Day 69...Schodack Creek to Waterford, New York

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 2012

      Last night Gary took beautiful photos of the sunset and of a gray heron.

     We got up and left the weed infested anchorage at 6:30 a.m.  We were shedding leaves from under the boat for a long time.  The day started out damp and cold and progressed to damp, cold and rainy.  YUCK!!!!!!!!!  The mountains are gone and the land has flattened out.  Allison picked the prettiest part of the Hudson to travel on.

     The first interesting thing to take pictures of was the Port of Albany, New York.  The tires on the mooring dolphin looked like they came off of big earth moving equipment.

 The next pictures are of the city of Albany, 

the USS Slater that is a WWII 1943 Navy Destroyer Escort, 

and a building I was sure was a church but turned out to be a 1914 building that is now the administrative headquarters of the State University of New York (The weathervane on top is the size of a VW Bug and is a model of Henry Hudson's ship "The Half-Moon").  Hudson discovered Albany.

     After Albany came the Troy Lock, which had a red light as we approached.  Joe the locktender had the lock open within 5 minutes.  When the light turned green, we entered and Gary looped the line around the pole in this lock.  Some locks will have poles, some will have cables and some will have ropes.  He held the boat in place as the water came in.  Joe closed one end and the water came in through pipes in the bottom of the lock.  As the water came in, TRAVELLER rose to the top of the lock and we exited the other end. 

     We went a little farther and followed the arrow to the Erie Canal Entrance.  

     The town of Waterford, New York has a free dock for boaters.  We will be here until Friday.  The view from the front of the boat at the dock is of Lock #2 (It is actually the first lock.  Don’t ask me why there is no #1.  Gary says that this happens when a higher-lift lock replaced two lower-lift locks.)  Behind us is the Waterford Harbor Visitor’s Center with other boats docked in front.

     We traveled today for 28 miles in 5 hours and 40 minutes.  We have traveled for 1483 miles total.