18 Locks and Counting

Sunday, June 26, 2016, we finished up the Hudson River, and docked in a marina at the beginning of the Erie Canal.

 Albany, NY

Albany, NY This is the Delaware and Hudson Railroad Company building. This tower is 13 stories.

House in the Hudson

We stayed at a special little park in Waterford, NY, where you can dock for $10. Volunteers run it and help get you ready to enter the Erie Canal.

We set out on Monday the 27th, following two other boats. Here is lock number 4, they are between 1-10 miles apart.

These locks have ropes you have to hang onto. This was Stu's first lock experience, it's so much easier to go through a lock with three people rather than two. 

Here is a lock with the doors closed.

They open the doors, and we all go in and tie up to a wall.

Then they close the doors behind us.

Then they fill the lock with water, and we all float to the top.

This guy is doing the Erie Canal in a small sail boat.

This is an especially deep one.

Here we are at the top of the lock.

When we get to the top, we release the ropes, they open the doors, and we float away at a higher level.

We didn't expect the Erie to be this wide.

It's so beautiful.

We stayed at another little park Monday night after going through 8 locks. It had a restaurant, so we had dinner with Ken and Lois, owners of the boat we have been following. They are Gold Loopers, which means they have already done the Loop once, and they are doing it again!

Evening view, before sunset.

We left early on Tuesday for another day of endless locks.

Early morning view

The view behind us.

Today, Tuesday, June 28th, 2016, we were about to enter our last lock of the day, number 18, when this rolled in.  The lockmaster wouldn't let us in the lock, and suggested we wait. So, we tied up to a wall and waited for it to pass, but it never did. We eventually went through the lock in the rain, it poured on us the rest of the trip.
We are in our marina and it's still raining!

This guys played the bagpipes for us, in the rain, after he helped us tie up. We are in Ilion, New York. 

Tonight's sunset. I made Robbie and Stu come and look, they are now trying to figure out how to get those
logs out of our way!