16 Miles on the Erie Canal....

Schenectady Yacht Club, Rexford, NY 6/8/2019
St. Johnsville Municipal Marina, St. Johnsville, NY 6/9/2019
​Ess-Kay Yard, Brewerton, NY 6/10-11/2019

Falls near Lock 1 - Troy Federal Lock on the Hudson River

Schenectady Yacht Club
​(Troy Federal Lock 1 – Erie Lock 7)
It was a beautiful morning and we cast off Shady Harbor at  7am.  We entered our first lock (Troy Federal Lock)at 9:30am.  It was a quick two miles to the Waterford Visitors Center on the Erie Canal where we tied up for 45 minutes until the first lock on the Erie would take us.  The first five locks are very close together and you do them one right after the other since there is no where to dock or tie off in between the five locks.  We ended up locking thru all five all alone and it only took us about 1 ½ hours to get thru all five. It was another pinch me moment locking thru on the Erie Canal.

---

Port of Albany

Super cool boat in Troy/Albany

Waterford Visitor Center - the start of the Erie Canal to the left. To the right, the start of the Champlain Canal

Lock E2 - which is the first lock in the Waterford series of five lock on the Erie Canal and

Inside the first Erie Canal Lock

Between Lock 2 & 3 on the Erie Canal

One of serveral Guard Gates on the Erie Canal. Guard Gates protect the entrance of the Waterford Flight of Locks from the Mohawk River. It also serves as the moderator of boats entering the Flight of Locks.

​​We did one more lock  (7 locks total for the day)and then slipped at the Schenectady Yacht Club.  Dockmaster was great!  The marina is right off the canal and was nice and quiet.  We met a couple from Cape Cod, Peter and Sue on Osprey.  They are doing the Triangle Loop (look it up ;) and were fun to talk about locking thru for the day.  After dinner, we pulled our little turquoise bow chairs out on the front of Bella and enjoyed the Erie Canal and a gorgeous sunset.  

The Schenectady Yacht Club stands on the site of one of the original stables wear mules were keep for hauling goods up and down the Erie Canal. The dockmaster said that there are still stalls in the basement of the building

Our "get off the boat" walk on an awesome bike trail in Schenectady

BELLA slipped at the Schenectady Yacht Club right behind a portion of the Erie Canal Aqueduct.

Erie Canal - flat and glossy. The perfect ride!

​St. Johnsville Marina (Erie Locks 8-15)
Another breathtaking morning on the Erie Canal.  Water is like glass and the scenery is phenomonal.  The Locks have been open upon our approach and the Lockmasters are great and often call ahead to the next lock for us.  We are cruising at between 8-9 miles an hour between locks and just enjoying the beauty around us.  The water is so flat that I made a full breakfast while underway.  Thanks Grahams for the awesome eggs!  They have a chickens (hens) and have fresh eggs daily.  We arrived around 2:30pm and did our usual “off the boat” walk, but someone forgot their phone, so no pics from downtown St. Johnsville, which reminded us both of Hooterville, but on the water.  Great little marina and town on the Erie Canal.

---

Lock 17 on the Erie Canal. The lock lifts every passing vessel an astounding 40.5 feet, replacing four locks on the old canal by just one. Construction on this lock was challenging. Design elements called for a unique feature, a water saving side pool which would allow about half of water from a locking to be reused on the next locking. Couple this extra feature with its massive size, the need to build it in solid rock, and keep the old Erie Canal open, which this was built directly on top of, required massive engineering. This design included a guillotine style lower gate and a concrete arch of which the boats pass under -- the only implementation of such a design along the canal system.

Aqua Vino - restaurant/wall along the Erie Canal. It's a typical place boater tie up for the night. We got here by 12:30pm but decide to keep cruising on to Ess-Kay Yard in Brewerton.

Less than an hour later, it began to rain. We cruised the rest of the day in the rain - 3 locks and 50 miles. We were cold and wet by the time we got to Ess-Kay Yard.

Ess-Kay Yard
​(Erie Locks 16-22)
Monday morning, Plan A was to cruise the Erie Canal another 4 locks and then tie up at a lock wall for the overnight since the weather wasn’t suppose to be the best Monday afternoon and by then we’d be tied up.  By the time we got thru the fourth lock for the day it was only 12:30pm and Tom (aka Wallace the Weather Bear) took a look at the forecast, we conferred and decided to keep moving and try to make it to Brewerton another 50 miles and across Lake Oneida, since the forecast was for moderate rain and very little wind.  We figured we wouldn’t melt in the rain in the locks and besides we’d rather be in a marina with power and water than on a wall for two days without waiting for crumby weather to pass.
The locks went fine and got thru the three of them by 4:30pm.  I called the Ess-Kay Yard (marina) in Brewerton and they had room for us.  All we had to do was get across the lake, which we thought would be calm and a piece of cake, even though it was raining.  Not so much.  By the time we got to the middle of the lake we had 2-3 footers.  I couldn’t believe it.  I thought I’d left that behind on the Atlantic. 
We pushed thru and got to the marina by 5:40pm.  Kim the dockmaster helped us put on fuel and get tied up.  The wind was blowing and there was a nasty under current so docking both times was a bit challenging.  By the time we got in our slip it was 7pm and we were wet, tired, hungry and ready for bed.  We had leftovers and called it an early night.
Today, Tuesday we’ll stay in the marina.  It’s still not nice out.  The wind is blowing and it’s drizzling.  Ess-Kay is a full-service marina, so we talked to them and they’ll be changing our transmission fluid again either today or tomorrow and we’ll get some planning done for Canada, provision and hopefully I’ll get Tom to work on his Fire Island blog.  Fingers crossed!

---

Daily engine room check

Leaving Ess-Kay Yard in the morning heading for the Lock 23, the last lock on the Erie Canal that we took.