Albany to Brewerton New York

First of all, my apologies for not posting more frequently. We really haven't gotten into the routine yet. That being said, I am making no promises for better performance.

Life Aboard

Generally, we are still working out some of the kinks of living aboard. These include figuring out where we stashed stuff that we know we brought along, watching out for when groceries are getting low, watching the refrigerator temperatures, and maintaining one or two things each day.

Deb has been making some fantastic meals aboard and I'm sure that is good for our health as we wean ourselves from a steady diet of restaurant food.

We both have been able to continue doing a little revenue work as we have gone along and it has not yet interfered with our schedule. It is a very nice perk to be able to be doing this and still have some fresh income.

Our mail from Long Island and from our Florida home is being forwarded to a service that caters to boaters. They scan the envelop and we can look at that image daily. We can then choose to have them open the mail and scan it, hold if for sending to a place of our choice upon request, or shred the item. So far that has worked our very well and we are able to keep up on those nasty bills that have not gone away.

At Albany,  we had to lower our short mast yo meet the height restrictions of the canals. That means that we don't have RADAR, wind, and some of the weather information. Surprisingly, even though the GPS is on the mast and now pointed backward instead of up, we still have GPS service.

We believe that we are well situated for internet. We have a high power access point with a 1.5 foot antenna that feeds Carousel's internal wifi system. With this we can reach fairly distant public wifi systems. Failing that, we have a cellular modem on board that connects through the Verizon system.

The house in NY has still not sold. We are not really getting anxious yet, but it would be really nice to get that behind us.

Entering The New York Canal System

The canal system starts just north of Albany, at Troy, after the Federal Lock. That lock is not part of the NY system as it is still in Federal tidal waters. Yes, the tide comes all the way up to Albany! Well, we had a lot of anxiety about our first lock. The locking procedure involves calling the Lockmaster on the marine VHF radio with the boat name and direction of travel. It is pretty unusual that the lock is immediately ready so there is usually a wait. At some point the lock doors will open and, after the any boats going the opposite direction leave the lock, a green light will come on to let you know it is ok to enter. At that point, the crew needs to snag either pipes or lines that hang down the sides of the lock. Using the pipes or lines the crew holds the boat to the wall as best as is possible (no small feet given they are trying to hold 14+ tons of boat (Deb and Don are getting a full body workout at each lock!). Sometimes there is quite a bit of turbulence as the lock fills. We struggled quite a bit with that first lock but we made it though just fine. The boat locking through with us, but just behind us, could not hold themselves against the turbulence and ended up using their motor and thrusters to hold position in the center of the lock. It clearly rattled them as they put out their anchor right after exiting the lock. 

Soon after the Federal lock, the NY canal system begins with a choice to continue north to Lake Champlain through the Champlain Canal or head east on the Erie.

Waterford, N Y

Getting beyond that first lock on June 13, Mike's birthday, was pretty much our mission for the day. We tied up at the town wall in Waterford, NY.  Like most small towns in NY, there are signs everywhere of the economic drain that as afflicted upstate NY for the last two decades. However, they have a nice visitor's center and a fairly healthy downtown. We took advantage of the stop to get off the boat and walk around a bit and then contribute to the local economy by getting our first restaurant meal in several days. Our boat was tied up literally right in front of our next nemesis, our first low bridge and Erie Canal Lock #2!  We also saw our first signs of the original Erie Canal while at Waterford. We climbed to the top of Lock 2 and looked back down on Carousel.

On the 14th we started out for locks 2-6. The first 4 locks are close together and make up the largest total lift, over 165 feet, on the canal system. In fact, this sequence of locks is the largest lift in the shortest distance, only 1.5 miles, of any system in the world. We departed Waterford with two other boats, No Schedule ahead of us and Copper Penny behind. All lined up, we watched the lock empty to take us in. Once in, we grabbed a pipe mid-ships and a line aft. There was quite a bit of turbulence. But by the time we finished the Waterford flight we were feeling much better about locks.

