Schenectady to Amsterdam

Well, locking is getting easier!

We left Schenectady Yacht Club this morning around 9:30 and pulled into New Amsterdam a little before 2 pm. We did take our time to travel 20 miles. Along the way, we met a friend from our originating marina in Rhode Island, They were coming the other direction on the Erie. They had gone up the Champlain canal while we were waiting on the Erie Canal. They are a Nordic Tug 37 with the flybridge. They said it only took a half hour to drop their flybridge canvas. They must have purchased their canvas from a different canvas maker than the prior owners of our boat did. It takes us 3 to 4 hours to remove the canvas and another 4 to 5 hours to put it back up. If our canvas were as easy as the folks on the Nordic Tug, we might have gone up the Champlain canal and be cruising in Canada right now. Speaking of height, tomorrow we are going under some cable bridges with 4 inches to spare. Hmmm, hope it goes well.

We are at a delightful park near Erie Canal lock 11. It had over 30 excellent boater reviews. It has a cement wall to tie onto. Once tied up they provide power. The tie up and the power is free. Woo Hoo. We decided that since we were the only boat here, we would be greedy and grab the 50-amp power plug so we could run the air conditioning. We are definitely spoiled having AC and any boat we purchase for the Pacific Northwest will have it. We didn’t think we would need it so early in the season, but it is awesome at taking care of heat and humidity.

We did have an interesting time at one of the locks today. There was a tree floating across the opening to the lock. Bev went to the bow to try to clear it. As she was pushing it, her boat hook was collapsing. Finally, she got it over enough to create a small opening for the boat to go through. We were afraid of the damage a tree could do to our propeller. We got through the mess of wood and there is no vibration. So, a tense moment turned out OK.

We are in New Amsterdam; NY and you never know when interesting things will pop up. Just outside our widow is a Volkswagen sitting on top of a Smoke Stack. It is a roadside attraction advertising a repair garage.

Tomorrow, we have a 30-mile run to our destination of St. Johnsonville, NY. We will definitely have to cruise at a little faster speed. Because we have only been going 5 to 6 knots, our fuel economy has been awesome.