Day 51 - Location:43.03345N, 74.86187W

Little Falls, NY

This morning we had a good start only to get caught in some pea soup fog. The sailboat we were following did lose track of the channel and hit bottom and got stuck in the mud. Steel Revival came to the rescue and pulled it back into the channel in no time. A few more rescues and the boat will become a legend yet. The day cleared up quickly and we had a nice clear sunny day putting on 45 miles to Little Falls NY.
The dock where we'll spend the night was recently taken over by the NY Canal System who tranformed an old freight terminal into a real nice small, quiet marina, allowing 'transient' boaters like us to tie off for the night. Bathrooms, electricity, water & showers are all available inside the remodeled old wharehouse. We'll be checking out the town of Little Falls shortly.


45' sailboat aground in the fog, waiting for the Steel Revival to come to the rescue


Mohawk River/Erie Canal


Freeway & farms along the shore

Day 50 - Location: 42.93240N, 74.19144W

The locks re-opened this morning and at 8:00AM we were happy to get underway down the Erie Canal or the Mohawk River, which has been canalized with dams and locks during one of the last upgrades. So far, the scenery has been beautifull, tree lined shores and an occasional town, with evidence of an old industrial past. We feel like we're at least a 1000 miles from New York City. All along the Hudson and now along the Erie Canal we continue to see evidence of the old Dutch influence here. Many historical buildings date back to the old Dutch settlements, and many towns still have Dutch names. We passed Rotterdam on the way to Amsterdam, NY where we settled for the evening.


Our mooring @ Amsterdam NY


One of the dams on the Mohawk River

Day 49 - location: 42.79032N, 73.67052W

We're in Waterford, NY waiting to enter the Erie Canal. After a good start this morning and a quick lock through at the Troy Federal Lock, we came to an unexpected stop at the Erie Canal Welcome Center. When requesting to go through the first of a series of 5 locks, locks 2 - 6 (there is no # 1), we were told repairs were under way on Lock # 6 and we would have to wait at least 4 hours, or until 1 PM before the locks would re-open. By 1:00 we were informed the locks are closed until further notice. Oh well, some unexpected maintenance is to be expected on a system that has been in operation since 1825. If only we could do that well. We used the oportunity to get some groceries and take care of our bikes. The bikes had been exposed to a week of salt water on the back of the boat, and this had taken its toll. We were reminded how corrosive salt can be.
The weather is great and Waterford, NY is a nice place to be if you need to wait out some time. We'll take the oportunity to explore the area on our bikes.
Locks 2 - 6 or what is known as the Waterford Flight, will bring us up 169' in less than 2 miles. That is the highest lift in the shortest distance of any canal in the world. Also along lock 2 the original canal, with the 3 locks that the 'new' #2 replaced are still evident.
A great source for additional info on the Erie Canal go to http://www.eriecanal.org/

Erie Canal Welcome Center w. boats waiting to lock through

Lock 2 (there is no #1) - notice the old canal w. 3 locks to the right

Below is a link to a cute old song about the canal:

www.eriecanalvillage.net/pages/song.html

Day 48 - Location: 42.52770N, 73.75861W

One of the many historic buildings along the Hudson this is the Mount St. Alphonsus Seminary. Built in 1904 -1907 its seminary students raised cattle, pigs and crops until 1985. It is now used as a 'Remdemptionist' Retreat.


River's edge at low tide

Another fine day on the Hudson. The weather and river are both beautiful. We had a fairly strong tidal current against us most of the day, but we still managed to put in over 50 miles today. Traffic was fairly light, though we did pass some bigger commercial traffic today. We ended up in the Castleton Boat Club Marina, where volunteer members run the marina along the Hudson. Fueling and pump-out were self-serve, and while Ron took care of the paper work he served us a nice cold draft beer. The facility has it all, clean, friendly and everything reasonably priced (large draft $ 1.50 - pump-out free). Our kind of place.

Tomorrow will be our last on the Hudson. By noon tomorrow we expect to be on the historic & famous Erie Canal, 338 miles long, but more on that later.

Main Street in Castleton on Hudson, NY

Day 47 - Location 41.8352N, 73.94255W

Goodbye fair lady!

Homeward bound! After spending 3 fun filled days in New York City we were ready to get going. We got an early start and left the city behind as it was waking up. We had the tidal current giving us a nice push and we managed to get 80 miles in today. This brought us to Mills-Norrie NY State Park & Marina created by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1934. A beautifull quiet setting along the Hudson, well away from any civilization. Since we were all stocked up, laundry done, this is not an issue.

