Tag: Lock

June 15, 2019 – Another day with wind in the forecast, but it was nice and calm as we left the marina at 6:45 to hit the first lock, 3 miles away, soon after his 7 AM opening time.

The two tugs we encountered pushing barges, one a double, must have been granted early locking, as we heard them on the radio, and encountered both before we got to the lock. It was just a bit dicey to pass them on the narrow, curvy canal, but we slowed at the widest spot we could find and they came around the corners wide so that there was never any trouble.

The view in the mornings is just beautiful, and reminds us of getting up early at Chateauguay Lake to waterski or wakeboard on the glassy surface before the wind kicks up.

We caught up to another boat, Justified, on this leg, and wound up going through the locks with them, and chatting along the way. They had stayed at the Ilion Marina, below, and done a tour of the Remington museum (unfortunately, the factory tours of at the Remington Arms factory had been discontinued a few years ago).

Lock 21 marked the point at which we begin locking down – entering the chamber that is already full, and then riding it down as the water is emptied into the lower segment of the canal. MUCH smoother. However, a little more challenging with a crosswind, as the boat’s superstructure is fully exposed to the wind as you are coming into the lock, and having to reach down over the side of the boat with a boat-hook to snag the lines is a bit trickier as well.

The closer we got to Oneida Lake, the more recreational traffic we saw, with pontoon boats, bowriders and fishing boats going up and down the canal, with some small marinas off in side creeks for small day boats. Law enforcement was quite visible, both the NYSDEC and the local sheriff.

Sylvan Beach is a resort community, with a beach, amusement park, and numerous shops and restaurants. We were probably fortunate that the weather was less than gorgeous (actually, overcast, cool, spitting rain and very windy), as there could have been even more congestion along the long free dock wall that accommodates both temporary and overnight boats. As it was, we had to go almost to the end of the wall to find an opening, and were quite exposed to the wind and waves that rocked us all evening.

We met up with the crews of Justified and 9 1/2, for dinner at the Crazy Clam, and then turned in early, after an 8-hour travel day through six locks.

June 13, 2019 – We knew it would be a wet day, but hoping to beat the wind that was to pick up later, we called Lock 14 at 7:01, and let him know we were ready to cast off from the Canajoharie town dock, and head to the lock, that we could see a few hundred yards away, as soon as he was open. He probably downed his first cup of coffee as he readied for us, and we were in the lock shortly after that.

During the route today, we traversed a section of the canal that was NOT actually the Mohawk River. It was much narrower, and straight between some angular corners. We could see a bicycle path along the side, where the original mule towpath would have been.

Soon we came to Lock 17, the biggest lift on the whole system, at 40 feet. It is also unique in that only it, and a lock in Canada, have a ‘guillotine’ gate at the lower end, that lifts to let boats go underneath, rather than open like gates at all the other locks on the canal. It had a tug with a barge in the chamber locking down when we arrived, so we and another boat had to wait on the wall until it was clear.

Then it was our turn to enter the lock under the lift gate- it’s supposed to be 20′ clearance, and our antennas are 19′ – we made it fine into the deep chamber, right behind another Looper boat.

Wow, it’s definitely imposing once inside- see the man crossing the top of the gates.

It was a long, slow lift, and we were glad to finally get through and onward toward the town of Little Falls. Very interesting how some of the homes actually had balconies right over the water!

We got a bit of a treat as we came up to the small park on the right- an old-time tugboat, that is actually still in use on the canal. In speaking with the head of the Little Falls marina, it turns out that his son is the captain of the Governor Roosevelt.

We pulled into the really nice town marina at Little Falls, one that we had heard other Loopers rave about. We quickly got the run-down from all the Loopers who’d already tried some of the restaurants in town, and gave the boat a hasty washdown for the dirty fenders and side decks. Then, off to the Copper Moose for dinner.

June 10-11, 2019 – We went through Lock 8 (and 9) twice yesterday with Mom and Dad- once up, and once down. Locking down was definitely nicer, as the water departing the lock chamber doesn’t yield the turbulence that it does when filling the chamber.

So there was a sense of deja vu as we headed out to Amsterdam, where there is a tie-up at a wall adjacent to their Riverlink Park. We anticipated staying two nights, as the winds were to pick up and gust to 30 mph the next day. It was already getting a bit blustery, and the boat seemed to take a lot more wrestling on the lines at Lock 9 and 10. The flags at the top of lock would go one way, the wind would eddy inside the empty chamber and push us the other way, and then as we rose up to where our big flybridge enclosure is exposed, the wind pushes us the other way. Do it in 30 mph gusts? No thanks!

As we rounded one bend close to Amsterdam, we came upon a massive power plant. Investigating it later, turns out it was built in the 1920s, as a coal-burning steam to electric powerplant, later put out of business in the 1950s as hydroelectric became more plentiful.

We arrived at the Amsterdam wall to find one other pleasure boat, and a workboat; after an early start, and getting a real workout in the last two locks, we were glad to call it an early day and get docked in time for lunch.

That night it stormed and rained, and Tuesday the high winds arrived as advertised. We were surprised to see the river level rise several feet, and hoped that wouldn’t translate to bridge clearance issues when we headed out.

Several more boats came in, during the day, and the nightmares they described in the locks confirmed that we had made the right decision, to stay put. One boat had gotten totally crosswise in the lock, and his bow had fiberglass damage and plenty of yellow paint (rubbed off some part of the lock structure. Ughhh.

6 June 2019 – After going through the Troy lock, we come to the junction at Waterford for the Erie and Champlain Canals.

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.  

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.

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.

Here’s a time-lapse of our first locking: