Shortest leg to date--Troy to the Waterford Welcome Center--06/28-29/10

This was decision time.  Mark and Sylvia aboard their "Heavenly Ours" followed their plan and went up the Lake Champlain route while us aboard the Salt Shaker and Don and Rosie aboard their "Just Rosie" followed our plans to take the Erie Canal to Oswego, NY.

It is a very short distance from Troy to Waterford, just an hour and three minutes from dock to dock.  This is a good jumping off point because the first lock gate for the Erie is in sight at this point.

Below are a few photos of and from Waterford.

Arriving at the dock @ Waterford.  That is a highway bridge carrying auto traffic above the dock.  Also in view is the gate to the first lock.  This lock serves as the entrance to the Erie Canal.  The top of the gate is approximately how high the water lift is.  Once you are in the chamber and lifted, the gate on the other end is opened and you motor out at the new level.

Safely at the dock and under the highway bridge.  This was a mistake.  Do not spend the night under a highway bridge.  The surface is open metal and much of the trash, tar, grease, etc, finds it way thru the metal and onto your boat.   Big mess in the morning especially after a rain!

The Hudson, like most other rivers at times has a lot of trash and debris floating downstream.  Here is a piece of a tree trunk that found itself in the mix.  It is about 18 inches in diameter.  You would not want to hit this thing going at speed.

The admiral relaxing.

The welcome center center.  The canal system is owned by the state of New York and is managed like a state or national park.  There is a fee to use the canal.  It was $30.00 for us.  A bargain.

I must be running out of photo ideas.

As you can do with any of these photos, click on this one to enlarge.  It has the details of the NY canal system.  Our plan is to head east from Waterford to just west of Lake Oneida, then head north to Lake Ontario at Oswego.  Hit the back arrow to return it to normal size.

One of several vintage/unusual/interesting boats at the Waterford wharf.

Most looper boats are trawlers with a helm station on top of the main cabin.  The fellow docked behind us invited me to see the view from there on his boat.  I apologize, I did not get his card and did not make a note of his name or the name of his boat.

Within the hour we were on our way to the world of the Erie Canal.