The Last Locks

After meeting up with Rhythm and Elixir V in Canajoharie, we decided to caravan together for the final few days on the canal. We left our nice, free spots on the dock a little bit earlier than Justin and I usually like. (Then again, any time before noon is earlier than Justin and I like.)

We got to enjoy plenty more pretty scenery and nature stuff along the way.

Finally! A photogenic heron!

And of course, we went through more locks!

One of the biggest locks on this trip was pretty cool because the door opens from the bottom on the way out, and you drive underneath it.

Approaching the lock

In the lock

Through the lock!

And I figured it was about time for a video so you can experience going through the lock for yourself, starring Justin!

After a long day locking, the three crews gathered for dinner in Amsterdam aboard Rhythm, where Aimee made an amazing lentil soup and homemade bread. (Well, boatmade bread.) It was delicious, and it made me very jealous of her cooking skills. Unlike every other place we had stopped at so far, this wall wasn't free. Granted, it was only $1 per foot of boat, so I really shouldn't complain. (Docking gets much more expensive later on.)

The next morning we got up at the butt crack of dawn for our final day on the canal. The last few locks are all right next to each other (called a "flight" of locks, like a "flight" of stairs.) Because we're so late in the season, the locks close at 5:00. This hasn't really been a problem for us so far. If we approached a lock after 5:00, we would pull up right before it and have a relaxing evening making dinner and hanging out. However, for these last few locks, because they're so close together, you're not allowed to stop in between them. So instead of allowing ourselves the usual twenty minutes or so to get through a lock, we had to allow a few hours to get through about nine locks, in addition to the several hours it took to get to the locks themselves. Hence waking up at the butt crack of dawn.

Despite being a little sleepy, we made it through all of the locks without a problem.

Lock two is the last one. Why there is no lock one, I have no idea....

After making it through the final locks, we pulled up to the wall of the quaint town of Waterford, just outside of Albany. We stopped at the welcome center, and I felt like I had just entered Star's Hollow. (If you haven't seen Gilmore Girls, go to Netflix and watch all seven seasons. I'll wait.... You done? Okay, great.) There, we met up with a fourth boat that had just made it through the canal and they joined us aboard Rhythm to toast a successful Erie Canal trip. Everyone recounted their most exciting and traumatic moments, and we all agreed that the best part of the canal was meeting great people along the way.

We made it out alive! (Not pictured: Scupper the dog and Angie the human)

We spent the rest of the afternoon Ubering around Albany and picking up some last minute supplies. I admit, I don't remember much of that day. That was the peak of my cold, and I spent most of it in a phlegm-induced haze of sinus pressure and mucous. I went to bed very early that night.

But the next day I felt much better! There was a tiny market at the Waterford welcome center, and they even had a minstrel, just like Star's Hollow!

Okay, he was just a dude with a guitar and not a minstrel, but still, pretty cool!

I managed to resist some delicious-looking baked goods at the market, and we pulled away from Waterford and headed down the Hudson River with Elixir V. After going through the canal, it was finally time to put our masts back up and become sailboats again. Jeff and Tricia from Elixir V were nice enough to team up with us for the process.

At Castleton-on-Hudson, there is a do-it-yourself place to put up your mast. While it's a little tricky to handle with a crew of two, with four people it's a breeze. First, you take all of the junk off your deck that's managed to accumulate over the past couple of weeks.

So much stuff. You could really fit a good size body in those sail bags though...

Then, you pull up to big crane sticking out over the water.

Justin! Look out! There's a crane behind you!

Then, you attach your mast to the crane, and the crane hoists the mast up in the air. And you hope really, really hard that your mast doesn't fall in the water.

Going up

Swinging wildly

Walking the mast back over

And into the hole!

Tricia and Jeff working hard on their boat!

While all of this is happening, three of us are running around, trying to negotiate the mast and make sure it doesn't slam into anything unexpected. Meanwhile, the fourth person has the very difficult job of operating the crane. This person (Tricia for our boat, me when we did Elixir V's mast) has control of a very complicated and technically sophisticated remote.

See? Very complicated.

Finally, we got both masts in and up. Next, it was time to reattach the sails!

One sail on

Two sails on!

While Justin finished reattaching the sails, I inflated the dinghy and put some of our stuff from above deck away below. It took us a day and half to get everything back together, so we decided to anchor the following evening a few miles down the Hudson River behind a secure peninsula in the river.

The next day was another rainy day. We didn't bother putting up the sails, and motored from 9:00 in the morning to almost 11:00 at night through on and off downpours. We did see a few neat things in those few minutes when the rain cleared, though!

Rain, rain, go away. Nobody likes you.

Do you think we'll make it under the bridge? Will the mast fit?

I honestly have no idea where any of these bridges were.

It's another bridge somewhere on the Hudson. Once again, don't ask me where.

This lighthouse was extra spooky in the misty rain.

This one was pretty spooky too. Difficult to go trick-or-treating there though...

The next morning, we were actually able to sail! It was only for about half an hour, but still, it was our first opportunity to sail in almost a month!

I was worried I had forgotten how to sail.

We pulled into a slip at Croton-on-Hudson, where we stayed for a few nights. Unfortunately, not for free. This was our most expensive stop yet at $2.15 per foot. However, we were able to rent a car and drive to the United States Sailboat Show in Annapolis!

Bunches of boats!

Pardon my squint. It was really sunny!

The show was great (even though it took us two hours longer than we thought to get there) and got us excited about warmer weather. We got a great deal on a new inverter for the boat, climbed aboard some shiny, brand new sailboats (we decided each one was inferior to our Mischief Managed) and checked out all of the gizmos and gadgets for sale. It was a ton of fun, but a long day.

After the show, we picked up some groceries, dropped off the car, grabbed a few last-minute slices from this super delicious pizza place we found, and continued down the Hudson River. Surprisingly, it wasn't too busy with boats going to and from New York City.

We crossed under the Tappan Zee Bridge, and then the George Washington Bridge, and found ourselves in New York City, which you can find out about in the next post. Stay tuned!