Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Happy Halloween!! Tomorrow is November.


We made it to a place called Wappinger Creek just 5 miles south of Poughkeepsie, NY. The winds were from the south against the current all day an made the river a bit choppy, however the air has warmed and this evening is just lovely. This section of the river includes places like High Park the town of residence for the Roosevelts. There were some incredible estates overlooking the river many dating to the 19th century.

In this area you can see the Catskill Mountains off in the distance to the west.

We had a chat on the VHF radio with the captain of this tug. We met him in a very narrow channel under a bridge. He was asking if we had been on the Erie Canal and whether or not we had seen a friend of his along the way on another sailboat. He also expressed appreciation that we monitor the VHF channel that is used to work out passing protocols between vessels.

It was such a nice day that many people were out for a late Fall sail.

Monday, October 30, 2006

We are fianally progressing south on the Hudson River! We left Troy, NY at 6:30 am and arrived at Catskill, NY to have our mast stepped up at the Hop-O-Nose Marina. Since it was only 35 miles downstream and the tide and current was with us the marina was able to step our mast up early in the afternoon. We are a sail boat again!


Passing Albany, NY the capital city of New York.














A new bridge was being built just south of Albany.












A light house on the Hudson River as we approached the town of Catskill.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Stayed in Troy, NY for and additional day. Winds were very strong at 20 to 30 mph with much higher gusts. With all of the rain the river is running hard at the dock at 3 to 4 mph. The river is very narrow here at about 300 feet across. We will have to run the boat at several miles per hour in the morning just to get our lines cleared.

First thing this morning a regional cruise ship docks. Here are shots of her passing though an interestingly designed lift bridge right by our marina.



She pulls in just ahead of us at the dock for her passengers to do local day trips. They will head south back down the river at night fall.










Troy has some very well maintained period buildings. It was fun to walk the local streets, which included a visit to an Art Center which had studios for pottery, stain, glass, painting and even dance. The store fronts included antique shops, bookstores, and gift shops.









Troy is the home of the original Uncle Sam.



















This is the arch way entrance to Russell Sage College which was just a few blocks away from RPI.













The approach to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute engineering school was impressive! The school sits on the hillside of the Hudson River Valley with these marble steps leading up the hill to the campus.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

We have been busy checking the charts for the Hudson River and planning our voyage downstream. Although it is very rainy, we are protected from the wind because the river is situated between the hills. We are considering heading south tomorrow even though gusty winds are predicted for Sunday. I guess the decision won't be made until tomorrow morning, but we are anxious to move south so we get get the mast stepped up and we can proceed on our journey. The marina which will step our mast is about 35 miles south. Gordon has been checking marinas for options to stay as we proceed down river toward New Jersey and Delaware. These pictures were taken Friday as we ended our journey along the Erie Canal/Mohawk River.


A restaurant/park on Mohawk River not far from a wild/life santuary along the river.













Late autumn follage still in its glory along this section of the Mohawk River.














Locks 5, 4, 3, 2 are like stepping stones down a moutainside. We went from one lock into the following lock as we were lowered down to the Hudson River. See the lines hanging down the sides of the walls. We would pick up a line and then each of us would hold the line, one forward and one at the stern as the boat was lowered as the water level decreased in the lock.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Hurray we are finally on the Hudson River below the Troy Lock and free of the canal system!!!!!!!! Today was the Best on the Erie Canal. Calm winds and clear skies. This morning we woke up to Jack Frost on our decks and windows, but the sun dried up the frost. We were able to manage all the locks without any steerage problems. The last 5 locks were about 34 feet deep and Lock # 1 in the Hudson River was just 14 feet. We could see ourselves progressing down the Catskill Mountain Range and now we are at 37 feet above sea level at Troy, NY in the Hudson river. We are tied up to a floating dock-there is a 5 foot tidal range at this spot. There are two major low weather systems coming in this week-end so most likelywe will stay here until Monday and then proceed down the Hudson about 30 miles to the marina where our mast will be stepped up for sailing conditions.



One of the 9 locks we proceeded through today.
















Some of the locks had amazing dams, we would be on one side of the river and the dam would be on the otherside. If you look at the left hand upper cornor of this picture, that is a lock we had just come out of and the dam was on the otherside with an amazing water fall-just like Niagara Falls. When we were waiting for the boat to be lowered in the lock we would be hearing the loud thundering roar of the water fall in the dam!


A late autumn scene in Schenectady, NY

Thursday, October 26, 2006

We finally made progress. We covered 52 miles and 8 locks. Tomorrow we plan to cover 40 miles, 9 locks and proceed out of the Erie Canal to the Hudson River. Weather prediction is calm and clear. The week-end will be a weather delay as they are predicting 50 knot winds, so we will tie up in a Marina in the upper Hudson River. We have been on the Erie Canal two weeks-most of the delay was related to weather-rain, snow, high water levels, power outages for locks and bridges so it has been a challenge of patience. We are glad we waited until today to proceed because even though the winds were 10-15 knots , wind gusts were challenging. Gordon had his full body weight on one line in a deep lock and I was holding onto the forward line so our bow would not hit the lock wall. Even the locks which were only 8-12 feet proved some challenges as the water level was high, I had to extend the boat hook to its furthest reach and we had to fend the boat off the lock wall rim because of high water levels. We have docked just below Lock 11 in Amsterdam, NY.



Looking back on lock 18. The lock doors constantly leak as the water goes down. A bit scary even though the doors are designed to seal with the water pressure pushes against them. Debris gets into the structure and allows leakage. This is typical. None of these doors are water tight.














Leaving lock 17 at Little Falls which is the largest lock on the canal. This lock lowered us 40 feet.













We were glad that lock 17 was behind us.















The power station canal at Little Falls. We took this picture as we left lock 17.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Lock18 finally open, so off we go. Unfortunately when we got to Lock 18 the lock master said that Lock 17 (Little Falls, NY) the deepest lock was not open, in fact there was still debris at Lock 17. We tied up on Lock 18 with the help of the two other boats that had been our companion at Ilion, NY. The wind gusts were picking up and Gordon was concerned about steerage problems in the lock, since there are only 2 of us. We decided to turn back to Ilion which was only about 7 miles back. Before we left Lock 18 the Lock Master let several boats tie up in the Lock as all the backed up traffic starting lining up at Lock 18. I took pictures of the large sail boats that came into Lock 18. They all had several crew helping them tie up at the dock. They all looked like they were headed to the Atlantic as they had all the necessary gear on their decks! I wonder if any were headed to the Caribbean 1500 rally. This is an annual gathering of boats that head out from Hampton Virginia to the Virgin Islands (1500 miles) on Nov 7th. You can check the web page www.carib1500.com/c1500/index.htm to see all the activities and boats registered this year (50 boats). We hope to try again tomorrow morning.


Jabberwocky tied up to Lock 18, watching a sail boat approach the lock.














Several large sail boats tying up in Lock 18, waiting for Lock 17 to open.













The Lock is filling up with sail boats that have been delayed for several days because of high water and debris.

Monday, October 23, 2006

We are still waiting for the locks just east of us to open and we are watching the water level in the canal receding. We spent the day reviewing the charts and planning potential marinas as we head south along the Hudson River, passing New York City, Atlantic City and the Delaware Bay area. We will be going by the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island so I am hoping we will have clear skies so we can take some good pictures as we pass the New York City. I remember all of the boat traffic we saw the last time we were in the New York City area-the ferries, cargo ships and all types of military vessels. It will feel so much different then the slow pace of the canal with very little traffic.
We had some problems with our cabin heater, Gordon started to take it apart and found a problem with a electrical connector on the fuel pump and fuel filter, after fixing that, it still did not work. Every time we started the heater, it would switch off. Then he noticed the voltage was very low- so the problem was not with the heater, it was with our batteries. Since we have been sitting here for 4 days using the heater and the refrigerator, without running our engine, the batteries were being drained, even though we have an inverter and have been using shore power. We have an electric heater and have been using that so we are not drawing so many amps from the batteries.
I am writing this blog on Tuesday morning-the good news is the lock may be open this afternoon. The lockmaster told us they need to remove a "tree that is laying against the guard gate"! This is an example of the debris we saw while we were pulling into the marina at Ilion, NY.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Made our 9:00 am call to the lock 18 lock master. He indicated that the water level still has an upward trend. He still thinks that things may be ok by Monday.

We are spending our time looking at Hudson River and New Jersey coast charts to plan that phase of our trip. Had a huge New York Harbor chart spread on the floor of the cabin trying to figure the best way to fold it to be able to work with it on our navigation table.

Cool, cloudy day with the sun trying to pop out occasionally. Forecast is for light rain and snow over the next two or three days.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

We continue to be at the Ilion, NY town marina.



Sunny and windy. With the sun out we can see the vivid fall colors.












Ilion is the original location of the Remington Arms Company (http://www.remington.com/). It was founded here in the early 1800's. They have a small museum at their plant that was about a 10 minute walk from the marina. The museum is in the plant office building. The man at reception said we were the second visitors of the day and was glad to have someone to talk to. He talked about the changing economics of the region with loss of manufacturing jobs and pointed out a local cafe on Main Street that he strongly recommends for lunch.

We were surprised to learn that besides firearms they manufactured bicycles, cash registers, farm equipment and bridges throughout their history. The primary emphasis of the exhibits was the sporting and competitive use of shotguns, rifles and pistols they manufacture. In addition, they covered many details of the technology and product innovation.

We continue to wait on the water levels. We contact one of the lock masters occasionally to find out status. He is projecting Monday as a possibility.

Friday, October 20, 2006

We are spending the day in Illion, NY- 11 miles from Little Falls, which is the largest lock on the canal- a 40 foot drop from west to the east side of the lock. As predicted, it is pouring rain with bouts of fog. The locks east of us are closed because of flooding conditions. For the last few days we have been traveling in the Seneca River which weaves in and out of the Erie Canal. We will be traveling on sections of the Mohawk River during the next few days as it weaves in the canal. We have spent the day drying out some of the "wet-sections of the boat", and doing laundry etc. I had to sleep in for foredeck bunk last nite because the navigator bed got wet with some leaking....which we have been trying to dry out today. Gordon pulled out the ceiling and I used the hair dryer to dry out sections of the ceiling! Every boat we have had has had some leaking...it is just a matter of finding the leaks and seeing if you can fix them or work around it. I don't know what the Handley's do when they experience monsoon rains in the South Pacific. Below are pictures taken yesterday.




Two power boats waiting in the same little marine with us chomping at the bit like us to get going.














Following the "red buoy" around the bend in the river"













Passing a dam just before Lock 19. We had to slow the boat down on several sections of the canal due to a lot of debris- floating logs and tree branches.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Made it to Ilion, NY with a further 61 miles under our keel. The terrain is drastically different as we are entering the foot hills of the Catskill Mountains and we are traveling the general path of the Mohawk River that works its way to the Hudson. Too cloudy to get pictures of the autumn leaves. We have 89 miles to the Hudson River but concerns about further rain predicted tonight may put the local rivers in flood condition and the canal system may shut down until the water levels are more manageable. After the most recent rain the lock east of us just opened today! We made a great purchase in Buffalo which has helped us go through the locks smoothly- it was two way radio headsets- so when we go through the canals I can talk with Gordon while on the foredeck reaching for a line without shouting at him, while he is located at the stern steering us toward the dock walls. Most of the locks today carried us about 20 to 24 feet down- the walls at times give one a clausterphobic feeling when the canal empties. We are too busy to take a picture of this effect. We were lucky today- the rain held off all day until we tied up in Ilion with rain fall and thunder just as we finished tying up to the dock.


Sunrise as we approach Lake Oneida. There is some debate as to whether it classified under the NY Fingerlakes. The crossing took about 2 hours.
















The colors are still in the trees.














Dredging the channel. It took a bit of maneuvering to get around the barge.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Made it to Brewerton, NY and over half way through the canal. Cause to celebrate even with more rain and snow in the forecast. We left Lyons, NY at 7:20 am and tied up at Brewerton at 6:30-made 75 miles today. We will be crossing Lake Oneida tomorrow- about 2 hours to cross. We traveled 0ver the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge and saw some large blue Heron and other birds which we could not identify. Went through several locks which carried us "down" and the last lock today-lock 23 was the first lock which "lifted us up"about 12 feet. We continued to have high praises for the lockmasters as they have local knowledge of docking situations as well as marinas which carry dieseal fuel. We had some company on the Erie Canal today- several large cruisers and a ferry pulling a barge. The fall scenery was beautiful but it was very overcaste so we did not take alot of pictures today. More tomorrow!! Thanks for the comments!

Just leaving lock 26 behind us.

The tug Syracuse kind enough to let us pass through the lock before he entered with his tow below.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Rain and more rain. We were up by 6 am and pushed off at 7:20 but had a short day,not due to rain but rather the wind gusts of over 20 knots which made lock handling tricky. The wind was on our nose and the 3 locks we did today were all 20 foot drops with wind on our nose so keeping the overhanging mast on the foredeck and stern was tricky but well done! Gordon hung on the lines on the dockside while I fended off the overhanging mast between the foredeck and the stern ( running between the two.) What fun! By noon we decided to call it a day as wind gusts were getting stronger and the rain was a steady downpour. Tomorrow will be clear with wind only 10 knots so we hope to make 50 miles with only two small locks- 6 foot drops and a long 30 mile stretch. The early tie-up at Lyons was also the only viable dockage for over 30 miles so our conservative side won out over our wanting to move on. Scenes of the day.


Jabberwocky tied up at the Lyon's town dock. Lock 27 is in the background.



















Touch of Fall along the edge of the canal.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Power on lift bridge is on!!!! The bridgemaster, Tim, called us Monday evening and let us know we can proceed. Left Albion this morning (Tuesday) at 7:30 am and arrived in Palmyra NY ( a 55 mile trip) at 4:30 pm. The bridges and locks close at 5:00 pm starting today so we are currently tied up at the Palmyra town dock. Went through several lift bridges and four locks today. Some of the bridges are manned by one person so we had to slow down between bridges while the bridge master drove to the next bridge. All of the locking procedures were slightly different, some had lines to hold onto and some had a cable to use, but all of the the lock masters were helpful and we had no steerage problems today. Although it was cold this morning, it warmed up and was sunny in the afternoon. Tomorrow promises rain. Some of the scenes of the day.