Scotia, NY

We left No Schedule and Copper Penny at Scotia, NY. Along the way we came to know that I-90 and the Conrail main line follow the canal and sometimes are quite close. However, in Scotia, both were far away from the canal and we found a peaceful tie-up on the town dock. We also got an extra treat as the US Water Ski Team was practicing right in front of us! The town dock was part of a very nice park, and there was a very good old-fashion drive-in restaurant in walking distance with great ice cream. Readers of this blog will come to understand that ice cream is a great tradition on board Carousel.

The next day we proceeded along to Lock 12 at Schoharie Crossing for lunch. Deb and Mike walked over to the Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site which is dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of the Erie Canal as one of the 19th century's greatest commercial and engineering projects. Within the site's boundaries are many structures dating from the three eras of the canal's development. The site's largest structure is the remains of the Schoharie Aqueduct, which carried the water of the 2nd Erie Canal over the Schoharie Creek.

The condition of the canal ranges from poor to good. Along the canal we have seen canal workers maintaining the system with all of the efficiency that you would expect from a 150 year old state agency. They have a wide range of sizes of tugs, some looking more like a mini-pleasure craft than a work vessel. Strangely, they seem to have all of the blue and gold paint in the world for their own equipment. Interestingly, the New York Canal Corporation is a subsidiary of the New York Tollway Authority. The wonders of state government never cease to amaze.

Except for the canal workers and a few other "looper" boats, we normally saw very little other traffic along the Erie Canal. However, in this stretch, we did meet up with the Grand Mariner, a canal and Great Lakes cruise ship that runs a route from Chicago to Warren, RI. Mike had a quick conversation with the pilot on VHF channel 13 where they agreed to a port-to-port passing and all was well. As we went past, we noticed that the exercise area appears to be on the rear of the ship and we had a good laugh about the possibility that the bicyclists were actually powering the propellers.

Saint Johnsville, NY

We landed at the Saint Johnsville Municipal Marina for the evening. There is not much in the town but, importantly, there was a grocery store (shown in the picture). this is a small mom and pop store built adjacent to the family home - very similar to Deb's great grandmother's house and East Side Grocery in Galena.  Their slogan is "Big enough to serve you, yet small enough to know you!" Our stores were running a bit low and we needed to stock up on meats and lunch items. The marina is attached to a canal-side campground and together they may be the largest business in town. However, we did find out from other boaters that the walk to the Stewart's Convenience store would yield excellent local-brand ice cream! Also, for railroad fans, this is quite a site. The 2 track Conrail mainline goes right through the town a short block from the marina. During the evening, an impressive number of trains came through at high speed every 5-10 minutes, including the main line for Amtrak from NYC to the west. Luckily, they were not all that noisy as the rail was in good condition without joints so they trains just glided on by.

Each day we were running about 30 nautical miles - that would be 4-6 hours - depending on the speed of the locks and any other slow-down. The speed limit of the canal in this section is 10 mph. On the following day, we ran up to lock 20 behind Dauntless, a boat built in Ohio but crewed by a couple from Sidney, Australia. This particular lock is a pretty good lift so the entrance is at the bottom of the lock under a concrete  wall. We tied up on the high side wall for the evening near the State's work boats where we were also able to plug in to their 50 amp electric service at no charge. Finally something free from the State!

Lake Oneida and Brewerton, NY

As we approached Lake Oneida we experienced our first "drop" lock. We started at sea level in New York City and were only a few feet above that in Troy and the Federal Lock. At Waterford we were at 16 ft above sea level and we had lifted to 420 feet at Lock 21. Now we began our descent into Lake Ontario which is at about 352 feet elevation. Pretty quickly we were at Lake Oneida where we anchored off of the beach for lunch before proceeding to Brewerton. Carousel's engines had been running at idle or lightly loaded for a few days so they really appreciated pushing the throttle on the lake (and the Captain enjoyed being able to go full throttle as well)!

We had arranged for a slip at Ess Kay marina in Brewerton where we received our first

package of forwarded mail and a few Amazon items that we needed along the way. We had also pre-positioned Don and Sammie's car there for our their departure on July 1, so we had transportation to get us to major shopping. We restocked supplies (thoroughly enjoying having a Wegman's nearby - more on Wegman's in a future post), cleaned the boat, and met up with No Schedule and Copper Penny who had gone on ahead of us several days before. Brewerton also has the cheapest marine diesel fuel in New York so it was time to tank up!

Next: New York's Finger Lakes