New York Skyline w. the morning sun behind it

View at the marina entrance

Day 45 NYC - NYYC

Bill Ogden at the grave site of great-uncle Tom Ogden






Janet Ogden directing the tourist bus through NYC




Miss Liberty - our end goal




What a city! Our nephew Patrick & Melissa did a great job getting us set up in NYC. Our spot in the marina was all set when we got there - less than 1 mile from old miss Liberty. Our accommodations with the Ogdens are right downtown NY at the New York Yacht Club. First class.

Today we started out walking at Times Square when we were asked (yes, they asked us) to get on national television, and if you were up early you would have seen the four of us on 'Good Morning America'. We then decided to take a bus tour through the city where Janet Ogden decided to take over as guide (see pic)
We decided to get off the bus and tour the site of the World Trade Center. The St. Paul's church, the oldest church in NYC, and where George Washington went after his inaugaration in 1789. The church is next to the WTC site. We toured the church and going out the door into the cemetery, the first grave marker we run into is old great-uncle Thomas Ogden. (see pic)
What a day! What a vibrant city. More on NYC tomorrow

Day 43 - LOCATION NYC: 40.71487N, 74.04150W

NYC - After 1780 Miles, 110 locks, and 42 days we arrived in the big city and are now docked next to our old sailboat the Yukon Mist. What a trip so far! We went from hearing moose calls at night to train whistles to constant traffic. It has been everything and more than we expected. We've met some great people along the way, and there were days where we met no people.
We plan on spending a few days in NYC with Patrick our nephew and our friends Bill & Janet Ogden, who will fly into NY tomorrow. After that we'll get under way on our return trip via the Erie Canal, Lake Erie and Lake Huron, before our final leg along the beautifull West Shore of Michigan.

NY Skyline

Lady Liberty

This pic has a special meaning for our family - We went from here to Michigan when we first came to the US more than 40 years ago.

Day 42 - Location 41.07520N, 73.86739W

It's no wonder so much has been written and said about the Hudson River. It is not only a fine place to land a plane in trouble, but the scenery continues to fascinate us. We're now 25 miles from the Statue of Liberty, and continue to see both the wild & 'civilized' along the river.
This morning we passed the US Military Academy at West Point. The US military has had a presence here since 1778 and the Academy since 1802. Some of our great presidents and generals graduated from here over the years. Ulysses Grant, Robert E. Lee, Patton and Eisenhower to name a few.
Both the East and West side of the river have active railroads. It is seldom that 15 minutes go by without the next train passing us by.
We stopped today just short of the Tappan Zee bridge, a 3 mile wide bridge on the South end of the Tappan Zee. The Tapan Zee is a natural widening of the river and was named by the Dutch after some local Indian tribe.
Tomorrow we expect to get to the end of our journey, before getting ready for the return trip.

4 bridges in this picture

Waterfall along the river

West Point Military Academy

One of the many trains we watched along the Hudson

Day 41 - Location 41.50295N, 74.00462W

One of the many bridges we passed under today

About 60 Miles short of our final destination. We're on track to meet up with our nephew Patrick on Friday around noon at the marina where his sailboat is docked. We plan on two more easy days on the Hudson till then.

Going down the Hudson river continues to be interesting. Much of the shoreline is still undeveloped, and appears to be protected. Going South, more and more old large homes that were once owned by the likes of the VanderBilt's, Franklin D Roosevelt and others show up. Old abandoned factories and plants pop up now & then, telling a story of an active industrial past.

Day 40 - Location: 42.21380N, 73.86477W

Downtown Catskill, NY - our home for the night

Typical old home along the Hudson River

Albany, NY - Capitol City of NY State

Pair of briges (car & railroad) accross the river

Historic Hudson River day today. A couple of surprises hit us this morning about the river. The first thing we noticed after we went through the Federal Lock at Troy, NY (last lock between us & NYC) was the effect the tides have on the river almost 150 miles from the ocean. The water level changes about 5 feet each time, affecting the current considerably. When coming out of the lock this morning the tide was still going down, and we were going up to 9.2 MPH until the tides changed and for most of the morning it slowed us down to 6.5 MPH, before changing again near the end of our day.

The other nice surprise was the lack of development along the banks of the Hudson. While by towns and cities both banks were built up, for the most part the banks looked pretty much as they must have looked like for old Henry Hudson, who in 1609 was hired by the Dutch East Indies Co (VOC) to explore the Hudson RIver.

