We left New Baltimore a little after 10:00 am, about an hour after we had planned, but needed to wait our turn to pump out.
A couple new marine terms for you…. “Gray water” is water from the shower or sink and can just goes over the side; it’s perfectly safe for discharge. “Black water” is water and waste from the heads (toilets); it’s not safe for discharge and needs to be pumped out at a ‘pump out station’ and disposed of properly. Needless to say, we needed to pump out since we were approaching our tank capacity and had to wait our turn at the station…. Yah that kinda stinks ….ha ha!
Our destination today was Waterford, NY – the oldest continuously incorporated village in NY State established in 1794. It was a fairly short run (about 2.5 hours) and just a little over 21 miles. We passed through Albany – a major shipping port and capital of NY; saw many large tankers. Further north, we passed under several low bridges, one of which gave us great pause clearing by less than a foot! Needless to say, we dropped the mast when we arrived in Waterford (see below) to insure clearance of the next low bridge before Lock E2 in Waterford. Phew that was close!!
The most exciting part of our day, though, was …. wait for it….. PASSING THROUGH OUR FIRST LOCK!!!….. was I just shouting? Heck yah! WE DID IT!
It was so exciting and called the Troy Federal Lock! There were 5 or 6 boats ahead of us that lined up on the port side. We were instructed to pull all the way forward to the front of the lock on the starboard side. Once there, we passed our line around the large pole and used that to hold the boat in place. Our new fender covers worked GREAT, I held the line and Gary used the bow and stern thrusters to keep us in place as the lock filled with water elevating us about 10 feet. It was very exciting! We were so glad when it was over, but happy to say…. WE NAILED IT!!
A short distance after the first lock, we turned left toward the Erie Canal (vs. right toward Lake Champlain) and docked at the “free wall” in Waterford, NY just before Lock E2 – the lock at the entrance to the Erie canal. We walked to the next lock (E2) and checked it out from all angles so we knew what to expect tomorrow; we then walked to town for a few provisions. The 3 boats from Seattle graciously invited us to join them for a hamburger dinner. What sweet people and such as sweet night!
Tomorrow, we are on to Mohawk Harbor, NY and 6 more locks! We got this!
One unexpected thing…. It’s much cooler than we planned for this time of year. Glad we brought sweat pants!
Jean Wagner
The Erie Canal goes from the Huds