We enjoyed two evening meals at the Riverlink Café, which also administers the Docks, and were sorry to leave this pretty environment.
On our last afternoon, I took some mail to the P.O and as I came back along the overhead bridge, above the train tracks, I took these photos. The trains went night and day and of course, sounded their whistles/horns for a long time as they went through the un-protected crossings just outside the café, at the Riverlink Park. It was great to see young families using the lovely facilities at the park . We spoke with so many who were curious about our boat and lifestyle, wanting to know such things as "Do you have a Washer on board (Washing machine)?" and "What kind of toilets do you have?" :) Kids ask the most basic questions, which is great:)
Such a pretty place, but apparently it hasn't been for a long time. The city is making a real effort to make parks and recreation facilities.
This morning, on our walk up the hill to the Shops that were supposed to have been only one mile away (ahem..thanks Hardware Store fellas!!), we passed whole streets of derelict Victorian houses...usually occupied. We have been told that summer has just started up this way, and it will be lucky to last for 2 - 2 1/2 months. Hmmm....Not our idea of fun. The long winters play havoc on the homes, of course, and we saw many roofs that needed repair. We can imagine that the especially harsh winter, just past, has not been much fun for most people. We have heard LOTS of complains.
The sun eventually came out, and we took off our rain jackets, slinging them around our waists. We also had our umbrella with us...which came in useful when the sun was at it's hottest and we needed shade. With the sun came the humidity!!
Our walk was all up hill, which gave us a good workout for the approx. 2.5 miles to get to the Auto Store for a Radiator Cap for the Genset, JoAnn's (we bought some more Sunbrella fabric and a zipper for my good shorts), A Starbucks (inside the Target) for a much needed cold drink, and then across the road to Radio Shack for Antenna cable...the AIS was not behaving...again, and Waz decided to put new cable in. As it turned out, we think the AIS only gives us problems when it rains heavily...when the sun comes out and dries everything, the AIS works again! sigh! He will keep the cable for another time.
Of course we didn't intend to go all the way uphill for these things, and we didn't have our camera with us...too bad. I wasn't going to do that 5 mile return walk again! We always see amazing things when we don't have it of course:0
The Post Office building is lovely...and all the hanging baskets around town are such a happy addition.
Inside the Post Office is this gorgeous HUGE mural. They didn't mind me (tourist!!) taking the photo...I guess people do it all the time?
And the Library is a noteworthy building also, don't you think?
These apartments are being slowly swallowed by the vines...more brick buildings!
In fact, mother nature is in abundance in this place. Gorgeous trees everywhere. Some of the buildings were a little confused in their styles, but this being Dutch territory...it is called Amsterdam, after all....there is also the German style and some English thrown in.
This apartment building was not inhabited, fortunately.
We dined for a second night at the Riverlink Café. The chef did a great job of making me a special Prawns and green beans in a white wine garlic cream sauce. Normally they would have put the prawns on wild rice, but I am not eating rice at the moment, and the beans were very fresh and delicious. I sampled a small bowl of ice-cream for dessert with a coffee. We even had a glass of wine, for a change. Waz had the New York Strip, for a second time, and enjoyed the garlic mashed potatoes, and he had a Turtle Sundae for dessert....Warm brownie with pecans and caramel sauce with Ice-cream. Well....we did a 5 mile walk today!!:)
We slept like logs, and put the alarm on for 6.30am. Jack and Sarah, the other boat still at the dock with us, intended to catch the first locking at 8am at Lock 11.
We had our breakfast, coffee and prep all done by 7.20am and we all cast off around 7.30am. We should have taken a bit more time, because we ended up marking time at the lock, which wasn't that far away. We find that the lockmasters move slowly, and we can wait up to 20 mins for them to get the chambers empty and the gates open and green light on for us to go into the chamber.
At this stage we are going up in the world. At the top of the locks we will be over 500 feet above Sea Level.
