Thursday, June 27, 2019
And so we begin our travels on the Erie Canal today! Though the Erie Canal was envisioned in the early 1800s, construction didn’t start until 1817 and was finished in 1825. Much of the Erie Canal makes use of the Mohawk River by adding locks & dams and the occasional short cut canal between bends, plus making it deep enough in the shallow areas. The New York Canal System had already completed the Champlain Canal in 1822 and went on to complete 10 other smaller canals throughout the state. These canals provided a large economic boost due to the amount of goods moving through New York. However, in the early 1900s, railroads were a more cost-effective way to transport goods, so it became difficult to maintain the canals. Therefore, only four canals remain today: Erie, Oswego, Cayuga-Seneca and Champlain. Nowadays, there is a very limited amount of commercial traffic on the canals, yet they continue to provide a great way for boaters to get from the east coast to the Great Lakes!
Traditionally, the New York Canal System has charged boaters a fee for using the canals. But in 2017, they waived the fee and found the increased usage helped support businesses along the routes. Luckily for us, they decided to continue waiving the fees through 2021, so we were able to travel through the Erie and Oswego Canals for free!
We departed Waterford at 8:50am to begin the “Flight of Five” locks. They are called this because you go through Locks 2-6 in just over two miles and are raised a total of 169 feet. (There is no Lock 1 – it is essentially the Troy lock we went through yesterday.) We were out of the “Flight of Five” by 10:35 and then covered an additional 36 miles and went up another 71 feet through four more locks.
The Erie Canal locks are smaller than the locks we experienced on the inland waterways. They do not have floating bollards to strap a line around to secure the boat. Instead, they provide ropes or cables hanging down from the top of the lock wall about every 15 feet. One person is supposed to grab a line in the front of the boat and another towards the stern, then hang on to them to hold the boat in place. This works fine for smaller boats, but it’s a bit more challenging for larger boats like ours and most of the Loopers. Instead of holding on to the rope or cable, we run a line around it and back to the boat with at least one end cleated to the boat. When the wind or current picks up, you have to cleat both ends of the line, but then watch out when going up because the boat deck rises above the end of the cable and you have to let out more line. (If you forget, it wouldn’t be pretty – cleats get pulled right out of boats that way!)
By 4:15pm, we arrived at Riverlink Park in Amsterdam, NY. The “marina” is a 600-foot wall along the river next to the Riverside Restaurant. The dock master is also the restaurant chef – a very friendly, and ridiculously busy guy. Our biggest concern was how to get Bo off the boat. Our front deck was about 3 feet below the sidewalk along the wall. There was a ladder for us to get up to the sidewalk, but that doesn’t help Bo (no thumbs). When we have the opposite problem, very low docks so Bo can’t jump off (or on) from the side, we have a large cooler (for line storage) in the fish cockpit that doubles as part of Bo’s “stepping stones” to get off the boat: from the sundeck to a home-made platform, to the cooler, to the fish cockpit floor, then the swim platform and off the back of the boat. So, Brian emptied the lines out of the cooler and we moved it to the front deck. Once he figured it out, he went from the deck, to the cooler and up to the sidewalk by jumping over the railing. (See photo) Whew! It had been a long day and he really needed to get to the grass!
After a tasty dinner at the restaurant, we were lucky enough to be in town for the water ski club’s show on the river, right in front of the “marina” so we had front row seats! Some of the performers were young kids, others were in their teens. They performed solo tricks as well as some pairs, and group acts, one that even did a pyramid with six kids in three levels! They also had a large jump ramp in the middle of the river allowing them to do some impressive jumps and more complicated group tricks. (Look out Tommy Bartlett - these kids are getting ready for your shows up there in the Wisconsin Dells!)
Bo did not appreciate the wakes from the ski boats and appeared underwhelmed by the water skier tricks. He occasionally barked at the skiers as they went by the boat. By sundown, the show was over and the ski boat wakes stopped, which thrilled Bo. That plus the nice green grass just across the sidewalk from the boat was something he looked forward to.