Day 356 – Albany, NY to Waterford Harbor Visitor Center, Waterford, NY - June 26, 2012

We have an extremely short day planned for today, just the last ten miles on the Hudson River and one lock, the Troy Lock.  As we cleared the Troy Lock, I did a little happy dance – no more tides to deal with!  Yeah!  In just the last couple of days we have put two of our least favorite things behind us – salt water and tides.

This move is to set ourselves up for starting the Erie Canal.  We are staying at the free dock at the Waterford visitor center and we can see the first lock on the Erie Canal (officially called Lock #2) from Boreas.  Not long after we got the boat secured, we took a walk to the lock and purchased our Ten-Day Canal Pass. The pass gives us ten consecutive days of use of any of the New York State Canals.  We will be traveling the Erie Canal and the Oswego Canal and our ten-day pass should give us plenty of time.

We are lucky we weren’t planning to start the Erie Canal locks today as Lock #3 is having some valve issues and isn’t open right now.  The problem is being addresses and they expect everything to be working again soon.  As a result of the work they are doing on Lock #3, they have had to empty the lock and in turn dump enormous amounts of water down the canal.  We can see (and feel) the effect of all that water coming down the canal – check out the pictures.

The locks in the New York State Canal system are basically for recreational use and as a result the areas around the locks are much less restricted than we saw on the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee and Tenn-Tom (where national security is a concern).  When we purchased our pass, we walked all around the lock and checked everything out.  Later in the afternoon we went back with the camera, took some awesome pictures and Fred, along with a couple of other Loopers, got a great tour of how the lock works – again, check out the pictures.
 
            Miles: 9.9        Bridges: 9        Locks: 1

looking over the wall of the Troy Lock at the spillway

looking out the back of Boreas while we are in the Troy Lock

there was lots of debris on the shore just past the Troy Lock as well as a
fair amount stuck on one of the bridge piers - this most likely came down
the river after tropical storm Irene came through last year



a directional sign on the Hudson River

looking at Lock #2 from the deck of Boreas when we first arrived
in Waterford

the same picture a few hours later as they are dumping water from Lock #3
and it is being let through Lock #2

standing on the walkway above the lock gates, watching all the water
rush out

this was an old side cut canal that was built after the War of 1812 - it is now
used to help control water levels in the canal - there is heavy flow now
because of the emptying of Lock #3

another picture of all the water flowing out of Lock #2

inside Lock #2 - water is flowing from the left to the right
in this picture and the ropes used to help control a boat
in the lock are flowing away from the lock wall

the relay panel for the outlet gate valve

this is the drive motor for one of the gates - this is the original
equipment that was installed when the lock was built in 1909

another picture of the side cut canal with the
heavy flow of water

less than an hour later and the water from Lock #3 has
worked its way downstream and the flow in the
side cut canal is back to normal