What was intended to be a 2-3 day side trip on Cayuga Lake has turned out to be what may be a two week delay in our forward motion to the Great Lakes.
The water level in the Erie Canal is controlled with a series of dams and guard-gates. A spillway between Lock 29 and Lock 30 failed catastrophically and emptied the dam, which in turn, lowered the water level in a 2.8 mile (4.5km) section of the canal. The normal depth of 12′ (3.6m) is currently only 6′ (2m). However, there is also a 1000′ (300m) section with silt deposits where the depth is reduced to 5′ (1.5m). The draft on Aurora is 5’9″ (1.85m)… 😕
More to come on how we solve this problem, in the meantime, we are capitalizing on our time here in Ithaca, NY.
We’ve been remiss in posting… Memorial Day weekend weather meant we spent 2 days on the wall in Schenectady and after that it was days of water, trees and locks so I knew I could catch up and you wouldn’t miss anything…
Schenectady – Beth on Board!
We escaped the solitude and cold rain with a delicious, gracious breakfast with Beth (our Cambridge neighbor!), Barbara and Jane, then a tour of Schenectady. Beth was kind enough to schlep us to the grocery store, too! Thank you, Beth!
Canal Days
To be precise, our Erie Canal journey, until yesterday, took place primarily on the Mohawk River which was co-opted as the canal in the 1920’s when the Erie Canal was widened for the second time. We entered “strictly canal” territory (besides the Flight of Five) after Lock 16 yesterday and then re-joined the Mohawk today. You would almost never know though from the view from the bow of the boat. The river just bends more…🙃
The Canal Way Bike Trail between Schenectady and AmsterdamThe ubiquitous trains… in addition to trees and water, the other constant on the canal.We did NOT edit this photo…😜For those of us that travel the NY State Thruway on a regular basis, this section is recognizable on land or water.The infamous Lock 17… This was where the Erie Canal was effectively shut down the week of May 24th. A ~100 year old component on the lift gate broke and needs to be designed and re-fabricated to be replaced. The canal was “full” of boats waiting to transit this lock so until Thursday the 27th they were not letting any boats past Waterford. The lock will be closed again tomorrow (June 3rd) to swap out the crane currently operating the lift gate so we made a mad dash through yesterday.Fort Stanwix National Monument
The Hudson River has often been compared with the Rhine River in Germany. Yours truly grew up on the Rhine River, and I know why the comparison is made. The Hudson’s shores are steep, it is in most parts quite wide (up to 3 miles), and it conveys a majestic beauty, all like the Rhine. Railway tracks run on both shores close to the water, carrying cargo traffic on one side, and passenger traffic on the other, also similar to the Rhine River. The river also represents a formidable geographic divide; while it has served as a key waterway to explore and serve the Midwest and the Western United States via the Erie Canal, it at the same time made it difficult for traffic to cross from bank to bank. As soon as the shore railways were opened in 1851 and 1866, the need for bridges became clear. Since then, a total of 17 bridges have been build across the lower Hudson River between New York City and Albany. Join us to get to know them.
George Washington Bridge
Well known to most New York City visitors. Built in 1931. The lower deck was added in 1962. They must have hopelessly overbuild the bridge in 1931, at least I hope so…
New Tappan Zee Bridge
The newest of the bridges, opened in 2017. It crosses the Hudson River at its widest spot, is 3.1 miles (5 km) wide, and cost $4,000,000,000. The new bridge replaced the old Tappan Zee Bridge built in 1955. The old bridge lasted only 63 years because it was built during the Korean war when material shortages were the norm.
Bear Mountain Bridge
The first automobile bridge over the lower Hudson. At its completion in 1924, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world.
Newburgh-Beacon Bridge
The northern bridge was opened in 1963, the southern in 1980. The older bridge has to be painted regularly, whereas the newer bridge was build from a special steel where the corroded surface layer (“patina”) is stable over time (at least that is what is hoped for).
Mid-Hudson Bridge
Is this a combination of suspension and truss bridge?
No, its actually two bridges, the Mid-Hudson road bridge, and the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge!
The Mid-Hudson Bridge, built in 1930.
Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge
The Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge, built in 1889, is the oldest standing bridge over the lower Hudson River. In 2009 it was converted into one of the World’s longest pedestrian and bicycle bridges.
Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge
The Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge was opened in 1957, and connects Kingston with the village of Rhinecliff, part of Rhinebeck, founded by Dutch settlers.
