August 14, 2021: Traveling from Kingston to Waterford — and through our first lock.
We were up at 5 AM again on our third travel day since I’d come aboard. Quick coffees, quick breakfasts, quick wash and dress. We went through Paul’s checklist, and were motoring away from our slip at Kingston City Marina just before dawn.
The sun was just rising when we passed the lighthouse on our way out of Kingston’s Rondout Creek.
Weather or Not
It seemed as if we’d just beaten the weather, because when we reached the river and looked back, I could see the rain in the sky glowing almost peach colored. When I looked south of that, I saw part of a rainbow.
Rain glowed with the dawn light back toward Kingston and there was even part of a rainbow.
But we didn’t escape the rain. By the time we reached the Kingston-Rhinecliffe Bridge, it was raining hard on us. I was sitting in the watch seat and asked Capt Paul, at the helm, about the windshield wipers. Nano has four front windshields, each with their own wiper. Paul switched them on one by one. None of them did a very good job of clearing its window. I think it’s time for wiper blade replacements. He turned them all off.
The weather didn’t last long. The rain lessened to a drizzle and then stopped. We had a bit more drizzle later in the day, but not much. Instead, the weather became partly cloudy with patches of low fog on the hills to the west. The water got nearly glassy in some places. We were cruising at about 10 to 12 knots, smooth as silk.
Not sure what these chimneys in the woods were all about, but we saw quite a few of them.
Both sides of the river, which was now much narrower that it had been on most of our journey to that point, were wooded with houses here and there. We saw more than a handful of small brick chimneys poking up through the forest near the river, some of which had small buildings at their base. They were obviously the remnants of some older facility. In most cases, they seemed to be in pristine condition. Occasionally, we saw a commercial or industrial structure or a marina. There wasn’t much going on. There were hardly any other boats in the water.
My view from the helm. That big ball fender do-dad would hang from the side of the boat the entire time we were in the Erie Canal; they offer excellent protection from imact with the rough concrete walls.
Somewhere halfway to Albany, Capt Paul turned the helm over to me and Dianne sat in the watch seat. More uneventful motoring followed. We passed numerous tributaries and small towns that were on our maps and guidebooks but not in our itinerary.
Eventually, we began seeing more industrial and commercial operations along the river and then the tall buildings of Albany, which is the capital of New York State. I handed the helm over to Dianne and took my break. I got some photos of Albany as we motored on. Gradually, it got less urban and more parklike again.
The City of Albany from the Hudson River.
At Lock #1
After a while, we reached Troy and Dianne motored us toward Lock #1: the Troy Dam and Lock. Capt Paul took a few minutes to adjust the lines on the four large white ball fenders — which I’m certain have a special name — and hang them on both sides of the boat. Eventually, he came in and took over the helm. We had to wait a long time for them to open the lock but when they did, we motored right in.
The Troy Dam and Lock is considered Lock #1 on the New York State Canal system. You can see the lock on the far right end of this pictures.
We were prepared. I was on the bow wearing my life jacket and the gardening gloves my friend Kathryn had given me when I drove truckloads of cherries for her in early August. Dianne was at the stern. Capt Paul eased the boat forward in the lock and over to the wall on the starboard side. Cables, fastened top and bottom, ran in vertical channels about 50 feet apart. Between them were heavy ropes that were fastened on top but weighted at the bottom. I took hold of a rope and Dianne wrapped a line around the cable in the channel. The lock doors closed behind us and, a moment later, the chamber started filling with water.
The boat rose.
Looking back at it now, the next day, after having locked up in nine other locks since then, it doesn’t seem to be such a big deal. But I think it might have been then. I do remember the boat moved around a lot more than I expected it to.
The water rose to the top of the chamber’s high water line. There was a lot of splashing and clanging and grinding as the lock doors slowly swung open. Capt Paul started the engine, Dianne and I cast off, and we motored out of the lock.
Landing at Waterford
Our final destination for the day, Waterford, was only a mile farther on. Capt Paul was at the helm and I managed to get a shot of the famous sign pointing the way to both canals. We made a left and found parking near the ramp at the end of one of the two floating docks at the Waterford Visitor Center dock.
In case you’re not sure which way to go, this sign at the eastern end of the Erie Canal makes it clear.
It only took a few minutes to tie up and connect to power. It was all becoming routine at this point. We had arrived.
Our Nebo track log for the fifth day of my trip. You can track me on the Nebo app; just search for Nano Paul G to find our boat.
Chores
The Waterford Visitor Center dock is free with a 48 hour limit and a $10/day fee for power hookup, which we were using. We paid the fee inside the office, got a key for the restrooms and showers, and bought t-shirts. We also got directions to a laundrymat. Because I had only brought along one pair of shorts — I had been expecting much cooler weather — I was really interested in doing laundry. So were Dianne and Capt Paul.
We walked to the laundrymat, which was only about four blocks away. I’d snacked on board — leftover pizza — before we came into Waterford, so when Paul and Dianne said they’d go to lunch during the wash cycle, I volunteered to stay behind and keep an eye on things. As a result, my clothes were done by the time they got back. I packed up and headed back to Nano, taking a different route that gave me a good look at Lock #2.
Back at the boat, I dumped my laundry, got my shower bag, and hit the shower. The facility was clean but very stark, with just a shower stall, plastic lawn chair, and two hooks. It took a while for the hot water to come up, but when it did, it was plenty hot. I showered away another day of humidity-fueled sweat and dirt.
For a while, I worked on a video from the hyperlapse footage I’d captured on my GoPro. The goal was to take the two files, put them together, add callouts for the various bridges we’d gone under, and add music. When that was done, I had to render the file as a 1080 FHD video. Then I had to upload it to YouTube over an internet connection provided by my cell phone. As you might imagine, this took a lot of time. My laptop is not fast and neither was my cellphone’s connection to the Internet. So for the rest of the day, I had to get the process started and restarted more times than I could count. The whole time, my laptop hogged up space on the table in the main cabin.
I put away my laundry and, a while later, stretched out for a nap. That turned out to be a very long nap. I woke after 7 PM. Capt Paul and Dianne were chatting in the main cabin. I heated my leftover Mexican food from two days before, still feeling groggy from my nap. I restarted the upload to YouTube for the second time.
When they went to bed at 9 PM, I wasn’t tired. I took my laptop and cell phone out to the cockpit table and settled down to work on blog posts while the file uploaded. The file took a very long time. I finished the post for Day 3, started the post for Day 4, and then finished the post for Day 4. About five minutes later, the upload finished. I was really ready to be done. It was great to be all caught up, but by 11:20 PM, I wanted to get to sleep.
Dianne was returning from a trip to the head when I came in. I sat in the watch seat for a while, waiting for her to settle back in, and looked out at the dark and quiet night. Just ahead of us, the gates to Lock #2 stood illuminated in the night lights, closed to traffic. I took out my phone and managed to get a decent photo.
Lock #2 at night.
Then, with Dianne asleep in her bunk, I put on my pajamas and went to bed.