Jack and Sarah followed us for most of the day, and we successfully both locked all of them. It was a much less strenuous day, with no wind, glassy water all the way and easy locking procedure that we had worked out for ourselves. Dealing with the wind and current in the first 10 locks is what made it most difficult. We were grateful for the still conditions, and the gorgeous blue sky/sunny weather, after so much rain.
There was a huge amount of debris in the water, and the obstacle course went on for most of the day. HUGE logs, trees down and submerged I our path and other obstacles kept us on our toes.
Just prior to departure....
They were working on this lock, as they were for so many of them...I would guess that it is a constant, as it dredging the channels...a full time job!
For a time we wondered if it would rain again, but slowly that cleared. We were in a holding pattern for a while, waiting for this boat to lock through going east. This is the dam and lock they were working on, pictured above.. We try not to get into the flow from the dam, because it pushes us sideways, but you cannot avoid it just before the lock channel, so we have to go wide and then in...Waz did it so well! Hats off to him for his increasing skills in getting us just where we need to be in the lock...slow and steady wins the race.
These signs are on all the locks...excellent information...especially the one telling us how far it is to the next lock! It means I get a break, or not.
High on a hill....at this point we were parallel to the HWY 90, to and from NY city. There was a lot of reclaimed land used for the highway, and obviously the Mohawk river had been diverted. This building must be a Religious Order, we figger..there was a church nearby, a cemetery and another institution over the hill.
Pretty animal farms in the background and crops in the foreground.
Fishermen were just another obstacle we had to slow down for to create min, wake.
Waz took this photo from the fly bridge as we were in one of the locks, just before casting off. All of the Locks are adjacent to Dams, at the moment. They all had some gates open to release water, which gave us pause for concern, considering we need at least 19.4ft of head room to get under the low bridges. With the water up, it was going to be a bit tight under some of those 20 foot bridges.
Looking back at #14 Lock Very picturesque!
Sarah and Jack passed us when we stopped for Diesel at St Johnsville Public Dock and Marina. There are so few places along the Erie Canal to stop and refuel. Well, to refuel at a lower price, put it that way. Lots of places over $4 per gallon! We stopped long enough to enjoy our lunch and a cup of tea before moving on westward.
This is the Herkimer House, built in 1764. It is on the Historic Places Registry of course. It isn't far from our destination for the night.
Now, this lock is Very exciting. It is Lock #17. The reason it is so exciting??? Well, it is one of only two gate locks in the North American continent. The other is in Canada. First we had to get under the bridge in the foreground, which was precisely 0.06 miles in front of the lock. The Gate is fantastic to watch opening and closing, and we had the opportunity to watch it open again when it closed the first time...this was because it closed (straight down) on a large log that Waz had to avoid going in. Not only did he have the log to contend with, but a strong current coming from the right side of the lock entry, from the river spillway, on our right. This lock took us up 40 feet. This is the highest lock in the whole of the canal system. That's a long way to the top, let me tell you. Lucky we were the only boat in the lock at the time (Jack and Sarah had long gone by then), because we could let the boat drift out from the walls with impunity. It made our getaway much easier, that is for sure. No pushing off the wall. When they let water into the locks, it sometimes comes in from the floor sides, and sometimes from the middle of the floor. We watch the operator open the huge valves and almost immediately the boat is pushed into the wall by the force of the water, and we have to start hauling the ropes in, on the cleats. We have a new system that works wonders for our stress levels and the wear and tear on the boat. All is good!!
Inside Lock #17...going up 40 feet!
just past the lock is a Power Station Intake, (can you see the great sieves at the middle bottom?) and we were warned of the current here. It didn't bother us at all, but was a fascinating piece of machinery.
Great Granite Rocks! as we round the corner from the lock.
and last but not least....Lock #18, leading us to Herkimer.
We stood on the bridge just after the last 'gates' to get this shot of the boat, far right.
And so the day came to a close.
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