Rip Van Winkle Bridge
“Rip Van Winkle” is the main character in a short story by the American author Washington Irving, published in 1819. It follows a Dutch-American villager in colonial America who meets mysterious Dutchmen (who hasn’t …), imbibes in their liquor (was it Jenever?) and falls asleep in the Catskill Mountains. He awakes 20 years later to a very changed world, having missed the American Revolution (all of this according to Wikipedia)
Alfred H. Smith Memorial Bridge
The Alfred H. Smith Memorial Bridge, built in 1924, is the southernmost cargo railway connection across the Hudson River, located about 120 miles north of New York City. There are railway tunnels in New York City, but they serve passenger traffic only. That means that every railway car going from Long Island or Connecticut to New Jersey or even further south needs to take a 280 mile (450 km) detour go get over this bridge. Scary thought …
Castleton Bridge
You guessed it, the Castleton Bridge is hidden right behind the railway bridge!
This is the bridge we take when we travel on Interstate I90 from Boston to Buffalo, with a great view of the Hudson River valley. Every time I drive over this bridge, I wish I could be down there. This time, we are!
Maiden Lane Bridge
Sorry, we couldn’t take a picture. This railroad bridge, built in 1871, was demolished in 1960.
Dunn Memorial Bridge
The road bridge between Albany and Rensselaer, built in 1969.
Hudson River Railroad Bridge
Another bridge (built in 1866) which was demolished in 1901. It was replaced with the Livingstone Avenue Bridge.
Livingstone Avenue Bridge
This railroad bridge was built in 1901 to replace the Hudson River Railroad Bridge. As you can see, it shows its age, but it is still heavily used. The passenger trains from Boston and Springfield to Buffalo pass over it. Another scary thought …
Patroon Island Bridge
The Patroon Island Bridge carries the Interstate highway on the northern side of Albany. Built in 1968.
That’s it. 17 bridges. Did you count? There are more bridges north of Albany, but the river gets significantly narrower, and the bridges smaller.
Credits for this brief overview of the bridges over the Hudson River go to my sister-in-law who whose curiosity about these bridges was my major motivation to take the pictures and summarize them in this post.
We left the Hudson River today and, in a baptism by fire, learned how to “lock through”. The first lock was the Federal lock in Troy where we had the entire lock to ourselves. Once on the “official” Erie Canal, we bagged the “Flight of Five” – five lift locks which lifted Aurora 169ft (51m) in 1.6 miles (2.5km). The distance is twice the total lift from sea level to the summit of the Panama Canal!
Besides two crew, the MOST important equipment needed to “lock through”!The Federal Lock at Troy. These gates are imposing and, the first time through, you wonder “what is on the other side”…“Oh, a scary, concrete canyon with water in it…”The trick is to get a chunky handful of line, around a decrepit pole or line and back onto the boat cleat while the boat is bouncing around from the turbulence in the lock. Mission accomplished.The lock is filled with water while the line rides up the pole.And then we happily motor out, 17ft (5m) higher than where we entered.
The Flight of Five are the same routine so we have graduated from neophyte to rookie by the end of today’s journey…
Not everyone has to work so hard to climb the Flight of Five…
We left a peaceful anchorage in a side-arm of the Hudson for Troy today… felt like traveling from one country to another with the difference in the landscape. Today, though, was a milestone; we traveled under the Route 90 Castleton-on-Hudson bridge and arrived at Dinosaur BBQ by boat instead of by car. In the past, anytime we made the trip to Buffalo by road, we said “someday by boat”…
Sunday, May 23rd, exactly two weeks after we left Boston, we started dis-assembling our sailboat. Here are the steps so we remember how to “put it back”…😬
Remove the sails
Bundle the running rigging (the lines which control the sails)
Disconnect the mast electrical wires
Construct a mast support
Remove the bimini and the starboard solar panel (our arch is our rear mast support)
Loosen the stay turnbuckles and straighten the cotter pins
Call in the professionals…
The top of the mast is secured with a strap and a rope attached to the crane.The bottom of the mast is secured with a knot in the rope.
Strap it all down!
Re-mount the radar, solar panel and re-install the bimini
After 3 days of hard work we are now a 64ft power boat with an air draft of 13.54ft. This allows us to clear the 15.6ft fixed bridge at the western end of the Erie Canal.
The short jump from our wonderful anchorage in Duck Cove to Catskill, NY was not because we wanted to visit the location of Irving’s ‘Rip Van Winkle’ (one of the bridges you are sure to hear about in “Fun with Hudson River Bridges) or the place where the painter Thomas Cole lived. Catskill is the home of Riverside Marine Services, the experts in mast un-stepping, and our destination. In addition to excellent boating resources (clean bathrooms, laundry, diesel, water and pump-out) and friendly staff, there is a quirky, artsy little town full of cats…
The cats represent the businesses before which they sit…
