In order to give Ben’s mom and dad a small taste of the trip (since it isn’t going to be all symphonies and fireworks), we left the marina for a small trip up the canal, to go through two locks, have lunch, and return to the marina. It was a perfect day for a short loop, sunny and warm, with little or no wind.
We passed by a nice old, classic boat, rafted up with a newer one, just enjoying a nice day on the water.
Stepping back in time…
Photo from marinas.com
We went through Lock 8 and Lock 9 going up, and then turned around and went back through Lock 8, going down, before stopping for lunch.
We tied up along the upstream staging wall for Lock 8, and enjoyed a nice picnic on the sundeck before calling the lock master to arrange to enter the lock to head back to Mohawk Harbor. We had a great time sharing just a little taste of what it’s like living on the boat, going sedately through some beautiful waterways, and seeing the brute industrial nature of the locks that once passed significant commerce through the heartland of New York State.
June 7-8, 2019 – We had been planning, since before we began our Loop trip, to have Ben’s mom and dad come down to visit us along the Erie, since that would be the closest and most convenient part of the trip. Having been confronted with ‘no room at the inn’ when we got to Waterford, it was apparent that banking on another of the free municipal waterfronts as a link-up point might be an iffy proposition. Instead, we made arrangements at the Mohawk Harbor Marina, which is in the center of a new residential/entertainment/shopping district being built on the Schenectady waterfront.
On the way, we stopped at the Schenectady Yacht Club, for a pump-out. The gentleman at the dock pointed out a structure from the original Erie Canal, that was actually an aqueduct that ran over the Mohawk River, rather than being part of it as it is today.
Hearing about some history of the original Erie Canal
A bit further on, we pulled in to the marina, through a tiny channel flanked by a concrete wall and a steep bank of rip-rap stones, to a very nice modern facility where our friends on ‘Here’s to Us’ were also docked, along with a couple more high-end trawler yachts.
Some serious passage-making vessels fore and aft
It turned out that the Albany Symphony Orchestra was going to play a concert on Saturday night at the amphitheater right on the edge of the marina, so early the next day when the other boats cleared out, we moved our boat back closer to the stage that had been erected. We wouldn’t actually get to SEE the performers, but we would hear them just fine.
Our view from right behind the stage
When mom and dad arrived, we got them situated on the boat where they could relax, and we took their car to the store to re-provision. By the time we got back, the tiered grass areas of the amphitheater were starting to fill up, making a nice vibe as we fixed dinner.
Sitting on the sundeck, sipping wine, eating dinner, while listening to live classical music. (We actually found a picture that shows us from the crowd perspective: https://www.instagram.com/p/Byh3K4Vgzvi/ )
We all agreed, this does not suck.
But wait, there’s more…
Since a symphony concert by itself isn’t quite enough, when the concert was over, there were fireworks over the river. Now that’s how to end a show.
Sitting on the front deck for a good view of the fireworks
6 June 2019 – After going through the Troy lock, we come to the junction at Waterford for the Erie and Champlain Canals.
Make sure to take the left…
The spring opening of the canal to Lake Champlain had been delayed for weeks, and there had been a large backlog of boats hoping to head that way. They had docked at Waterford, and even up the Erie Canal at every free tie-up they could find.
We had hoped to use the free dockage there, ourselves, in order to go to the Welcome Center, and take advantage of some of the amenties before heading into the Erie Canal. The announcement had come from the canal officials on Wednesday that they were opening the first five locks, and we figured that all the boats poised at Waterford would vacate their berths and leave us with space.
Wishful thinking. We cruise up to find it totally packed still, with little option but to bypass it and head into the first set of locks. We motored back out into the river for a few minutes, and got all our fenders deployed to protect the sides of the boat from the rough and dirty concrete walls of the lock chamber. Then it was GO-time.
The first five locks of the system comprise a ‘flight’ that have to be taken one right after the other, with no stopping in between. When built in 1907 the 5 locks that comprise the Waterford Flight of Locks raised watercraft 165 feet in just over a mile. This is the greatest lift in the shortest distance on any canal system in the world. It still is today. These five locks are necessary to navigate around the Cohoes Falls.
