives {picture is actually from the Hudson River, but she did drive today:)}

We stop for an ice cream break and a little shopping (the girls) in Little Falls, which is right after Lock 17.

The girls' treasures!

We ended our day at a quaint little marina in Ilion.  Tomorrow, Onieda Lake!

Thursday, June 28

On Wednesday evening, after going through 6 locks, we stayed the night at the Schenectady Yacht Club.  It turns out it is a historic site of the old Erie Canal.  Stone work from the locks and the Rexford Aqueduct remain.  The stones were right in front of where we docked.

The original Erie Canal opened in 1825, after 8 years of construction.  By 1918, the canal was enlarged twice; dams were built to create long, navigable pools, and locks were built adjacent to the dams to allow water traffic to pass from one pool to the next.  Before that, aqueducts were built to transport boats in a brige-like format (such as the picture above). 

After a nice morning walk on Thursday, Captain Dave does his morning routines of checking the engine room and preparing for another day on this wonderful adventure.

We see various towns, with beautiful bridges, homes, and landscape.  Take a peek:

 

After going through 7 locks, we stop at the Canajoharie Terminal Wall.  Terminal walls were built to accomodate travelers who needed to rest for the night while traveling through the Erie Canal.  We were lucky, this one was brand new with electricity and water.  The reasoning for the newness; big floods that came through the canal in 2006, as well as the destruction from two hurricanes in 2011.

Canajoharie is also the home of Beech-Nut :)

Wednesday, June 27 Continued

FINALLY, a good internet signal :)  Check out the following Erie Canal pictures:

Waiting for the first lock on the Erie Canal to open.

Here we go!

Check out the height of those walls (you can especially tell by looking straight ahead to the gate; there's a wall as tall as the gate underneath the gate)!!!

We're in!  This time there are SOME lines available at this lock (as well as the pipe to connect our line to the lock wall)!

Coming out of the first lock on the Erie Canal, and here's the next one ready to go!  This is the "Waterford Flight" that I told you about in the previous blog.

When we arrived in the next lock, we noticed this gentleman taking some video of our boat.  We started talking with him, and he asked if he could video us on the "Waterford Flight".  Turns out he's a professor from a local university in New York, and on his journeys throughout the summer, he likes to take videos and then take bits and pieces and put it ALL into a 2 minute video!!!  He shared the link with Jacqui, so we're working on how we might get the final copy, hopefully sooner than later :)

We're getting there!

This is leaving lock 6, the last of the "Waterford Flight".  We've been raised a total of 169 feet in less than 2 miles; I'd hate to look back down!

Just when we thought we could take a rest, we saw this!!!

Turns out this is a guard gate.  There are many spread throughout the Erie Canal.  The purpose of the guard gates is that if there's a break in the canal, the guard gate would be lowered to prevent water from long stretches of the canal being released.

Our crew finally gets a little R & R :)

 

Wednesday, June 27

Left Albany and headed 30 minutes north to Troy, where we encountered our first lock.  What an experience!  Once we entered the lock, we waited for someone to throw us a line, and when no one came, we looked for lines to grab with our pole ... no such luck!  It seems that you use YOUR line, and wrap it around a pole inside the lock wall!!!  We figured it out on our own and when the lockmaster came to get our canal pass, I asked him if we had the lines correct, as this is VERY different than the locks on the Mississippi :)  He said we were right on!

Our first lock at Troy, New York.  As you can see, the locks are VERY narrow!

After this, we went another half-mile and took a left to the ERIE CANAL!!!

LET THE EXCITING ADVENTURE BEGIN!!!  While we waited for the first lock, on our right we noticed the tiny town of Waterford, the oldest incorporated village in the U.S. where a welcome center for the Erie Canal is the biggest part of the village :)   Lock 2 (the first on the Erie Canal; Troy is considered Lock 1), is the first of five locks collectively known as the Waterford Flight.  An engineering wonder, the "Flight" features five locks where we were lifted the greatest height in the shortest distance of any canal in the world!  We rose 169 feet in elevation in less than 2 miles ...CRAZY!!!!  Locking time took about two hours total.  Once we entered Lock 2, all the other locks got prepared for us :)  We only passed one other boat that was coming east as we were going west . . . totally different than any locks on the Upper Mississippi!

Check out the various pictures of locks 2-5 on the Erie Canal :)

VERY SLOW INTERNET SIGNAL TONIGHT :(  Look for more and better pictures tomorrow; have a great evening, everyone!

~Kelly

Tuesday, June 26

Continued our cruise northbound on the Hundson River today.  Beautiful mountains for most of the trip.  Mostly cloudy with GUSTY winds, so it looked as though the mountains were pushing through the clouds!

