August 17, 2015  Day 58 New York Summer 2015

Albany Yacht Club
Albany, NY

In preparing to leave this morning, Bill first washed the decks of the boat.  Then we drove to the pump out station and emptied the holding tank. At 10:00 this morning we said goodbye to the Erie Canal and Waterford as we entered the Hudson River.  Twenty minutes later we entered the last lock of the season.  This is the Federal Lock at Troy, NY.  We had a perfect transit of this lock – not a bad way to go through the last one!  This was our 60^th lock this summer!

We arrived in Albany and docked at the Albany Yacht Club at 11:40. This was a very short trip today!  We got checked in and then took a cab to Walmart.  We had to pick up prescriptions and get a few more provisions.  Another cab ride back to the boat, and we were set for the day.

We had dinner on board, watched TV, and read this evening. We are not sure how far we will go tomorrow but will definitely look for an anchorage along the Hudson.

August 15-16, 2015  Days 56-57 New York Summer 2015

Waterford Harbor Visitors Center
Waterford, NY

This is our last night in Waterford as we plan to move on to Albany in the morning. We had a fun day today with a visit from Looper friends Rick and Margi.  They were in New York visiting family, and when they realized we were still in Waterford they drove over for a visit this morning. The Farmers Market was just getting underway when they arrived so Joyce and Margi browsed all the booths while Bill and Rick sat a nearby table catching up!  We picked up some baked goods and took them back to Carried Away and enjoyed the treats while we continued to visit.  We saw them in May but it seemed like much longer!  We will be in Florida with them this winter and look forward to that as well.

We had dinner on board, finished all the laundry and have spent the evening reading.  Joyce also had a phone call from Janet, another Looper friend tonight.  We hope to see Janet and Bob in November when we head south for the winter.  We cherish the friendships we have made through boating!

August 14, 2015  Day 55 New York Summer 2015

Waterford Harbor Visitors Center
Waterford, NY

Just a short post this evening.  We stayed at Waterford and got a few things done.  Bill made a marathon trip to a local grocery store to restock our empty shelves and refrigerator!  Joyce’s hip is still problematic and she cannot walk that far.  She did get some of the laundry done and took care of correspondence, organizing files, etc.

We planned to grill salmon tonight but the rain storm quickly changed our minds.  We could see the weather on radar but it has lasted much longer than expected.

We have decided to stay here until Monday and then make a short trip to Albany for the night.  We may not post again until then. We are not doing anything exciting – just trying to regroup and relax.

August 12-13, 2015  Days 53-54 New York Summer 2015

Waterford Harbor Visitors Center
Waterford, NY

The past two days have been challenging, but we are happy to say we are at the end of our journey on the canals and are back in Waterford where we began one month ago. We are glad we took this trip all the way to the 1000 Islands. The scenery has been beautiful and peaceful and we have met very nice people!

damage to the bowsprit

We left Canajoharie yesterday morning and traveled 37 miles. This included transiting five locks.  We did ok in the first four locks in spite of having slightly higher winds at 10-15 mph. However we had major problems in the last lock of the day.  The wind pushed the bow of the boat over the sill soon after we got tied up. The lockmaster pushed us back over to make us parallel to the lock and then he walked away. He then began lowering the water level and did not look back to see the process had repeated itself, and by now the bowsprit had lodged itself on the sill as we were being lowered.  It raised the bowsprit and caused a great deal of structural damage to it with large cracks in several places.  We eventually got through the locking process and tied up on a lock wall for the night about four miles farther away (our planned destination).  We have talked with our insurance company and everything will be taken care of – it is just a very frustrating and exhausting experience. We are fortunate that we were not injured in the process!

more damage

Today was our final day of 23 miles and six locks. The wind was lighter and we did fine. We arrived in Waterford and got tied up on their floating dock just before 1:00.  We were exhausted and did not do much of anything after we arrived. The boat needs cleaning and we need to go to a grocery store but that will wait until tomorrow. We even located an Italian restaurant that delivered dinner to us!

Just after sunset - love the clouds reflected on the water -
our view tonight in Waterford

We hope to stay here three days and get reorganized and rejuvenated!

 

August 10-11, 2015  Days 51-52 New York Summer 2015

Canajoharie Free Dock
Canajoharie, NY

We decided to travel a short distance of nine miles yesterday.  We left St. Johnsville just after 0900 and had a calm ride.  We only had to transit two locks and these were easy ones.  We arrived in Canajoharie at 1050 and tied up on the free wall. We chose this location because we were here a few weeks ago and liked the small town. The free dock also has 50 amp power! 

We have stayed here two days.  We had rain much of today and did not want to travel in it.  We are not in a big hurry so we just relaxed on board.  Unfortunately Joyce’s hip is causing her problems and walking into town was not an option.

We will depart in the morning and go as far as we can. 

 

August 9, 2015  Day 50  New York Summer 2015

St. Johnsville Municipal Marina
St. Johnsville, NY

This was another easy day of travel on the Erie Canal.  We only needed to go about eighteen miles and left at 0820 – another calm day and mostly sunny sky.  We had three locks to transit. Lock 17 is the most interesting one at Little Falls. It is a 40.5 foot drop going east, and has a guillotine door. We were the only ones in the lock, having just missed the opening, and had to wait about 40 minutes for it to be ready again.  We shared the final lock of the day with two other very small boats.

An eerie photo of the Erie Canal with these reflections!

Look at the man on the cliff! We think he was
 working on something- at least he was brave.



Carried Away docked in St. Johnsville

We arrived in St. Johnsville at 12:30 and first went to the fuel dock at the marina. The diesel price ($2.43/gal) has been the lowest on this entire trip, so we filled all three tanks.  We are spending the night here in this quiet place. 

Other than the sound of nearby trains, there isn’t much going on. There is a campground attached to the site, and we walked around it this afternoon.  There are a few small boats here at the marina but no transients today, so we feel like we have it to ourselves!

We may stay here again tomorrow but will make that decision in the morning.

August 8, 2015  Day 49  New York Summer 2015

Ilion Village Marina
Ilion, NY

This was one of the quietest days we have had – and we were underway!  We left Sylvan Beach at 0745 and headed east on the Erie Canal.  There was no wind and the water was like glass, providing a mirror image of the trees.  Even though it was a Saturday, there were no boats out! We saw a few small fishing boats, but no one out cruising.  We thought we somehow missed the memo!

We had four locks to transit. We locked up in Locks 22 and 21, and then started locking down in Locks 20 and 19.  Since there was no wind and since we had the locks to ourselves, it could not have been better. 

We left the line of boaters early this morning in Sylvan Beach
as they wait for the festivities of Canal Fest

The Erie Canal was tranquil!

We arrived in Ilion at 1:40 and tied up on the marina’s wall.  Boaters we had met in Phoenix were already here and helped us with our lines. We were happy to be here with full 50 amp power and water!  Ilion is home to the Remington Firearms Museum, but it was too late in the day to have made a worthwhile trip to see it. Remington firearms have been built in Ilion since the early 1800’s.

We got checked in and then stopped at the ice cream shop on site. We had dinner on board and then spent time visiting with Bruce and Jan, the couple we had met in Phoenix, NY earlier in the week. 

We will leave again in the morning and travel to St. Johnsville to a marina. We have a fairly short trip of 18 miles and three locks, and we hope we have an equally good travel day!