Oct 10, Erie Canal, NY

We leave Albany and enjoy the Albany skyline as we go. The beautiful ornate building was built in the 1900's as the headquarters for the Delaware and Hudson RR ("those were the days" for the RR's) and after their hard times it was purchased and restored and is now the new headquarters for the NY State University System. You can see who has the money now.

NY State University System HQ

Downtown Albany

We will now go under a whole series of low bridges in the Erie Canal that all allow only 20 foot of clearance (KOKOMO II requires 21 feet to clear) so we have "stepped" our radar and TV mast and laid it on deck until we clear all these low bridges. We do not enter the canal until about 11:30 as it took Owen longer than he thought to "step" our mast but we did it with our own dingy crane without any help from another crane. Now we hope we can get it back up the same way.

Dunn Memorial Bridge is our first low one. Our mast has been "stepped".

Our first lock in Troy, NY as we enter the NY State Canal System

A tourist boat joins us in the lock. Note our "stepped" mast laying on deck.

Here we choose to go left on the Erie Canal

Waterford, the first town on the Erie Canal, downtown

Here we are rafted to an old time canal boat now available for charter to cruise the Erie Canal

The Erie Canal begins in Waterford, NY, on the Hudson River, where the highest canal lift in the world raises us 169 feet through a series of five locks, to the Mohawk River, where we will head west. The Erie is a combination of dug canal, existing Mohawk River and some beautiful lakes as we get further west. The dug canal is not very pretty but the Mohawk is beautiful and the hills and forests (with the leaves changing) come right down to the water.

Some color

Large home overlooking the Mohawk River

More color. Starting to get pretty good now.

The locks close at 4:30 west bound and KOKOMO II made it as far as the west side of lock #8 where we spend the night tied to the lock wall out in the middle of nowhere.