Between Waterford and Whitehall, NY are 11 locks, identified as C1 to C12, with no C10. Thought I had mis-typed eh? C10 was planned but in the end, the wise engineers determined it wasn’t needed. Yippee! One less. Can you tell I am not fond of locks? Russ, on the other hand, has no problem with them, and you know why of course. He’s a LOCKSMITH!! Sure that’s a far cry from a LockMaster, but wait, you could say he’s that too. OK, on we go.

One thing is baffling, but perhaps a wise reader can offer a believable explanation. The Champlain Canal locks are C1, C2 , etc. The Champlain Canal bridges, of which there are MANY, are labeled C1- C500! (or so)  Yes, I know the C stands for Champlain because on the Erie Canal the locks and bridges are E1, E2 etc.  After you go a few miles the bridge numbers are far enough ahead of the locks, but still, how about bridges being CB or locks being CL?

Any way… we had printed out a one page list of the locks and a three page list of the bridges.  I won’t attempt to describe the details but suffice to say that words like “pool” when talking about water level, required an understanding that escaped us for the most part. But we managed, no worries.

We departed alone from Waterford but by lock C1 the green boat that had docked near us after SV Onapua left, caught up and we locked through together.

In this, and all “C” locks we found lines hanging from the top of the wall. Snag one with a boat hook, pull yourself in, then person #2, in this case Captain Russ, comes down from the flybridge (leaves engines on) and grabs a second line near the stern. Easy enough and as the lock fills the moderate turbulence moves the boat toward and away from the wall somewhat, so you adjust for that. Our large ball fenders were tied on in two places (not just one as is usual with fenders) to keep them as stationary as possible.

When the lock doors opened on the other end, I would let go of the bow line after Russ got up to the helm. If needed I’d push off near the stern and away we’d go.

At C2 (19ft lift) the fun stuff happened. The one thing we’d neglected was to don footware; barefoot loving “soles” are we. We followed procedure and thought we were prepared. However; the turbulence in this lock was strong and Twins was being pulled away from the wall more than before so I pulled harder on the line, then harder still as she was moving further away. Russ yells from the stern, “Pull, pull with all your might!!”  Holy crap, if only I had shoes on to give me getter traction! I moved to the middle of the front deck near the anchor chain chute to get a better angle and pulled really hard. I guess Russ was pulling hard too, as we slowly came in toward the wall. Whew. I mean I am shaky!

When I am standing near the boat’s centerline I can’t see Russ at the stern; I also couldn’t see the boat behind us- the green one who locked through with us. Russ said their experience was worse than ours! Their bow was turned nearly 90 degrees toward the lock wall!, but they recovered. I was very glad I didn’t see that happening. Ok then, footware now part of the attire.

Our stop today was the free dock at Mechanicville, approx. a seven mile day with two locks but no “low” bridges”. A low bridge means the mast must be lowered onto the wooden brace and our height is then 15 ½ ft (give or take because we can’t measure well). The free dock is cement with large cleats, power, water and a free pump out machine. Life is good. I know seven miles and only two locks seems so measly, but we had long waits to enter at both locks and since anchoring isn’t an option you need to spend your nights at a dock, or just outside of a lock at a wall if that’s allowed.

Yep, did the pump out then moved to the northern end of the dock, plugged in and rinsed off the fenders and sides of Twins.

Temps well into the 80s meant air conditioning was needed to keep comfy so we were happy to have power.

The short walk up to the main road takes you past the police station- good that- and we found a pizza/bar place to consider for take-out dinner. The best find (which we’d read about) was Mom’s Laundry; not only was this the most pristine laundromat ever, I couldn’t help but think “Bahamas” with the Mom name. Huge place, new machines, Wi-fi, reasonable price, air conditioned- imagine we will stop on the trip down.

We spent two nights at Mechanicville due to crappy weather. This was also the time and place to lower the mast for the remainder of the trip until reaching our VT home base in Charlotte. Ah, did you say it right? Shar Lot.

Across the canal was some exposed shoreline. We caught sight of a large bird in flight and couldn’t identify it easily. Turkey vulture, no not osprey, but bald eagle?  Once he landed we were more confused. Was that dingy, large scavenger bird really a bald eagle? Yes America that is a bald eagle.

Look it up- bald eagles eat fish- dead or alive.

Special tugs that can lower the pilot house transit these waters.

Just beyond the bridge is another lock.  Sunday, Aug 6 would be a FIVE lock day. Happy to know we’d get one done right away. Saturday afternoon we lowered our mast onto the homemade brace. Tried to measure our height above the waterline- 15 1/2??  We’ll see how it goes.

