Waterford, NY to Amsterdam, NY

Day: 6
NM Traveled today: 32
NM Traveled total: 190
Locks Navigated today: 9
Locks Total: 10

Waterford Tugboat

 Dawdled around Waterford in the morning doing miscellaneous chores and setup for the day's trip.  Left at 10:30 a.m.  We navigated 9 locks today - locks 2 thru 10 of the Erie Canal. We are going up in each lock so as we approach the locks we see the spillway.  The one shown below was particularly beautiful with the sun shining directly on it.

It was very windy on the Erie which makes locking through "interesting".  Our boat is 37 feet long, 14.5 feet wide, and just around 16 feet tall (give or take - 18.5 feet with antennas and radar tower).  We have a full enclosure around the upper helm which you can see in the picture below.  I tell you all this because it is relevant to the wind issue.  Basically we have a lot of boat to be caught by the wind.

When the wind comes from the side which it was doing it makes controlling the boat in a lock difficult.  Some locks provide steel cables that run from the top of the lock down.  When one of those is available, we can wrap a line around that at midships and it becomes a pivot point for the boat to swing back and forth and relatively easy to control.  Some locks only have lines hanging from the top of the lock to grab on to.  When this is the case, such as in lock 8, the boat has a lot more "play" in the wind.

We came into Lock 8, and I grabbed a line.  Clark ran down and grabbed a line hanging towards the stern.  Then the wind took the front of the boat before I had a chance to wrap the line around a cleat.  There was no way I could hold that line.  I knew I was going to lose grip of it, so I yelled back to Clark to get back on the engines.  He ran up the stairs just as I was forced to release my grip or go for a swim. By this time the boat was nearly perpendicular to the side of the lock instead of parallel - not good.  Fortunately, Clark was able to correct the angle of the boat and we could try again.  On the second shot, I got my line wrapped around the cleat so I could hold it.   Phew!

Luckily we were the only boat in the lock.  We did however have a lovely old couple observing the action below them.  I looked back at them and asked if they had enjoyed the show.  The elderly lady laughed and said, "yes, very much!"   As they say in boating, "Sometimes you enjoy the show and sometimes you are the show!"

Spillway Closeup

It took much longer to arrive at our destination point of Amsterdam, NY than anticipated.  We still don't know how it happened, but Clark severely miscalculated the time required to get from Waterford to our end point.  We finally arrived in Amsterdam to dock for the night at 6:30.  We had a brief stop in Schenectady to deal with the fuel oil issue from the day before but the rest of the time we were traveling.  I regretted that leisurely dawdling in Waterford.

When we passed through lock 10, Clark asked what time the locks shut down for the night.  I was surprised to hear that they closed at 6:00 and we had just made it through the lock before shutdown - it was 5:45.  Clark had hoped to get to Guy Park for the night for free docking, but we ended up paying $37 @ $1 per foot of boat.   Fortunately Riverlink Park is also in Amsterdam and we were able to tie up there.  It has been improved since our last visit and now provides electric, showers, toilets, and laundry facilities.

Looking down on Amsterdam Riverlink Park

Sea Moss at Riverlink Park

 The parents of my second son's wife, Heather, live in Amsterdam, NY, so we called them to let them know we had arrived.  They came over to the park and picked us up for a trip to their house to visit.  Because of our long day and late arrival, we didn't have as much time together as we would have liked but it was very nice to get to see them and chat for a while.  Maris served us great desserts which were a very much appreciated treat.

Below is a group shot.  Clark decided to try to take a selfie with our canon camera.  It turned out quite well considering you have no view of what the picture will look like until after the shot has been taken.

Maris and Bruce Bowman with Ev and Clark

We're moving on.  Clark wants to go to a place with free overnight docking.  Thunder and lightening storms that are predicted, so I'm not sure where we'll end up for the night if that happens.