This a view inside lock E2 (the first lock in the system) looking back to the Waterford Welcome Center dock where we had spent the night. The downstream gates are still open and the boat you see is getting situated. This is the typical boat and the typical crew. The captain at the helm and his admiral on the bow catching hold of one of the many "slimy" lines hanging from the "slimy" lock wall. Once she gets hold of hers, he then shuts down the engines, leaves the helm, goes below to the back deck and catches the one most convenient to him and now the boat is ready to take the ride up as the doors are closed and the chamber filled to the level of the upper stream.
Lock E2 is the first of the set of 5 locks referred to as the "Flight of Locks." These locks take the boater up a total distance of 169 feet in just one half mile of distance. This is the highest lift over the shortest distance of any canal system in the world. Once you pass into the first of the five locks, you are comitted to do all of them as there is no place to stop in the spaces between them.
For more information, here is a pretty good source: www.nycanals.com/Erie_Canal_Locks#Lock_E2
The boat pictured is more typical of a loopers boat than ours. His is a trawler style boat. Ours is an express cruiser. The trawler style has much more interior room than the express and has much more living space. Great for entertaining as well. The advantage of the express cruiser is that it is much faster and can cut the travel time where it makes sense. They are also very good at handling various sea conditions.
Looking forward in Lock E2, my admiral has her line "in hand" and I have the engines shut down and I have my line "in hand." The reason for the engine shut down is to prevent the build up of exhaust gasses in the chamber that would otherwise occur.
The Shekinah ahead of us spent the previous night at Waterford where we were. She is an example of a "catameran" type boat. The two hulls house the engines in the rear and the sleeping quarters forward of them. The main deck house is ahead of the helm and houses a large salon and the galley and the other fun things that most boats have. Catamerans have many advantages, they are fuel efficient and they are stable in a variety of sea conditions. But they are wide and many dock slips are too narrow to accomodate them.
View going into the next of the "flight of locks." Notice the water squirting out from between the closed doors at the far end. There is a lot of water pressure on the doors from the head of water that is on the other side. Any imperfection that the water finds results in a pretty forceful steam.
This is the water falling over the top of a very long dam at Lock E7. This is the sum total of the water flow down the Mohawk near its lower end, less the small amount that is used to operate the lock and less any amount that is flowing thru a power station that may be located in the vicinity. The lock is just to the left of the photo, the trees mark the right side of the entrance to the lock. You can see that the water flow from the dam sort of makes a left turn toward the lock entrance. This is typical. The turbulance created, in many cases makes entering the low side of the lock difficult or at least interesting.
Camera swung toward lock entrance.
Yes! There was a power plant associated with the dam. Another clue from the previous two pics were the power lines visible crossing the river.
An impressive building (residence?) we saw on the north shore of the river/Erie Canal.
View of the Schenectady Yacht Club docks from our position at the dock. This is where we spent Tuesday night. This yacht club was unique in that you did not have to be a member of this or any other yacht club to use their facilites. Very nice. Dock manager was also very nice. He loaned me his car so I could go a couple of towns over to purchase a new boat pole at a marine store there. I lost one at lock E7 trying to violate some law of physics. They are important to have in the locks because they make it much easier to capture the lock line you are going to need to hold the boat with.
Skulling, there is a lot of it in the rivers. This is looking at the south shore of the river from the SYC.
A view from our dock just prior to departure of the some of the remains of the Rexford Aquaduct. This was an early system of an original version of the Erie Canal System of the early 1800's. Lots of info at this website: http://www.eriecanal.org/MohawkAqueducts.html . This was a system like the Romans created where water went over water.
This is what is left of the aquaduct on the other side of the river. The engines are running. We are about to depart.
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