 

In this post I will write about passing through Albany and Troy (and a lock) then ending up at the Waterford Visitor Center with a nice floating dock, power and water- watch that pressure!! I’d thought this might cover all the way up to Whitehall, NY but I’ve taken so many photos that doing it justice requires more than one post, so we’ll tackle up to Waterford for now.

Our anchorage spot between Esopus Island  (just north of Hyde Park) and the eastern shore was calm, but the trains made it not so peaceful. Up “early” then, as were two tugs pushing long barges north toward Albany. Scenery continued to delight and while not “autumn foliage” gorgeous, you couldn’t help but smile.

We came upon several chimney stacks, remnants of days gone by, and of course several lighthouses.

Marinas are mostly just along the shore, some lucky enough to be tucked in slightly or with a small jetty at best. Small boat traffic seemed to depend on the area and most were locals out enjoying the ride and the very rare sandy beach anchorage.

Most exciting of all, eagles began to appear frequently. Not only did they perch majestically in tree tops, we saw many in flight.

Hard to capture when we are both moving, but I tried my best.

Osprey didn’t make an appearance until further north. This may have to do with a lack of fish, and since eagles are upper-class scavengers they aren’t bothered as much by the lack of fresh, live fish.

Years ago GE spent many years dumping waste containing PCBs into the Hudson, killing off more than just the fish. Dredging to remove the infected sediment was completed last year and the River is slowly rebounding (but there’s some debate on that). Signs indicating “Catch and Release Only” are a clue to the river’s delicate condition.

Possible cruising boats were in short supply and as we closed in on Albany, sailboats with their masts laid horizontal gave a strong clue that they were either looping or heading up to Lake Champlain. Seems dicey to me to carry your mast like that when in most cases it’s longer than your vessel.

The Federal Lock at Troy came at the end of our day, Aug 2. Troy, aka “the collar city”, is just a few miles south of Waterford. Now, we thought our research on the locks, bridges and places of interest was pretty thorough. Russ did most of it ahead and I caught up. We had several charts loaned to us by friends Mike and Ann, multiple online resources including blogs and official sites that provided detailed info on the locks and bridges, and of course ActiveCaptain. We even knew peeps who’d gone up to the Lake or done the Erie Canal, so we had some info from them.  Guess what? STILL NOT ENOUGH! Nothing like first hand experience to learn the ropes 🙂

Procedure is you hail the lockmaster on VHF 13 when you are “close” and he tells you how long of a wait, because the lock is never ready for you, even if it’s in the correct position for the direction you are traveling. At best, 5 minutes, worse case 20 minutes. We didn’t know it at the time, but our 20 minute wait was due to another boat heading north, locking through just before we approached. This required a wait for the water level to come up 16ft, then for it to flow out so we could enter at our lower level.

Still waiting….and wondering if we are prepared.

Now we enter, slowly.

Too bad no Go-Pro set up for this first event. We had lines ready, gloves on and a boat hook within reach.  We didn’t know what the “grab onto” situation would be and as you can see below, it’s essentially that large metal pipe. Of course I couldn’t get the end of a line around it- see how far you have to lean over the railing? I should have used the boat hook to grab the ladder and pull the bow in, then get the line through. After three tries we managed. But then the pipes are so far apart that we could only hold on to one at mid-ship. Russ took over the holding on. By the time we got situated, the lock was already slowly filling; thankfully it was a calm event and we exited in one piece, although my nerves were sorely frayed.

A few more miles and our day would be done. So happy to see the Waterford docks, with lots of room!

We turned around to dock facing the way we’d be going when the time came to depart.  Peter, a single-hander and New Zealand native had just docked, and caught lines for me. He apologized for making us wait for the lock, but it wasn’t his fault we were only minutes behind him.

Reviews warned not to dock at the western end of the floating docks as turbulence from the lock could be unpleasant.

Turbulent uh?

The volunteers were full of knowledge and the three of us (Peter, Russ & I ) signed in and got to know one another. Peter grabbed a shower and the three of us headed into town for a fantastic and fun dinner at McGrievey’s.

 

Dinner was thoroughly enjoyable as was hearing about Peter’s extensive cruising adventures. Dessert was the icing on the cake!

The Champlain Canal did not always exist where it does today. Originally it was shallow and narrow and essentially dug by hand. Mule or horse teams would pull the wooden canal barges along a towpath. Passing and meeting up created interesting maneuvers.

 

Good thing we aren’t doing the 363 mile-long Erie Canal; singing the song seems to be mandatory!

 

Do I hear you singing? Alright then, perhaps you don’t want to because you know we are cruising up the Hudson to the Champlain Canal and therefore, no song. But you may recall, the Lake has Champ- the monster of Lake Champlain. Maybe Champ has a song. 🙂