Erie Canal, with natural high banks not far from the Genesee River in Rochester, NY.














Guard Gate close to the crossing of the Genesee River and the Erie Canal.














Farm land can be seen just above the canal banks.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Delays, delays, delays. We are still tied up on the Erie Canal wall in Albion, NY awaiting for the power to return to the drawbridge in Hulberton, NY. We have been in contact with the bridge master who hopes the power will return between now and Tuesday. The storm did not not hit any towns west of Brockport so we should be able to make progress once the Huberton bridge is working. We have been able to keep the boat warm with our heater and have run our engine an hour a day to keep our refrigerator cold when the town lost power. Fortunately, the town of Albion got its power back last night so we have been able to walk around town and get some fresh groceries and some odds and ends at the hardware store. We have plenty of canned goods but it is nice to get freshly baked bread etc. The six inches of snow has melted but there are downed trees everywhere. Our boat is situated next to the police station and the firestation so we get to see all the emergency power trucks etc stop by the fire station everyday. The power guys told us they have been putting in 18 hour shifts to get the power back on. When not working on projects on the boat, we have been reading, listening to the radio and when we got shore power we were watching TV. We have a battery operated TV but the reception is not great. We also have been checking on the Handley website. They are on a sail around the world voyage which they started last October. Check out their web page www.handleysail.com. They are currently in Tonga, South Pacific and are heading to New Zealand. We met them in Norfolk, VA last October at a Emergency Medical training course designed for world cruisers. Their web page has some great pictures of their voyage including a video of their trip through the Panama Canal. Their web page gives you a real picture of life aboard a round the world cruise and the multicultural network of families that become a community of sailors on a world
voyage. Great reading !



County Court House

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Not much to report today. 40 degrees and rainy. Here are the statistics from the weather service for the area for those of you who know your Western New York geography.

********************STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL********************
LOCATION STORM TOTAL TIME/DATE SNOWFALL OF (INCHES)

...ERIE COUNTY...
DEPEW 24.0 1100 AM 10/13
BUFFALO AIRPORT 22.6 1100 AM 10/13
AMHERST 20.0 1100 AM 10/13
ALDEN 19.0 1100 AM 10/13
CLARENCE 18.0 1100 AM 10/13
SOUTH BUFFALO 9.0 1100 AM 10/13
EAST AURORA 4.5 1100 AM 10/13

...GENESEE COUNTY...
DARIEN CENTER 16.0 1100 AM 10/13
ELBA 5.0 1040 PM 10/12

...NIAGARA COUNTY...
N.TONAWANDA 12.0 1100 AM 10/13
SOUTH LOCKPORT 8.0 1100 AM 10/13
NORTH LOCKPORT 5.0 1100 AM 10/13

...ORLEANS COUNTY...
ALBION 6.0 1200 AM 10/13 <---------WHERE WE ARE


So our snow fall was not too bad but a large number of tree limbs broke onto power lines in our area and as a consequence the next two lift bridges east (one is 6 miles, Hulberton, and the other at Holley is an additional 3 miles) of us do not have electricity to operate. As you can see in the picture the clearance under these bridges is three feet and we need 15. We called the bridge tender for the bridges late yesterday afternoon and he thought restoration would take until early next week. We said we would call every day for an update. The bridge in the photo below is right behind us and we just got through before the storm set in.



This section of the canal has about 15 of this type of bridge every few miles. There was actually a car tunnel under the canal a few miles back. The tunnel clearance for cars was about 8 feet. The tunnel was built in the middle 1800's. At one point the canal actually crossed a river that was below us by at least 50 feet.

Friday, October 13, 2006

It snowed all night with all of the power out in the town, Albion, NY we are docked at. This is what we woke up to this morning. Albion had 6 inches. Areas closer to Buffalo had up to 12 inches. This is the traditional Lake Erie "lake effect" snow and was not predicted at all until it started snowing.
























After some shoveling using a dust pan (you have to improvise) Joyce made pancakes with lots of hot coffee. Yum!!



Boat's cleaned off after two hours of shoveling.















The sun came out and Joyce decided to put in some play time.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Currently in Albion, NY and made 45 miles from Tonawanda today just getting used to the Canal. Had some challanges with our first couple of lock. Had following wind and could not easily control the boat to get tied up.

Started this morning with real fall scenes.

































Then things turned rainy and then large wet snow flakes and fog. Difficult seeing the edges of the canal only 75 feet away. Finally had to stop due to low visibility at Albion not far from Brockport.



Our decks, dodger and binimi comvered with snow.












Weather forecast continues with rain, snow and thunder all night.