David’s Voyage Blog

Publish Date: Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Location:   Erie Canal, Lock 19, New York
Coordinates:   43° 04.133′ N  75° 06.509′ W

Wow! I’m impressed with the Erie Canal. Not only was it an engineering achievement in it’s day, but the cruising is beautiful, and the townspeople along the way are fantastic. We arrived at the entrance to the Erie Canal in Waterford, New York last Thu night, and we hung out there through Sunday. Kathryn’s blog on Waterford says it all.

We’ve now been cruising across the Erie Canal for two days, and it’s been amazing. Yesterday we went up the Waterford Flight, which is a set of five locks that raise you the highest lift in the shortest distance of any set of locks in the world: 170 vertical feet in only a couple miles. Today we went through Lock 17, which raised our boat 40.5 feet in one lock. Kathryn and Ayla have been masterful on the lines, while I’ve stayed warm and cozy in our pilothouse, controlling the position of the boat as the turbulence of the incoming water tries to push it around. The outside temperature was about 40 degrees last night, so this morning’s lock transits were a little chilly!

The bridge clearances have been a little stressful at times. All of the bridges on the eastern part of the canal are supposed to have more than 21 feet of clearance (although some by only a few inches). We folded down or took down all of our antennas, lights, and other removable stuff, which gives us a rigid air-draft of 20 feet, 4 inches. In other words, we should clear every bridge by at least 8-10 inches, but we’ve seen several of them that have been closer than that (one was 2-3 inches). Because of the winter runoff and springtime rains, some of the areas of the canal are a little higher than listed. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we don’t get too much rain before we get outta here!

Yesterday we cruised past General Electric’s Research & Development Laboratory in Schenectady, New York, where I worked as a computer scientist just out of college. We also cruised past The Stockade historic neighborhood in downtown Schenectady, where I lived while I worked for GE. I don’t even remember being aware of the Erie Canal was flowing right past my home and work — youth is definitely wasted on the young!

Last night we anchored in the lee of an island on the Mohawk River, and we watched a beautiful sunset off our bow, followed by a spectacular moonrise off our stern. You can’t plan to encounter this kind of beauty — it just happens once in awhile when you’re out in the world. Tonight we are anchored right in the middle of the canal, so we’ll have to get up and out of here before the locks open at 7am. The traffic is light this early in the season, but I would hate to be the boat blocking the way of an early tug-and-barge. Our near-term destination is Sylvan Beach on the east end of Oneida Lake, where we’re meeting family for the weekend. Like Waterford, Sylvan Beach has free docking along the town wall, and our family are arriving from the west via boat. It’s going to be a fun weekend.