Water released to bring the lock down
The locking process wound up being much more stressful and physically demanding than we had anticipated. First, we had to get safely into the lock chamber; for some locks, there were strong currents and eddies where the water coming over the falls adjacent to the lock would swirl into the area where we were waiting to enter; this could be aggravated if the lock was needing to be lowered for us to enter. When that is the case, all the water in the chamber has to be released, and we can see a big white, frothy churn of water at the bottom of the lock gates.
When we enter the locks, we have to pull alongside a wall, and secure the boat. Well, secure is kind of an overstatement. In the first few locks, there are heavy plastic coated cables in a recess in the lock wall, around which we can loop one of our lines, to keep the boat from swinging. In others, there are simply heavy (weighted at the bottom) lines hanging from the top of the chamber, that are wet and slimy from living much of their life in the water. We’d each grab a line, and hang on for dear life. You might think that the boat would simply rise up, resting benignly on the water’s surface.
Uh, no. As the lock chamber fills with thousands of gallons of water in a few short minutes, the boat lurches forward, backward, sometimes pinched against the wall so the fenders are squeezed as they scrub up the concrete walls, and other times wanting to pull us off as it drifts toward the opposite wall. Thankfully, we locked alone in every lock on the flight of five, and didn’t have to worry about any other boat(s) as we worked our way through the steep part of the learning curve.
Sorry that there aren’t more pictures of this section, but we were a bit …let’s just say…preoccupied. (We do have a video – check back to see if I am able to upload it)
Since we had come all the way from our anchorage early this morning, and hadn’t really intended to attack the locks today, we were very happy to find a marina a short way up the river to tie up and consider the events of the day.
June 6, 2019 – After a beautiful sunrise scene at our anchorage, we actually encountered a few sprinkles on the way north to Albany.
This is one good reason to anchor out
The river continued to narrow, and become more industrial as we approached Albany, with barge docks, warehouses, and the Watervliet Army Depot. We had to talk to a few tug captains that were moving about, while passing a very slow moving sailboat with it’s mast down, headed for the canal. You can see by the bridge at right that sailboats can’t transit this piece of the river, or any of the canals, with their masts in place.
The first lock we encounter is the Troy Federal Lock, that is run by the Army Corps of Engineers; it is the point at which the tide-induced current will stop, and the flow of the Mohawk River and the canals are driven solely by precipitation and normal downstream river activity.
Locks allow boats to safely transit areas of significant elevation change, especially past areas where there are natural or man-made waterfalls or rapids; so as we approach, the first thing we see is the wide dam with white water flowing over it. In Canada, we will see several different kinds of locks, but most that we will see for a while have a pair of gates at each end, that open to let boats enter, then close to allow water from the higher side to flow into the chamber, raising the boat. Once at the new level, the gates can open, and out you go.
June 5, 2019 – After a great few days visiting with Ben’s Dutchess County family while moored at Norrie Point State Marina, it was time to head further up the Hudson and get closer to the Erie Canal leg of the trip.
This part of the river was really pretty, with small towns up some of the side creeks, and quite a few historic lighthouses.
We had picked out a great looking waterfront restaurant in Catskill, with a nice dock (on Google Maps, anyway) but were disappointed to find when we got there that their summertime docks were not yet in place. So, lunch underway instead, with only a short further hop to a nice-looking anchorage.
It took a little tip-toeing in, looking at the depth sounder, to find a spot with the right depth, since there is nearly a five foot tidal swing here; 8 feet sounds like a lot, until it goes down by half when the tide turns.
The anchor grabbed on the first try in 15 feet of water, and we settled in to relax the rest of the afternoon. Very peaceful, except for the train track that ran alongside, treating us to views of the Amtrack 700 and 702 lines.
The stiff breeze of the afternoon died out, and after a few short sprinkles, it was a very quiet night. The stunning view when we got up was a reward for carefully picking this beautiful spot.
1 June 2019 – We enjoyed a very nice cruise up the Hudson today, under blue skies, with current helping push us up the river. Lots of pleasure craft out on a Saturday, but plenty of room for everyone, and very relaxing.
Quite the different look here than coming through the city
Having seen the Hudson mainly by driving over it’s bridges at 70 mph, we didn’t quite appreciate how stunning some of the river is, with high stone cliffs; we’d heard ‘fjord’ used to describe it, and with the depth sounder reading 150 (!) that seemed pretty apt.
