Thursday, June 15 - The Erie Canal

Thursday, June 15 - The Erie Canal

The Erie Canal begins right we have been anchored the past two nights, and the first lock of the Canal is just yards away.  You can see the lock wall under the left side of the bridge.  

Within the first two hours of cruising, we went through five locks and it took about 2 hours.  The rise was      feet, more lift in that distance than any other canal in the world.  

These locks are much smaller than the ones we are accustomed to in Tennessee. 

   

And the locks do NOT have floating bollards, things to tie your boat line to.  You have to hold on to a rope dangling from the top of the lock, or slip your rope around a cable and slide it up as the water rises.  And to do either of those things you have to get pretty close to the lock wall!  Danny is a great captain, I’m still struggling with some of my first mate duties.  In this series of locks, I missed a cable, tied too loosely so the wind pulled the stern of the boat out, and dropped the boat hook in the water.  Thank goodness the lock operator could reach it with a rake and managed to retrieve it for us.

 Towns along the canal have their own work boats.  Aren’t they cute? 

The locks keep up with your locations and wait for everyone to get in before they operate the lock, so you go through most of the locks with the same boats.  Here are the first mates on Ellis’ Island, Last Call, and Conductance.  Notice that we are all wearing gloves.  Those ropes are extremely yucky!  And our own lines get yucky from being wrapped around them.

 Between the locks are park-like areas where you can tie up your boat for the night or stop to have a picnic lunch. 

At one lock there were 2 bus-loads of school kids watching the lock and yelling at us to blow the horn!  And one group of folks were just gathered on a wall enjoying the scenery! 

  

After the first five locks, the distance between locks increased, but we went through a total of nine locks.  

We passed this unusual bridge in Cohoes, close to Colonie, NY.  Bridges on the trip have been fascinating, so many different styles.

Most of the day we were traveling on the Mohawk River, which was beautiful. 

When Danny saw me taking this picture, he asked if it reminded me of Cordele.  And yes, it did! 

We have seen quite a few mama ducks with babies, but this was the most in one place.  They were adorable! 

We docked for the night at the Amsterdam City Dock, which is really a wall, like most marinas in this area.  Several Looper boats were already there and came out to help us, thank goodness.  I don’t think I could have ever attached our line without their help!

The setting is very pretty, actually a park.   There was a phone number posted to call when we pulled in, then a guy comes down to check you in.  The “Office” is part of the restaurant on site.  We filled out the paperwork in the prep area, then went through the kitchen to get to the showers and laundry.  (There is a separate entrance, too.)   The washer and dryer are coin operated, but they leave a cup of quarters there for everyone to use.  And I just did laundry two days ago, could have done it here free.

There are some very busy train tracks just a few yards from us, and they are loud!  It’s hard to imagine so many trains, and fast trains, at that!

The night views were very nice!