Amsterdam, NY to Little Falls, NY

After four days and five nights stranded in Amsterdam, we woke to fog.  Today the locks reopened at 8 am, and we were anxious to get on our way.

One thing about cruising is that you meet a lot of interesting folks doing, more or less, what you are. We been traveling the past few days with Ken and Terry on "Roundabout", a 42ft Grand Banks trawler home ported on Block Island. They are "loopers" on the first leg of a year long adventure. They lead the way today.

The Mohawk River is full of logs and debris and new sand shoals have appeared over night making cruising slow and exhausting.

 

 

Ken and Terry "locking-Thru" on MV Roundabout

 

We locked through seven locks today including Lock 17, the only lock with an over-head door. It is cavernous, with a lift of around 40 feet. As the great chamber door lowers, the booming sounds reminds us of the "Temple of Doom"

One bitter sweet moment came when we arrived at Little Falls where we spent two day on the 2012 Mini-loop.

At the approach to the main building, there is a fountain where two years ago we snapped a picture of us with River and Ellie. Today it seemed empty.

Our thoughts immediately went to River, who is no longer with us, and while saddened, we remembered his smile and missed him.



Little Falls, NY 2012

The day ended with a line of thunderstorms labeled "dangerous" by the weather service.  The show was spectacular. 
 

Amsterdam, NY

Day 3 marooned on the Mohawk River.  The latest is that the locks are scheduled to reopen on Tuesday.  The rain has finally stopped, and today we are being treated to an absolutely perfect, 10, day.  There are 8 boats here, and we've formed a little community.  Spent the day walking through town and reading the Times on the back porch (cockpit).

Riverlink Park "Redux"

 

 

This morning the heavens opened and the rain poured down. Definitely not a good day to be on the Mohawk River.

 

We hunkered down and stayed at Riverlink Park Marina for a day of rest and reading.

 

 

 

As rains came down so did an enormous amount of logs and debris floating down the river. Extremely dangerous.

 

 

Sleeping is challenging at many points along the river and canal due to the trains that parallel the route. To give you some idea, here's a short video, shot near the dock, as an example of what we hear when a train going by ... sometimes there are two at once, one in each direction. Double the sounds!

 



 

 

So, while our lives went on hold for the day, unfortunately for Eleanor and therefor Maryann, life went on. 

 

 

 

Captain's Supplement:

 

 

With the rains yesterday, today came flash flooding. By early evening the river had risen 30" placing the floating docks at the top of the concrete wall.

 

Several of the larger yachts, tied up on the fixed wall had to move to an even higher wall as the water reached the top and their fenders no longer provided any protection.

 By 8:30 pm the river had placed the floating docks within a couple of feet of disconnecting from their pilings and I started having real concern for the safety of MV Dunworkin.

Checking our depth gauge frequently, by 10:30 the river crested at 15.7 ft. The NY Canal Authority opened the down stream locks to lower the levels and by 11:30 the depth was trending down and so was my anxiety.

 

This morning the dock is nearly level with the fixed wall but the river is still high at 14.3 ft., the current is swift and there is a lot of debris. May have to stay yet another day. 





 



Waterford to Amsterdam

Another drizzly day along the Erie Canal and Mohawk River. We left Waterford at 9:00 and traveled through 9 locks to the Riverlink Park in Amsterdam, NY. Here at Lock 7 we waited while the chamber was emptied and the lock doors opened. 

The Canal Corp. is maintaining the locks, as it is early in the season, and we had to dodge various work barges and excavators. At Lock 8 we had to squeeze around a barge by making a very tight "s" turn to enter the lock - "at our own risk" said the Lock Master via radio. At Lock 9 this work barge was in front of the lock, and had to be moved for us to go through.

The locks were wet and muddy, but the upside was that we had almost the entire canal to ourselves.

Riverlink Park is maybe 300 feet from the train line that parallels the Erie Canal. Long freight trains pass about every 20 to 30 minutes blowing their horns several times, making sleeping interesting

Here is one of the infamous flammable oil carrying trains. There were hundreds of tankers on it.

And while we were busy, Ellie was just bored.

Coeyman's to Waterford

A rainy travel day, but thankfully short.

Today's drama included one boat going aground as it tried to go the wrong way out of the marina, and then some excitement going through Troy Lock.  

This sailboat knotted his rope around the lock pipe (a no-no, you are supposed to leave it loose) and when the lock started filling with water, the rope got caught and the boat began to be pulled under.  The lockmaster stopped filling the lock and had to empty it so they could untangle the ropes. 

Albany is a bustling commercial shipping port.  I now know where all the barges come from.  This crane is filling a barge with (more - see previous post) scrap metal.

 

These barges are being loaded or unloaded.

There are quite a few "loopers" traveling in the same direction this trip. We arrived early in Waterford, NY and decided to take a spot on the Waterford Town Guest Dock instead of waiting until after we stopped for provisions. Good decision - within a half an hour there was no more room.