Finishing the Hudson in Troy, New York and Cruising the Erie Canal to Brewerton, New York for July 4th

On Sunday, June 28, we left Shady Harbor Marina in New Baltimore, New York to head to Troy, just north of  Albany. I snapped a few photos of Albany, New York's capital, along the way. The building with the red spires is their capitol building. At Troy we went through the first lock in the New York Canal system. This is the first lock we had been through in quite some time and was different because there were pipes you attached a rope to as the lock lifts. We stopped at the Troy Boat Club which is directly across from Waterford which is at the entrance to the Erie Canal/Mohawk River.   The Troy Boat Club members were very welcoming and helpful. Woody opened the bar for us and took our photo the next day when we left.  The heat wave continued and our boat takes quite a while to cool off, so later Tim and I walked to a local Italian Restaurant called Verdile's. 

On Monday, June 29 we left Troy to wait at the nearby Waterford wall for the first lock on the Erie Canal to open at 8 am. It's actually called lock number 2 and the first 5 locks (2 through 6)  are referred to as "flight of 5" because they are very close together. Once through those you have only gone about 2 miles. We made it through 10 locks that day which was 38 miles, and in the late afternoon decided to stop at Riverlink Park Dock in Amsterdam, New York  which had power and water. It was a little nerve-wracking as we didn't realize until we got there that the town's waterski team was practicing, including ski jumping, right next to the docks. However, it all worked out and we enjoyed watching them practice. The weather was again stifling hot so we did not explore the town of Amsterdam.  Dan who runs the marina was very accommodating and also is a great chef so he cooked dinner just for us that evening, and Ann was our server. We met people walking by along the river that evening, including Clement and Kimberley pictured below who even asked to see the map of the Loop and would like to complete it theirselves in the future!

On Tuesday, June 30, we left Amsterdam at the 8:00 opening of Lock 11.  There is a Volkswagen atop a large brick tower just after the lock. It was an advertisement at one time and an unusual sight to see. As we continued onward, Sue found out that locks 16 and 17 were opening only every 2 hours. (They said between those locks was a lot of erosion so they wanted very slow traffic in between).  We sped up a bit so that we could get to lock 16 by noon which we did. Then it was a slow grind for the next 7 miles so that we did not arrive too soon for the lock 17 opening at 2 pm. We made it through lock 18 and stopped at Ilion Marina. We had a downpour of rain just before we got there but it fortunately stopped just as we were docking. Rusty , the dock master, was great and really loves promoting his town. He  takes all the loopers cards and puts them on his bulletin board. He recommended walking to Crossways Tavern for dinner. We did and the special was "chicken riggie" as they call their chicken rigatoni and was delicious. We saw the old Remington plant near there which sadly closed a couple of years ago. They moved to another town whose state makes it easier for businesses to operate. We ended up staying the next day and got errands done. Tim and Lance took dinghy rides to get fresh water running through those motors now that we are completely out of salt water. Much of the scenery along the Erie canal is quite beautiful which I have included below. The mountain ranges in the distance are the Adirondaks. 

On Thursday, July 2 we left for Brewerton, New York which is on the west side of Oneida Lake. This day we went through locks 19 through 22.  Lock 21 was the first one where we started going down. Lock 22 was Sylvan Beach at the east end of Oneida Lake. The lake was nice and smooth and it was fun being back on a wide lake and we went 20 mph. We arrived late afternoon at Ess-Kay Marina on the Oneida River. We met up with loopers we hadn't seen for awhile and met new ones as well. It was great to see Belita and Herb (First Light) and Mike and Pam (Afternoon Cruise) who we had traveled with previously. When we arrived it was again stifling hot and so it seemed to take a long time to fuel up and pump out. Later on though several loopers gathered for "dock tails". 

Friday, July 3 was Brewerton's day to celebrate America's 250th. During the day we took a courtesy car from the marina to run errands including laundry, Walmart and a local amazing grocery store called Wegman's. We also stopped at the river front and sampled the local food trucks. We saw boats setting up for the boat parade and later saw the parade going right behind our boats at the marina.  Ess-Kay Marina threw us a great potluck, providing the meat and "salt potatoes"  and we all pitched in with potluck items. Later it rained but we still saw fireworks about 9:45 after the rain. On Saturday, July 4 we worked on boat projects and we got more rain. Later on, Tim and I took a dinghy ride and ate at Wild Horse Bar and Grill just across the Oneida River. That night a local person close to the marina had their own fireworks which were better and closer than Brewerton's the night before. I also stayed up late enough to see the America 250 fireworks in DC after the rain delay there.  Tomorrow we will head to Oswego, New York on Lake Ontario! We are looking forward to the Great Lakes and Canada!