Month: July 2016

This fine day we did 7 locks, E16-E22.  Passing through beautiful countryside and the towns of St. Johnsville, Little Falls, Herkimer, Mohawk, Ilian, Frankfort, Utica, Rome and finally Sylvan Beach.  So far all NY Canal System lock dimensions are 328 feet long and 45 feet wide. The area available for vessels within a lock is 300 feet long, 43.5 feet wide.  All locks so far have had lines hanging from the walls that you use to hold the boat close to the wall.  I would say 1 in 5 locks has in addition to the hanging ropes, a recessed cable or pipe that you tie to.  In our case my stbd mid bow cleat is what we secured my vessel to the walls with.  Tie to this giving enough slack for the boat to sit 3′ off the wall.  Make sure you have fenders on the side of the boat against the lock wall, if you don’t you will need to know a good fiberglass person.  have one person stay at the helm to make adjustments using the engines to keep the stern of the boat somewhat in line with the front.  just dont allow the boat to get sideways,  this is an imperfect science so it doesn’t have to be perfect.

this is a time-lapse video of 2 locks in action and going through Little Falls

Lock filling up

running at 16kt trying to catch a lock before it closes at 1800 

Tied up in the tight cove of Mariners Landing in Sylvan Beach  

sunset over Oneida Lake 

Today we did Locks E8-E15 on the Mohawk River.  Starting from Schenectady passing through Amsterdam, Gloversville and arriving at St. Johnsville.  It Was a 8 hour run and about 1 hour and 40 min total was spent doing all 8 locks. 

Awesome old power plant that has been abandoned, also leather tanneries and fabric manufactures used to occupy these old structures  

St. Johnsville, 1$ a foot dockage and cheap diesel for this area 2.36 everywhere else has been 2.89

  Checking out the town of Saratoga last night was very cool, my good friend Jeff took me on the best tour.  Jeff and I met on the ICW in New Smyrna, he and his friend Craig were bringing a nice Pearson True North lobster style “fast trawler” up to NY.  We all became friends and enjoyed Palm Coast and St. Augustine together.  Finally I made it to upstate NY and docked in Jeffs town of Schenectady, he came by to see my dad and I and we went to Saratoga last night.  What a cool town! and I felt like I was with a celebraty, he knew EVERYONE in town. You meet the coolest people boating I swear.

Fun and great first set of locks, learned lots of good tricks.  All the lock tenders are great, they can be reached at channel 13 and you will need to get a 10 day transit pass.  Any questions you have make sure you ask the Tenders.  I know for 40′ and over it is $50.  water depths are 11′ or more and the bridges are low, around 21′.  First stop was Schenectady Yacht Club, very nice rural marina.   They sell fuel, have a free pump out and swimming pool.  The town is 2 miles from here, primarily an Italian town.  Dock Master Ian is a good dude and this is a perfect first stop on the Erie right after lock E7.  My good friend Jeff who I met in St. Augustine lives here and is going to take me to Saratoga tonight to see some horse racing and show me around.

The Erie Canal Locks E2-E7

My father was a great help through my first 7 locks.  We are excited to be traveling through this area together, so many new things I’ve never seen and it gets better every day! 

Home Made paddle wheeler with Subaru motor 

Our short trip to Waterford was a nice ride, we had one lock to go through in Troy.  We went through Albany and Rensselaer counties.  The air temperature was great today, I have really enjoyed my time on the Hudson River Valley.  The sights and people have been exceptionally nice.   Waterford is the beginning of the Erie Canal, it’s a friendly town with lots of history.  The Erie Canal is part of the east-west, cross-state route of the New York State Canal System (formerly known as the New York State Barge Canal).  Originally, it ran about 363 miles from Albany, on the Hudson River, to Buffalo, at Lake Erie. It was built to create a navigable water route from New York City and the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes.  First proposed in 1807, its construction began in 1817.  It was dug by hand, and engineers said it couldn’t be done.  There were no engineers involved in the construction of the early canal.  The canal has 36 Locks and an elevation differential of about 565 feet. It opened on October 26, 1825.

In a time when bulk goods were limited to pack animals, and there were no railways, water was the most cost-effective way to ship bulk goods. The canal was the first transportation system between the eastern seaboard and the western interior of the United States.  It was faster than carts pulled by animals, and cut transport costs (over 95% some say)  The canal fostered a population surge in western New York and opened regions farther west to settlement. It was enlarged between 1834 and 1862. The canal’s peak year was 1855, when 33,000 commercial shipments took place.  I am looking forward to learning more about the Erie and sharing what I find.

