Captain's Log on Lock 17

Capt's Log: Lock 17 is a guillotine lock so you have to drive under the
lock wall. It is wet so it rains down on you.

The prior lock master mentioned the currents when the lock is filling is
tough on sail boats with their keel. As I was leaning as a 45 degree angle
trying to hold off the boat, I realized that I have a keel and maybe that
accounted for my workout. For some reason, the Admiral had an easier time
of this lock with the way the currents were pushing the stern against the
lock wall and the bow away from the wall.

(Posted on behalf of the captain)

Canal Map

Interactive Canalway Water Trail Map - New York State Canals
http://www.canals.ny.gov/maps/index.html

Actually although published for NY Canals, this map shows our whole route - across the Erie Canal, across Lake Ontario, through Ottawa and Montreal, down to Lake Champlain and back to the Hudson. 

Erie Canal Day 2

Erie Canal Day 2:  What a difference one night can make!  We woke to 77 degrees with a cool breeze and overcast skies -  I feel rain in the air but am delighted it’s not hot sun!  Today finally we got an early start – well early for us that is.  We reached lock 9 within 10 minutes of leaving the Arrowhead Marina and found a new challenge – wind!   I have almost no upper body strength, so I guess I should appreciate the workout that I am getting today.  On that first lock I felt like what I imagine a rock climber must feel like climbing up a steep slope.  As the boat climbed in the lock, I had to hold on with all my strength and move hand-over-hand up the rope to help prevent the boat from blowing down the lock – not cool with the engine turned off.  The wind became noticeably stronger as the boat moved higher as more of the boat was exposed to the elements.   

When locking through, I take the bow of the boat and grab a line to get us secured, the captain brings the stern around close to the wall in position so he can grab a line or pipe (as he prefers),  the captain kills the engines to prevent build up of diesel fumes in the lock, and the captain grabs a line in the stern to help hold our position.  As my arms were being wrenched out of their sockets (I exaggerate, but only slightly, here), I had to remind the captain to pay attention as he was distracted by the lock master asking to see our pass for the day.  Finally as the day wore on, we got smart and put the pass in the starboard side window so it could be seen by the lock masters even though we were told when we bought them not to do that.  Funny thing that the certified pass provider said don’t do that and every lock master appears to believe it is the reasonable place to keep it since that is where they all look! 

Now that we know the scoop on hours of operation, we are going to travel today until dark.  It is very hard to know where exactly that will land us.  Most of the locks today have been pretty shallow and taken at most 15 minutes to get through with some being only 10 minutes in duration.  Each lock master has called ahead to prepare the next for our arrival and the doors are either open and ready for us to enter or open shortly after our arrival.  I know it is standard practice but somehow when I find them ready for our arrival, it makes me feel like a VIP.  I guess it doesn’t take much to make me feel special.

We are tackling Lock 17 today.  This is the deepest lock at 40 feet deep.  Thus far we have had our fender boards on the starboard side of the boat, which according to the captain is the norm, but for Lock 17, we need to move our fender boards to the port side.  The lock master at lock 14 said that the water jets force water into the lock with such pressure that ,whether you want to or not, the vessel will be pushed to the port side.  The fender boards the captain configured for our 2003 trip are heavy and clumsy but definitely serve their intended purpose.  It’s just the ordeal of moving the two of them starboard to port for Lock 17 and then back to starboard for the other locks is not very appealing. 

In at least one of the pictures I have posted in the Erie Day 1 pictures we took, there is just a glimpse of our lines and fender boards hanging off the boat.  When we dock for the night, we use them to protect the side of the boat similar to how we normally use fenders by themselves simply because it is too much trouble to dismantle them when we know we have more locking the next day.  The only real issue then is the myriad of lines, hanging where we normally disembark, that form an obstacle course / tripping hazard to get snagged in when trying to climb on/off the boat.  The captain says I complain too much, and since I haven’t fallen on my face getting off the boat or landed ‘in the drink’, perhaps he is correct. 

