Erie Canel Day One and Two

Wednesday morning we and a Canadian boat by the name of  What’s Next  left the free docks at Waterford N.Y. and entered lock 2, it was less than a mile from our dock.  There is four more locks right after this in succession and they are know as the Flight of Five.  We were through all five locks in about 2 hours.  We were able to do 9 locks and traveled just little over 37 miles.  We had seen on Brown Eyed Girls blog that they stayed at Amsterdam N.Y. at Riverlink Marina so we thought that would be a good place for the night.  John and I were exhausted and probably had some over heating issues as the temp. was 98 with very high humidity.  We both agreed it was time to stop.  We had never thought we would need a boat that had air conditioning since we have only boated in Northern Michigan, but we are VERY grateful that Passport has two.  We closed all the curtains and put our blue canvas over the front windows to help with the sun load then  just stayed in the cabin for the most part the remainder of the afternoon and evening.  Our showers felt really good.  We got salads to go from the restaurant beacuse they only had outside seating,  The salds were quite good and we were able to stay cool.  We both thought we would sleep really good but I am not exaggerating when I say that we must have heard at least 2 dozen trains, so sleeping was not the best.  Oh well, at least we were cool.

Free dock at Waterford N.Y.with Black Tickle tied to it, who we last saw when there were 7 of us anchored together in the Cumberland River in Kentucky last fall.

Our first lock on the Erie Canal

Each lock has a water fall adjacent to it

Thursday it was forecast to be just as warm  and we wanted to make it as far as possible so we left Amsterdam at 6:45 and did 8 locks with one stop for diesel.  We traveled 54 miles today before we called it quits.  We both drank more water so we both were not quite as wiped out.  We did have a bit of a challenge in Lock 17 that is a 40 foot rise with ropes to hold onto.  When we came in I grabbed the rope and by the time John came down to get the stern rope Passports stern was to far out and he could not reach it, even with the boat hook.  So we were side ways in the lock, not what you want.  With some maneuvering we were able to get it right but it was a little hairy for a few minutes.  Any way we are glad to be at Illion Valley Marina and hopeful that it won’t be as hot tomorrow.   

Alot of repair work being done at Lock 7

New York Thru Way running alongside the canal

I hope John pays better attention when back driving a car

We saw many piles of wood along the shore and some in the water

The canal is beautiful in some areas

Lock 17 the tallest lift in the Erie

The door lifted up

We went one more lock so we are now 383 ft. above sea leval

John removing one of the dead heads that was at our dock when we moored today

We only have 3 locks and around 40 miles to go tomorrow.  That's the good news, the bad news is we will have  8 locks and another 56 miles on Saturday.  We need to leave Owsego on Sunday as the waves are forcasted to be building for a few days starting on Monday.  We want to get up to the Thousand Islands to meet Kelly and family next week and don't want to be stuck in Owsego.  Wish us luck. Time for shower and dinner before it all starts again bright and early.
Bye for now,

Mary and John