Ilion to Waterford

Sunday 14th September (Cont)
Decided to start installation of new alternator and associated multi-stage regulator.

Monday 15th September
By late afternoon still working on regulator and alternator installation and since we are now immobile we stay another night at Ilion Marina.

Tuesday 16th September
Complete alternator installation only to find fan belt too long. Remove new alternator, replace with old and continue on our way transiting Lock 17, the deepest lock on the system at over 40' where, instead of doors on the down side there's a massive steel gate that lowers and raises like a guillotine:


After transiting Lock 16 we tied up on the East side for the night.

Wednesday 17th September
Woke up to a cold morning with mist rising from the water all around as we headed for Lock 15 - those numbers are getting near the end. When we got to Lock 14 however, we had to do that very rare thing and actually wait.

Turns out they were fixing the dam on an island in the middle. The only way to do that is to drive cement trucks over huge steel plates onto a barge floating in the lock and then off again the other side. Here`s a digger `collecting`the steel plates so the barge can be moved out of the lock just to let little old us go by.


So after about a 1/2 hr. we were on our way again through Locks 13 and 12 to tie up for the night West of Lock 12, at the approaches to Amsterdam, clearly announced by this artifact:

It's an old style Beetle by the way.

Also on the wall was Pleiades, a trawler heading in the opposite direction with Tom and Trudy Hosey aboard. We got talking and ended up going for supper with them to Russo's, a local popular dining establishment. They live in Florida and if you want to talk conspiracy theories (9/11 and the US banking system) Tom's your man. We had a great time and promised to drop by on our way South, by which time their boat would be left up North and they will be back down South.

Thursday 18th September
The lock numbers are flying by now: 12, 11, 10 & 9 to Schenectady to pickup the outboard motor we bought over the phone from a dealer there.

Lock 10 has an interesting recent story in that $25M worth of damage was done 2 years ago when it flooded - a 500 year event. To give you some idea of the scale of the effects, the weir/dam that you see in the picture had debris jammed half way up the vertical struts and the lockmaster's building was moved 800 feet, with basement, sideways.


We initially intended to dock for just a couple of hours at Schenectady Yacht Club which oddly enough has no sailboats. This was to allow time for Carol to tale Buddy to a vet, as he'd hurt his back again which happens occasionally while I waited for my outboard and mount to be delivered to the dock. It was 5:30 before the stuff showed up by which time the next lock was closed so we ended up spending the night at the club dock which gave me time to install the mount and with the help of a couple of guys, lift the motor up onto it.

Friday 19th September
Now we're really down to the nitty gritty lock-wise. 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2 and we're out of the Erie Canal. Mostly the journey involves long periods between locks, 1 to 2 hours of winding river with not a lot to do. This is what one crew member does to pass the time:

For those not familiar with the addiction, she's working through her big book of Sudoku or 'Sod You Co' as we refer to it (with a nod to RH).

Having transited most locks on our own, we did the last 6 locks in the company of three boats from Nepean Sailing Club and a small power boat. Where is Lock 1 you say? Well it isn't part of the New York Canal System, it's federally operated and is free.

At the end of the canal where it meets the Hudson River is Waterford that has a marina with free electricity, wi-fi and dockage for two days after which you pay $10/day - can't beat that.

It was very full when we arrived and we were quite lucky to get dock space, which gave the opportunity for this unique view of Incognita.