For tonight’s stay it is once again totally unclear where we will stay.  Last night’s location had free wifi so I was able to post.  We are passing a few marinas today along our route.  If my wireless pops up to show a free wifi as we glide by, I hope to take advantage and post today’s blog entry.  We may stay in a marina tonight if one is convenient or we may tie up on a wall near a lock.  The very friendly lock master at lock 14 said that if a lock master sees that a vessel plans to spend the night tied to a wall, he will ‘leave the lights on’ for added security and safety.  Nice!   It is definitely a ‘dinner on the boat night’ and I plan to pull out my electric wok, turn on the inverter to generate AC from DC power, and cook us a stir-fry.  I’ll have to serve it in a bowl so the captain can eat and pilot at the same time.  As I type this, the chicken is thawing on a plate in the sink in the galley.  Timing should be interesting.  I don’t think I’ll want to stop cooking so I can grab my work gloves and boat hook to lock through, I’ll have to find two locks with an hour’s distance between to cook, serve, eat, and prep for the next lock.

I got to pilot the boat between locks 16, where the Mohawk River curves off and we travel the “true” Erie Canal, and lock 17.  Downed tree limbs and small trees made navigating a worrisome affair.  A tree through the hull would pretty much ruin this trip.  While I was steering the boat, the captain was down below trying to identify the source of the water that keeps appearing in the bottom of the boat.  So far he has decided it is not the water pump he worked on or the hot water heater but says it may be the thru-hull.  Great!  Just what I wanted to hear!

The weather has been odd today – mostly threatening but little follow through on the threats.  The captain mentioned the lack of other boat traffic to one of the lock masters who said that if it isn’t sunny the boaters generally stay at a marina and wait for clearer skies.  Personally I found today to be simply marvelous.  It must be my English blood but when the weather is in the 70’s with a cool breeze and a mist in the air, I’m in raptures – like today.  Although when I was up on the fly bridge piloting the boat with the captain in the bilge, I did wonder what I was going to do if it started to pour down in rain – besides get wet that is.  I decided I would hide anything I could under the canvas and just let myself get wet, but luckily the clouds just looked ready to soak me but didn’t follow up on the threat!

Turns out the place - Utica Marina - where we are staying the night has free WiFi so I am able to post my entry.  Yay!

Erie Flight of Five

Erie Flight of Five:  Started the day by filling up with diesel fuel at Albany Yacht Club where we spent last night.  The sight of the final price on the pump is not for the weak of heart!  Given that the boat holds 300 gallons of fuel and the price of diesel is just over $4 / gallon, it cost just over $800 to bring both tanks up to the full mark!  The fuel is definitely the most expensive portion of the trip with marina fees being the next heavy hitter as they charge by the foot and our vessel is documented at 37 feet.  For the Lincoln Harbor Yacht Club they charged us $6 / foot for the luxury of staying there although my husband swears they contracted for $5.50 / foot.  Anyway, we’re hoping to find places along the Erie that are either free or minimal charge circa $1 / ft to help balance out the cost.

Immediately upon leaving the Albany Yacht Club where we bought our Erie Canal 2-day passes, we came to Troy, NY and the federal lock - Lock 1 of the Erie Canal.  Unfortunately, we had a very long wait while the lock was busy locking through opposing traffic.  Finally we got the green light (literally) and made our way into the lock.  In this case the “elevator” was ‘goinng up’, so we were at the bottom of the lock looking up.  The Federal Lock in Troy does not provide any hanging lines to grab as do the locks on the Erie Canal run by NY state, so we wrapped our lines around a couple of pipes running up the side of the lock wall in preparation of working our way up to the top.   The whole process is interesting when it is not 92 degrees out with a blistering sun.  When it is that hot, like today, you simply stand in place to fend the boat from the wall and melt.

After leaving the Troy Lock, we made the left at the Erie Canal – Champlain Canal sign and immediately came to the “flight of five” – a series of 5 locks that are one after the other with barely any distance between them.  After 5 in a row, which takes about 2 hours to get through all told, the process is fairly well figured out, and if you didn’t have a process before you entered the first lock, you will definitely have one by the time you exit the 5^th.  The next lock after the flight of five is 65 minutes away, and then the next another 65 minutes after that.  Numerous ‘no wake’ zones pop up along the way so that it definitely takes quite a while to traverse the Erie Canal.  

While we were being ‘locked through’ Lock 5, we heard the lock master of lock 6 call the lock master of lock 5 to tell him he had a “couple of hot rods heading east” and they needed to be slowed down.   Normally once a vessel enters the first of the ‘fliight of five’, the progression is rapid from one to the next as the lock masters are ready for you and have the doors open and waiting.  I have a feeling the ‘hot rods’ were going to have quite a wait for the first door to open.