Along the way, we ran into a group of swimmers.  In talking with the lead boat, we found out the following:

About 8 Bridges

7 Days | 7 Stages | 120 miles

The 8 Bridges Hudson River Swim, the longest marathon swim in the world, is an epic swimming odyssey that celebrates the mighty Hudson and New York Harbor.
From the peaceful Catskills to the dramatic Narrows, at the throat of the New York Harbor, intrepid swimmers cover 120 miles of the Hudson River's great stream.
For one week, each day's marathon swim begins with the ebb tide at one bridge and ends at the next, covering distances ranging from 13.2 miles to 19.8 miles. Swimmers can participate in one to all of the seven stages.
The swim strings together the Rip Van Winkle | Kingston-Rhinecliff | Mid-Hudson | Newburgh-Beacon | Bear Mountain | Tappan Zee | George Washington | Verrazano Narrows Bridges.

The Hudson River was very wide in spots and then at times it was as narrow as the Mississippi River in Prescott :)  There were depths from 12' to 110' and a water temperature of 74 degrees!  We also saw old lighthouses along the way . . .  beautiful, old buildings!

We traveled 75 miles today and made it to Albany, New York's capital city.  

Monday, June 25

Woke to a stormy morning on the boat.  Perfect timing to install the depth finder module AND . . .
IT WORKED!!!  YEA:)  We now have a working depth finder ... whew!  Took the boat south so the girls could see the beginning of Manhattan, Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island once more (remembering from a previous family trip in 2006).  On our way back took the following picture of the marina where we stayed with the recreational piers and Empire State Building in the background.

After going under the George Washington Bridge, the landscape changed drastically; from cement city to lush, wooded, tree-filled mountains ... absolutely breathtaking!  There were 300-500 foot Palisades ... composed of columar basalt, the striking series of cliffs that we saw were named for its visual similarity to old wooden barrier fortifications. 

Another spectacular site was that of West Point Academy .... absolutely beautiful nestled in the tree-lined mountains!  It was right after West Point that we encountered our first storm out on the water.  With all of the thunder and lightning, we battoned down the hatches and pushed througt the storm!  Boat and crew handled it well :)

Taveled a total of 60 miles north on the Hudson River.  Stayed at West Shore Marina in Marlborough, New York.  Walked up what felt like a mountain to go into town for some dinner, and what a nice surprise when we got to the top; a beautiful waterful!

Sunday, June 24

Rocky night at the Surfside 3 Marina in downtown Manhattan, and we do mean rocky;  pretty consistent 3 - 4 foot rollers coming into the marina because of all the ferry boats coming and going. Nice place, but pricy to stay at, however we were right in downtown Manhattan!  Started the day on Sunday by cleaning the boat both inside and out, getting ready for the arrival of Krystina and Jacqui!  When we finished that, we headed over to one of the connecting piers that we were staying at where there was a recreational center and we were able to get in a good work out and a few laps in the pool.  Then it was time to go explore Manhattan.  Since we had already been to the city, one of the things we hadn't done, was visit the Empire State Building.  WHAT A VIEW!!!

From the Empire State Building, we could see the suspension brige we went under as we came into New York's City Harbor.  This bridge is the eight longest suspension bridge in the world! 

It's a double-decker, like many in New York!

We could also see our boat!  It's the TINY white speck near the netting-enclosed golf-driving range :)

(Okay, VERY hard to see :(  Anyway, I promise, it is there, somewhere on the shores of the Hudson!!!  )

While waiting for the arrival of the girls, we had dinner and then were treated to beautiful fireworks (for gay-pride day; lots of rainbows in NYC).

Dave was a great photographer and got our boat in the picture again!

The girls landed in NYC at 9:30, and after a few delays, including an hour-long wait in the taxi cab line, they arrived at the boat at midnight!  We were soooo happy to see them :)  It's going to be a wonderful 10 days with our family!!!

New York Bound!

A very early walk (6:15 a.m.) while checking out the nice neighborhood in Atlantic City ... the name is "Boardwalk".  Gotta love the helicopter!

Back out on the Atlantic Ocean by 7:15 a.m.  Clouds cleared and gave way to a beautiful and much less humid day :)  Thought we were going to just go to Sandy Hook (tip of New Jersey), but then realized that by the time we would have gotten in there, another hour and we would be in New York.  So . . .

Here we are at the tip of Manhattan, New York!  The East River is to the right and we're heading to the left to follow the Hudson River.  But first . . .

Had to swing by Miss Liberty to get a grand 'ol photo!  We pulled into Surfside 3 Marina in Manhattan at 5:00 p.m.  What a full day!  Now we're off to get some of that yummy New York style pizza :)