Waterford to Schenectady- Betsy

Today was one of my most exciting days cruising! We finally started cruising in the Erie Canal. All the months of anguish worrying about handling the lock lines turned out to be not so terrible at all!
We cruised for 4.5 hours today and only went 16 miles! Usually on the Bay we would have gone at least 30 miles! Today we started on the famous Waterford Flight of Locks- we were raised up 169' in less than 2 miles. This is the largest lift in the world and is consider an engineering marvel! All I know was after the first lock- the next 6 seemed like a piece of cake. So much so that I got a little cocky on the Lock 7 and released the line too early- before the gate had even opened. I redeemed myself by grabbing onto one of the lock ropes that you also have the option of grabbing.

This is the sign we encountered coming out of the Troy Federal Lock- declare your route and we did!

These were some of the boats that passed by FRYEDAZE in Waterford yesterday before we started our journey today

This was an interesting picture that Dave found from this past winter (actually March 2nd) in Waterford. The spot directly below the bridge is where we were anchored for the past two days.

These were some of our fellow Loopers entering the lock around 8:00. The catamaran is Diva Di and the boat in front was Ariel. The lock looked so much bigger from a distance!

Another Looper boat Tranquility the last in before the lock gates closed

It was FRYEDAZE turn to line up to go into Lock 3 behind Silver Tuna out of Barnaget Light, NJ

Off to the right side was a waterfall coming down into the canal. It pushed out around quite a big from the turbulence

One of the worker tugs that was lined up to work on the Waterford Lock 2 for the next two days. This is why so many boats pushed to go through today

This was me holding onto our line that was wrapped around a cable. We would raise up sometimes 35'. Today we started in foul weather gear- rain jacket and pants and ended up in shorts and t-shirt!

This was beside Lock 5. It doesn't look big in this picture but it is actually part of a hydroelectric power plant and is very high and long. The dam continues on for a long while to the right of this picture

Both boats had to move as close to the front of the lock as we could so this 80' self-powered scawl that was going to do work on the lock wall could fit into with us. It really did need to do work as I got our line caught up in the cable that had split from the pin at the top. Coincidentally, one of the women who was waiting on the wall for the working scawl had to help me free our line! I think this will give her a greater appreciation of why she was fixing the cable!

This was one of the back gates that closed back behind us and you can see how close behind us the other locks were that we had just come through!

One of the gates that can close the channel.This is the reason we needed to lower our mast to get the gates and bridges as low as 20'.

Looking back at Lock 6. Whew!

This was the hydroelectric plant I wrote about earlier and the other part of the dam. You can see the large tree that was caught in the spillway on the upper right.

This was me finally cane free beside our boat when we finally pulled into our marina after our long 16 mile day!

This is the bridge that is directly in front of our boat. The pier is actually tied to the bridge and land because of the swift currents running down the Mohawk River. Stel and Burke you may recognize this shot- but we don't have nearly the number of lines that you folks had to have tied!

This is behind our marina and their lift actually utilizes part of the original Erie Canal to launch boats. You can see where the donkeys would walk along side the barges. This whole trip just has me fascinated! Good night for now- tomorrow we only have 2 locks to go through to Amsterdam, NY!