Day 5: We make the Erie Canal

We had hoped to make it to Albany but ended up there about 1pm and kept going until we arrived at Troy. We decided to stop and take on some fuel & get a late lunch. We were feeling pretty good still so we decided to head back out and at least make the Erie Canal visitor center which we herd offered free dockage and power for up to two nights. By the time we go there though it appeared all the prime spots were taken so we made the decision to head into the canal that night.

Our first lock was interesting. Being our first we radioed ahead, asked for any tips and let the lock keeper know it was our first time. He was somewhat helpful basically telling us to pull all the way forward and grab on to a rope. We headed in, Amy was pretty nervous as she really had no idea what to expect when we got into the lock and I had told her to tie a line around a cleat and just grab on to something when we got in there. I think we somehow managed to bump both the front and back of the mast while trying to grab the ropes hanging from the walls. Apparently I did not have the boat completely in neutral when we were trying to tie up so that led to a few problems as well. Needless to say we made it though our first lock ok (I believe this was the federal lock?). The next five locks were a bit more interesting as we bumped the mast a few more times (I really hope we have not damaged it?) and got the boat completely sideways in the locks twice. We made the decision to try and push for lock 7 that night and ended up locking though it a little after 9pm. This turned out to be a bit nerve-racking as the markers do not light up at night, luckily we had bought a good pair of binoculars and between the two of us we were pretty good at spotting the next marker as we progressed. Once we got though the lock we were done and tied up at the lock for the night.

The lock keepers are a friendly bunch and were pretty helpful with directions, what we should be doing better and any other questions we had about the area. Our first few locks were a bit stressful & there was some yelling back and fourth for the first three or four but after that we settled down and got a little better. One of our major problems seemed to be with getting our transmission out of gear, after we got though the first five locks I made an adjustment to our transmission cable and our locking has gone much better since. Overall we had a very long day but we felt it was productive.