Planned to leave the Lock 8 wall early.
Got up at 6:00 am and saw how cold and foggy it was and got back
under the covers until 7:00 or so. Still too socked in to leave, so
after breakfast I walked down to the lock to talk with the lock
operators.
Foggy morning on the wall
I got a tour of some of the very well maintained
equipment, dating back to around 1910, all original. Kind of like a
functioning museum. Most boaters never get to see the inner workings
of the locks and don't realize what well maintained antiques they
are. The operators work year round and do maintenance and rebuilding
of equipment during the winter months. They have a workshop on-site
at each lock. The fog starts to lift and I head back to the boat to
get ready to leave. By the time we push off from the wall the lock is
open and ready for us to enter.
Time lapse video of lock 7
Lock 7 at Fort Edward is only two miles
away and just before that lock we pass the two Canadian boats still
tied up to the dock. With all their speed and urgency yesterday I
would have thought they would have gotten an early start.
The GE dredging is winding down and
will be finished this fall after nearly seven years. When we brought
Manana up from the Philadelphia area in 2009 we saw the first phase
of the GE project. The good news for us now, there will be no
waiting for barges which have priority in the locks.
All the PCB tainted river bottom they
dredged up was shipped to Texas and new material was shipped in to
refill the dredged river bottom areas. This winter all the barges
will be cut up and sold for scrap metal because of the PCB material
they were carrying.
We continue through the locks without
any delays. Each lock is ready for us when we arrive. After the cool
early morning, starting around 45 degrees, it is turning out to be a
warm sunny afternoon, shorts and T-shirts.
At lock 5 our power boating Canadians
from yesterday catch up to us and follow us into the lock.
They immediately pass us on the way to
Lock 4 which is only 2 miles further. They do politely ask if they
can pass on our starboard to which we say OK, knowing the next lock
is going to wait for us to arrive. I immediately get on the radio and
tell them to slow pass us as they had sped up creating a 2-3 foot
wake. They back down until they get by us then they floor it again,
thinking they will lock down before us. A few minutes later I call
Lock 4 for a lock down on the radio. They reply it will be ready
when we get there. When we arrive a few minutes later the lock is
still closed and our Canadian friends are sitting there waiting for
the lock to open.
We decide to stop at Mechanicville, NY
for the night. They have a free wall, with power, water and a
pumpout. Very nice bathrooms with showers. Much nicer than the much
more frequented Waterford free docks at the junction of the Erie
Canal and the Champlain Canal. We have gone by Mechanicville many
times and thought we should give it a try. By evening the wall is
almost full of boats, another Canadian sailboat heading for the
Bahamas, a large cabin cruiser from Saint Albans, VT and a couple
other boats. We have dinner at the Ugly Rooster, interesting place
with a diverse menu.
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