We came up on a big tow – a tug pushing six large barges, south of West Point. Most that we have seen on the waters so far have either been singles, or doubles, so this one was much more like what we will see on the interior river system. Since the river was a bit curvy here, I hailed the tug to work out what side I should pass on.
“Pass on my two whistle” This was exactly what I was looking for – to see whether he would come back with the same kind of reply that we’d get coming down the Mississippi, Illinois, Ohio and Tennessee Rivers. It meant that he wanted me to move to starboard, and pass him on his port side. It took us quite a while to pass him, as our speed differential was only about 2 mph, at our leisurely and efficient cruising pace.
Passing Donovan12 on his ‘two whistle’
We got a great view at the next turn of the US Military Academy at West Point. We’d been there and looked out at the river, and now we are on the river, looking back at it.
West Point
As we got north of Poughkeepsie, we got to watch a bald eagle, as he flew back and forth in a zig-zag pattern, hunting. Closer and closer, until Chantale was able to snap a good picture.
By mid-afternoon, we had reached Norrie State Park Marina, where Ben’s cousin Alec was standing on the dock waving us to come in through a couple of very unofficial red and green stakes that apparently marked the channel. Looked a little sketchy, but Alec guided us in to dock at a T-head where we were the biggest boat in the marina. A great spot with views across the Hudson River, and a chance to connect with relatives for a few days (and take advantage of a car for provisioning!)
May 31, 2019 – Today was a stay-put day, giving the boat a good scrubbing, to remove the salt water that we are leaving behind for the next several thousand miles.
We hosted several other crews for 5 o’clock ‘docktails’, and then went to a great little Italian trattoria for dinner with the crew of our buddy boat ‘Here’s to Us’. We have traveled with them offshore from Cape May, to Manasquan and on to Great Kills, and finally through New York Harbor.
We’ll both depart this morning, hopscotching our way to different destinations and stops on the way to Chicago; I am sure that we will run into them again, at a time and place that serendipity will determine.
May 30, 2019 – We went through New York Harbor and saw the Statue of Liberty today. The End.
Well, maybe there was a bit more to it than that.
Some days teach you more lessons than others. Some days yield valuable experience that you just can’t get any other way. Some days are looked forward to with anticipation, or with apprehension. Some days are not at all what you envision. Today was one of those days.
It was foggier than forecast. ‘But it will probably burn off soon.’ No, it won’t.
Fast ferries are fast. Very fast. And big. Our AIS was great for seeing them miles away, but they close those miles quickly, and not always along the path you think they will take. To them, we must be like slow-moving slalom poles. Because we have an AIS transceiver, I am glad that they can see me on AIS as well, and make the small adjustments in their routine courses to avoid a collision. The Betsy Ross is going to intersect my course well before I got there. But when I got to that exact point later, at the very narrowest part of the channel, a small fishing boat was right in the center (‘you have got to be kidding me, dude!), and there was a ferry coming down from the city intending to run that same passage. Ughh.
As we came up to the Verrazzano Narrows bridge, I felt like I was in a real-life game of Frogger, trying to get to the other side of the channel where it seemed like there wasn’t quite as much traffic. Ready, set, go!
Picture taken by our ‘buddy boat’ Here’s to Us
So, we enter New York Harbor, probably one of the busiest areas that we will encounter on the whole trip. In a way, we were fortunate to be coming in early, on a weekday, in crappy weather. Otherwise, there’d have been jet skis, kayaks, paddleboards, sailboats, and lots of other pleasure traffic also in the mix. In addition to the tugs, barges, ships, ferries, tourboats, and police boats.
Ack! This is when AIS stops being useful. Better to have your head on a swivel looking out the window. Two sets of eyes were very useful.
We picked our way through all the anchored boats, slowed and veered around tugs and barges, tried to keep a consistent course for all the ferries, that seemed to pass benignly around us (kind of like the way traffic avoids the guy with the white cane crossing an intersection).
And then, there she was.
Coming by boat, we saw the lady and her torch much as many millions of immigrants must have seen her. At the end of a difficult voyage, promising hope for a new life. It could have been a sunny day. There could have been blue sky behind the golden torch glinting in the sunlight. We would have had beautiful shots of the busy harbor in all it’s colorful glory. But this was just as special.