As I’m typing this we are working our way along the Erie.  Buying fuel and getting lock passes and all the other morning activities took more time than we wanted, so once again we are trying to make up lost time as we motor along the canal.  We are still wondering where we will spend the night as neither of us knows exactly what time they stop locking boats through, so we don’t know if we can reach our 1^st choice next stop  or not for tonight.  Ah well, the captain heard the lock master say that the locks are operating from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., so we are now at a marina just past lock 8.  In speaking with the owner of the marina where we are now tied up, she says that the hours are 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m..  So basically the captain misheard / misunderstood and we could have made it to lock 11 as we had wanted to.

I can’t complain though because I am just plain tired and 2 more hours of locking through just doesn’t sound like fun.  We are at a marina / RV park called Arrowhead and the owners are extremely nice.  When we asked about buying ice, they insisted on driving us to the local mini mart so we could buy some since their machine is broken.   The distance is one that we would normally see as an easy walk to get there – no more than a mile, but the joke was that by the time we got there and back with the ice, it would be melted and we’d have to go again which could result in an infinite loop, so finally the captain gave in and agreed to accept the ride to the store.  I think it took all of 5 minutes including the time to buy the ice, but it is just so nice that folks offer to help you out like that.  When the owner found out that we had wanted to get as far as lock 11, she said that if we wanted we could leave with no problem on her part.  We are staying cause I'm not going!

Instead I asked for and was given the phone number of a local pizza / sub shop that delivers and we're having COLD subs delivered to the boat for supper.  Just the thought of trying to cook something after melting all day is beyond me.  I hope this heat breaks soon.  Today I had sunscreen on top of sunscreen and I still burned.   The captain didn’t bother with sunscreen yesterday (I insisted today), and due to the round shape of his sunglasses, he looks like either a raccoon or an owl, I can’t quite decide which with big white eyes and a bright red face.

I’m going to try my luck at pictures again after I have had food so I don’t throw my laptop in the Erie Canal in frustration.  I’m interested to see what pictures the captain took today while I was down below waiting for the next lock to appear on the horizon.  On that note the delivery person has managed to find our boat and dinner has arrived.  We'll see what the picture situation is after I am 'fortified' with nourishment!

Technology!

After multiple hours of fighting with picture uploads and a number of quirks with google that I didn't know existed, I managed to upload an album of pictures from the trip.  The only problem - the pictures appear to be sorted in random order.  I have run out of time to deal with this at the moment.  If I find a relaxed moment to sort this out when I have internet connection, I will try again.  Meanwhile it is a puzzle that was not intended.  Sigh - isn't technology wonderful!?

Hudson River North

Hudson River Heading North: Amazingly we left our dock at 1100 hours as promised on the 4th of July.  The captain said we had a "weather window" - rain had ended earlier but thunder storms were threatened for later, so it was time to shove off.  We reached the Statue of Liberty about 3 hours later.  From there we continued past NYC to Lincoln Harbor Yacht Club where we stayed the night to view the Macy's fireworks.  We strolled the area in the late afternoon / early evening scoping out the area.  Security was high at the yacht club for the 4th, so we were issued arm bands to show that we were 'legit".  Due to the 90 something degree heat, the captain kindly offered to buy us dinner.  The first menu we looked at was a steak restaurant where the steak by itself was $50  and everything like a potato, salad, etc cost extra.  I said no to that menu and we settled later for Houlihan's where I had a $9 hamburger which was yummy so it worked out just fine.  The fireworks lit up the sky for 26 minutes starting at 9:20 or so, and we had a bird's-eye view.  We could see the synchronized fireworks from 3 separate firework's barges - AWESOME!

Thursday morning found a more subdued yacht club as boats had either left or their owner's had left them depending on whether they were club members or visitors.  It was us and a few straggler's and very different than the day before.  We weren't moving too fast ourselves and found ourselves pulling out of the yacht club to continue on our trip at just about 1100 hours.  The intent was to make it as far up the Hudson River as possible with Waterford at the entrance to the Erie Canal as the ultimate goal.  Alas, leaving at 1100 hours meant that our goal was not achieved though we did make it as far as Albany where we pulled up to a dock at the Albany Yacht Club at 8:00 p.m.  I have to say that I was quite cranky after 9 hours on the boat and supper not yet on the table.  Since I did not feel like searching for (on foot) and hanging around a restaurant for the rest of the night, I pulled out my electric wok and made up some stir fried zucchini, a fresh salad, and meatloaf I had brought from home.  After a reasonable meal my crankiness mysteriously disappeared. 

