I take a break at Champlain Canal Lock 5 and get some observer footage of a sailboat locking through.
I started my trip up the Champlain Canal yesterday — and yes, I know there are huge gaps in this trip blog, but I’d rather enjoy the voyage than spend so much time writing about it — going through the Troy Lock and then the first five locks northbound toward Lake Champlain. (I shot some video along the way and hope to edit and share that soon. But remember: there are only so many hours in a day.)
I had planned a stop for the night at the free dock just past Lock 5 in Schuylerville, NY, and was glad to arrive around 2:30 PM. I’d been cruising since 8:30 AM. Locking can be stressful and physically demanding, especially when you’re holding 12,000 pounds of boat against a lock wall by yourself. Other challenges included strong currents downstream of one lock and some floating logs that had to be spotted and maneuvered around. So by the time I got to Lock 5, I was pretty tired and ready to call it a day.
I parked at the surprisingly small dock, which was adjacent to Hudson Crossing park. It was a great place to stop for the night and I hope to provide more details about that in a future blog post. In addition to taking a good hike with my pups, I was able to watch and video a boat locking through late in the afternoon.
That’s what the video is all about. It’s annotated footage of a demasted sailboat coming through the lock. The captions explain what’s going on. Although I would have loved to narrate the video — I have my good podcasting microphone with me — there was some sort of sporting event going on about 1/2 mile away and the fans and announcer were very loud. I decided to keep it simple with the captions.
In any case, if you ever wondered how Erie Canal locks work, this is a great example. My favorite part? The sound the lock mechanisms make, which you can hear in this video. (Sorry about the wind noise here and there.) Enjoy!