Day 39 - Location 42.78480N, 73.676484W

Waterford, NY was our succesfull goal today, going down the Champlain Canal to the Hudson River. Waterford is where the Erie canal starts heading West. We'll be heading that direction after our visit to NYC, 140 miles to the South.
What a nice canal! On the Northern half most of both banks were overgrown giving us the idea we were all alone in the world. As we went farther South homes started to appear on both banks, but not the monster homes you see too often along our waterfronts. The 60 mile Champlain Canal first opened in 1823 and became a major commercial route until the 1970's. It has 11 well maintained large locks, numbers 1 - 12. After construction started it was decided Lock 10 was not needed. Why the numbering system was not changed remains a mystery. All our lock throughs went smooth and we finished the 60 miles and 11 locks by 5:00. The local grocery store in Waterford has a dock to tie off on while shopping, and we were able to take the shopping cart from the store to the dock.
Tomorrow we'll start our final final leg to New York City, 140 miles down the historic Hudson River. We expect to arrive in NYC sometime on Thursday, and make our final loop around the Statue of Liberty with the Ogdens on Friday or Saturday.

Day 38 - Location 43.55453N, 73.39759W

Sunset in Burlington, Vermont.

Amtrack train along Lake Champlain shore

Lock 12 Champlain Canan entry Marina - fuel stop for us

Whitehall, NY Steel Revival at tonights mooring.

After watching a beautifull sunset last night, along with a rainbow we spent part of the night listening to the live band 80' from our boat. All that included in the mooring fees.

We still managed to get up and moving by 6:30 to complete the last half of Lake Champlain. The mountain ranges, the Adirondack Mountains in NY, and the Green Mountains in Vermont seems to slowly creep together closing in on the lakeshore. The South half of the lake narrowed from about 6 miles wide to less than a few hundred feet at Whithall, NY, the end of the lake and the start of the Champlain Canal. What georgeous scenery along the way, mostly wild and rugged, until at the end, around a bend in the lake there out of nowhere pops up Lock 12 Marina, the first of 12 locks, and the sweet little town of Whitehall, NY. Here we tied off on their complementary town dock, including power & showers! It cost us $75.- for a season pass for the entire New York Canal System, and this includes overnight dockage along the entire system. What a deal! You really can't afford to miss it

Day 37 - Location 44.47648N, 73.22189W

Looking accross Lake Champlain from Burlington, VT. to the NY mountains

Waterfront in Burlington, Vermont

After spending 6 hours this morning sailing into ever increasing winds we decided to stop at Burlington, Vermont for the night. Wind warnings were up on Lake Champlain, and we were headed directly into it. This makes for a wet ride, where all hatches need to be shut and little air can get in. It was time to take a break. A large beer festival is ongoing, filling up the main marina. We did find a spot near the ferry. Later this afternoon we plan on taking the bike route around the historic city.

Day 36 - Location: 44.99733N, 73.35853W

Homeland Security post of times gone by


Barcombs Marina w. bar in the background

Back in the USofA! After spending a month in Canada, the last week of it in Quebec, we entered the US this morning at Rouses Point, NY. While we cannot say enough good things about our time in Canada it does feel good to be back. We were anchored in the middle of the river last night, because we were unable to find a suitable marina. The weather was calm, until we woke up at midnight and the winds were quite strong (20 - 30 MPH). The anchor held well, but steady sleep was out of the question. We got her under way by 6:00 AM and crossed the US/Canada border by 9:30. Both sides of the border were well protected at one point and had remains of forts on both sides of the border. The custom & immigration folks had their own dock at the border where you're required to check in before continuing into the US. The customs and immigration people were friendly & helpfull in recommending a nice marina just accros the border, where 'Big John' took care of us. Our kind of place, fuel, pump out and a bar. What more does a person need. Since the weather was rough with lots of showers and wind, we decided to stay put until tomorrow. It has cleared up since and we're counting on a full day tomorrow on Lake Champlain. After getting our laundry done, grocery shopping, sightseeing, we decided to check out the bar and got to meet 20 or so of the local residents of Rouses Point. A jolly bunch for sure.

Day 35 - Location 45.21388N, 73.25380W

Mount Saint-Hilaire in the background

Entering Chambly Canal Flight of 3 Locks

We continued to move up the Richelieu River to the Chambly Canal today. The Chambly Canal is 11 miles long, has 9 locks and drops us 76' down. The canal runs parallel with the river and bypasses a stretch of rapids & falls. We had planned on staying in the marina at the end of the canal, but one look convinced us to continue and we ended up anchoring in the middle of the river at about 8:30. Tomorrow we should be entering the US again