Photo by our buddy boat, Here’s to Us
We got as close to Liberty Island as we could, staying outside the security buoys, and made a tight circle while changing positions with our buddy boat, so we could each take pictures of the other’s boat in front of the statue. We gave a good show to the tourists on the island, and on the tour boat whose captain gave us a short blast of his horn to remind us whose water we were on.
And then, onward up the Hudson, bucking a pretty good current all the way to Croton-on-Hudson. Stunning pictures of the Manhattan skyline? Here ya’ go.
Up along Manhattan, past Harlem, under the GW bridge, past Yonkers (boy, New York City goes on for a long time, when you are going as slow as we are.)
We pass under the new Tappan Zee bridge, where sections of the old bridge still sit on barges. It’s beautiful and modern, unlike the early industrial version with girders and rivets.
And finally, we make it to Half Moon Bay Marina, to cap a long day on the water. The captain deserves a little something special today.
May 29, 2019 – Well, it was a relaxing afternoon yesterday, but a bit more tense in the evening as we could see on radar the big thunderstorms coming our way…to which they added a tornado watch. Oh, boy.
It passed over us, with small hail, and ferocious wind; everything survived intact, and the rest of the night was much quieter.
The morning came with a nice sunrise and the harbor was like glass, but the clouds stayed pretty low and heavy, and the wind kicked up some, so here we sit on a grey and blustery day, reading and catching up on a few things.
On our way to 2.35kWh for the day
This would be the first stay-put day while not connected to shore-power, so we were very interested to see what contribution our new solar panels would make toward helping the batteries carry the load of the fridge and other small appliances and boat systems. There was only a minute or two all day when the sun actually poked through, but the overcast was bright enough that the solar was able to provide an overall net charge of the batteries from 87% to 93% state-of-charge, while outputting around 400 watts. The charge controller has a bluetooth app that lets us see its instantaneous and historical output. The four panels are each rated at 200 watts (for a total of 800) at full sun, so the fact that we got half that with no direct sunlight at all seems pretty promising.
By mid-afternoon, we were itching to get off the boat, and we had to pay for an additional night of mooring, so we called for the yacht club launch to come pick us up. We walked down through the Staten Island neighborhood of modest homes to ‘Frank and Sal’s Italian Market‘. We had done a Google Maps recon, and this appeared to be a promising stop to get a little ‘local flavor’.
Italian grandmothers shopping, Tony and Vino (really!) behind the counter, more brands of imported Italian pasta and canned tomatoes than we could count, and cheeses, meats, olives, pastry, prepared foods. Didn’t seem like the kind of place for picture-taking, so you can engage your imagination, but we bought bread, pasta, sausage, cheese, olives, cannoli and sfogliatelle, and walked back to the boat with our backpack loaded with dinner.
From the butcher counter…
We then had the launch take us back to the boat, in whitecaps and 1 foot waves, with rain starting to spit. We fired up the generator, and went to work to whip up a very genuine Italian dinner aboard.
Just because you aren’t tied to a dock doesn’t have to mean that you are roughing it.
May 28, 2019 – Ocean conditions for Tuesday were forecasted to be pretty good, so even though there was weather coming in later from Western Pennsylvania, we decided we needed to put the ocean stretch behind us and press on up the 38 miles to Great Kills, on Staten Island, to get closer to New York Harbor.
We woke to the siren announcing the railroad bridge closing for the first 5am train.
The ebb current ( after the high tide at 3:32 ) was beginning to flow past our dock as we made coffee and prepped to get underway at sunrise. Out the inlet into the ocean with no excitement, to a beautiful sunrise.
We turned up the coast in very placid seas, although there must have been a current against us down the coast, as we didn’t carry quite the same speed over ground as the previous day. We began to see more seagoing traffic as we came up to round Sandy Hook, and we felt the outflowing current from the Hudson as well.
As we made the turn inside Sandy Hook, we saw a whale surface several times, with a spray of mist, and then a breach and the tail in the air. Very cool, but too far (and sudden) to have gotten a good picture, so you will just have to take our word for it this time.
The waves and wind started to pick up, and even a few raindrops as we pulled into Great Kills Harbor. Loopers are spread out at several of the local marinas and yacht clubs, but we chose to take a mooring ball, and exercise some of our self-sufficiency systems. (Q: How much power will solar panels make on a rainy day? A: Some, but not a lot. <followup: 1.46kWh> )
A nice quiet afternoon to relax, after a couple of trying days.