The sights along the Hudson were many and we took more than a few photos to record our trip in pictures.  We had no surprises along the way except for the mine fields of wood floating in the river with us.  We passed more than a few very large branches, or perhaps they were small trees, as well as various pieces of lumber including at least one 4x4 railroad tie which was either part of someone's landscaping or part of a dock - can't imagine which!  All I know is that if the propeller hits something like that the trip ends in a hurry while the prop is repaired - a very expensive endeavor both in time and money as the boat would need to be hauled out of the water for the work.  Fortunately we hit nothing large.  We were unable to avoid one set of branches, so the captain pulled back on the throttle to go through the "mine field" at minimum speed.  I heard a crunch and when I looked back one of the branches was now in multiple pieces, so the prop had managed to chop it up.  I guess the wood was rotted enough to give way to the prop.

Tomorrow's challenge will be the Federal Lock in Troy, NY.  Back in 2003 when we last did a canal trip, the captain rigged up "bumper boards" which consists of a 2 fenders which sit against the boat with a board attached on the outside to rub up the wall of the lock.  The captain pulled them out and has been trying for the last hour or so to remember how they were configured on the boat as all the lines appear to be too short for deploying them the way we thought they should go.  I decided to leave him to it.  Meanwhile I have my own difficulties.  I have tried everything I can think of but I can' t get my pictures uploaded from the computer and it is now heading on to 1:00 a.m.  I'll try the next time I get wifi to get the photos with captions to be available for view.

Hot work

Hot work: When it is close to 100 degrees out and probably more when you measure the heat index, it is really hot work to be provisioning a boat.  A full month on a boat seems like a long time, but I expect the time will pass all too quickly. Since I get to be the cook and valet, I get to decide how much food and clothing to bring.  For food I have to replenish along the way, so I bring the basics and hope for the best; but for clothes, other than a potential souvenir t-shirt, we need to bring what we might need.  Long pants, shorts, long-sleeved shirts, T-shirts, dress pants, dresses, nightwear and underwear, light jackets, rain gear, sweatshirts in case it turns chilly, and don't forget "utility" clothes for when work needs to be done on the boat.

Who knew that clothes weighed so much?!  As I was busy dragging clothes to the boat, I decided that it was an optimization problem - weight of clothes in a single trip versus number of trips to be made.  Unfortunately one of the limiting factors is my strength, so the end result was 4 very heavy loads - 2 for the captain and 2 for me.  I am saving shoes for another day!

The breeze inside the boat was minimal at best so putting the clothes in closets, cupboards, and under-the-bed storage bins was exhausting work.  I did major reorganizing for optimal use of space.  Each trip down took between 30 and 45 minutes on the boat in the humid heat getting the clothes put away, and each trip back for more clothes included a stop for a glass of water to keep me going. 

The water company managed to make even getting a glass of water a challenge.  A water main broke on Friday with advisories sent out stating that the water may be contaminated due to the break, so all water must be boiled before drinking.  Yes, I know there are such things as bottled spring water, but I had boiled a few gallons of water Friday night after hearing about the water problem so figured I should / could use that. Besides I hate using all that plastic if I can avoid it.  I managed to get a little routine going - fill my glass with the Brita-filtered water, refill Brita container with cold water from fridge, and refill reserve in fridge with more boiled water.  By Sunday night I was definitely glad to hear that the boil-the-water restriction had been lifted for our town.

After such a hard, hot day, I went back into my picture archives to view Erie Canal photos from the trip we made in 2003 when we went to Ithaca to visit our son.  Other than last minute items including food, I am now ready to "get this show on the road" both from a boat provisioned as well as an "I'm psyched" point of view.  Don't get me wrong - I have been looking forward to this trip for several years / months / weeks / days, but now, finally, the reality is hitting that we are really doing this. 

The boat leaves the dock 4th of July at 1100 hours to catch favorable tides and avoid potential inclement weather!  Guess I better go get that food ready!