Bridge maintenance taking place, these specialty boom trucks are neat

Above, passing through Albany 

Urban Decay 

Troy Lock, Lock #1

Docked at Waterford Harbor Docks, on the Erie max air draft you can have is 20′ so you can see how the sailboat mast is de-masted.  This is a great stop, the slip is free and power is only 10$.  Yes free slips, that isn’t a type-o.  

Cruising up the river Monday was another day full of awesome sights!  We met another Loop boat “Caprice” a 46 Grand Banks with 3208 CATS like mine, Owners Tom and Marsha were very nice and have a beautiful boat.  We were off by 0900, light south wind and todays heat index would be around 103.  We traveled through Ulster, Duchess, Greene and Columbia counties.  There are wineries, the culinary institute of america and very cool points of interest along this stretch, well actually along the whole Hudson there are lots of things to do.  The water is finally almost all fresh, you can tell the boat is sitting a little lower in the water because fresh water is less dense than salt water.  Pura Vida is sure happy to be in the fresh water again, all of her raw water parts are ecstatic at this point because the salt is not trying to corrode them anymore lol.  We made it to New Baltimore NY and got fuel and a slip at Donovan’s Shady Harbor Marina.  I got to meet the owner Brian Donovan, he’s very friendly and runs a great establishment.  His 02 Hatteras “Corporate” is a beautiful yacht.  The restaurant here is called Boathouse Grille, it was delicious and I highly recommend eating here.  My dad and I had a great dinner with some new friends we met here, Gary and Angie aboard “Unruly” a beautiful Back Cove.  We have been toying with the idea of doing the Trent Severn waterway that takes you through Canada, Gary and Angie did this route last summer so we all had dinner together and talked about the route.  I’m looking forward to sharing with everyone this part of the trip, it should really be interesting boating through Canada.

NYC was an awesome stop, I’m so happy I decided to stay here for a while.  My dad and I probably walked 20 miles the last two days in NYC.  We got to catch up with my long time friend Danielle and her boyfriend Eric.  New York really impressed me, and for a small town guy like me I felt very comfortable here and the people were friendly.  I’m so happy to be able to say I have been here and will for sure go back for a visit.  Thankfully my friend Maggie was with me for the first few days, she is accustomed to the big apple and was able to show me how to get around on the subway and some good areas to go.  My dad and I still got lost on the Subway our last evening trying to make it to Time Square, all part of the NYC experience.

We said goodbye to Bayflower this morning, with hopes of catching them up the river or on the lakes in a couple of weeks.  We were going north on the Hudson by 0900.  The scenery sure changed fast soon after we hit the Hudson River Valley.  As soon as we were out of the city the river got very natural looking with rock cliffs on one side and wooded hills on the other.  There is a train that runs along the bank of the river called the Hudson Line, that thing moves fast 50-60mph from what I estimated.  That is the best way for people in the surrounding towns to get to NY because of the parking problem in the city. For a Sunday the pleasure boat traffic was light and the conditions today were perfect, beautiful clouds and flat water.  The Hudson is anywhere from 36′-130′ deep throughout this leg.  You pass a nuclear power plant called Indian Point Energy Center, it looks cool from the water and I swear the air temp raised 10 degrees as we passed it.  These Nuclear power generation facilities have to be cleaner than the alternatives.  We went through Rockland, Westchester, Putnam and Orange NY also passing West Point Military Academy.  We docked 61 miles north of Brooklyn in an area called Newburgh at a marina called River Front Marina.  Staff here is friendly and calls you by name and makes sure you are completely satisfied.  There are 5 good places to eat all in walking distance.  This is a historic river way and I feel so proud to be traveling it.  Being with my dad is the greatest.  Lunch was like eating at a fine restaurant with his good cooking.  Last night we ate at Captain Jake’s, our server Jonathan was an outstanding individual that made my dad and I feel right at home.  We got to talking and I told him about the Great Loop, he was super impressed and came to check out Pura Vida.  His dream is to open a restaurant in Tahiti one day and live the Island lifestyle.  I know this dream will come true for him and I look forward to seeing that and visiting.

River Front Marina is easy to get into with plenty of lay along spots for the transients (845) 661-4914