It’s a beautiful sunny day, leaving Hudson, NY. The river is flat calm and it’s two to four knot current is pushing us along as we head north.
This section of the river has islands with channels behind them-similar to oxbows, a scattering of small towns- Coxsackie, Stuyvesant, New Baltimore; and large farms ( along the west shore).
Surprisingly, we had quite a bit of barge and ship traffic along the way.
We traveled under the Castleton on Hudson bridge an the town of Castleton on the eastern shore.
After a few miles north of the bridge, the river turns and you can see the first of the buildings of Albany, NY. We stopped in Albany at their free dock so we could walk the city.
Walking through Troy, we admired the older architecture dating from the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s.. we especially enjoyed the Delaware Hudson Railroad Building built 1814-1918, several churches, and the State Capitol Building.
After lunch, we continued our walk to the Nelson Rockefeller Empire Plaza built in 1965 and the Corning Building.
We rode the elevator to the 42nd floor observation deck which had great views of the Hudson River Valley and Albany.
We returned to the boat, cast off our lines and headed north to the City of Troy to tie up to the city dock.
Along the way, we sited a castle amongst the many old warehouses on the Hudson River. With some research we found it was called Shoddy Fortress- constructed in the early 1900’s. This brick warehouse castle was built by the United Waste Manufacturing Company and it served as a warehouse for cotton and wool shoddy.
In researching the Shoddy Castle, I came across another castle in Troy which was built in 1896 by John Welles Paine, financier and lawyer as a personal residence- the Grandest in Troy. The home boasts, stained glass windows, frescoes, mosaics, 16 fireplaces, and mahogany woodwork and trim. Today the castle is owned by the alumni of Alpha Tau Chapter of Pi Kappa Phi at the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute. For over 70 years, the brothers have maintained and preserved this building. Thought a few of our readers might be interested in that!! We found this home as we walked around the city this evening!
The city of Troy was one of the wealthiest cities in America at the turn of the century and into the 1900’s. Troy is known for its textile industry (especially shirts and collars), iron production, shipping, and the Rensselaer School founded in 1824 and which is now the famous Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute.
Day 84 June 25 on to Waterford 3.3 Nm Total 1813
We got up early so we could go to the farmers market in downtown Troy. They had a variety of vendors from spices to fresh meat and veggies, to breads and pastries, to honey and jams. We went for some fresh veggies and fruit, but Bill could not resist the baked goods and he had to have himself a Troy brick.
Returning to the boat, we stowed our goodies and cast off. Today is a short day travel wise and we will go thru our first lock just north of downtown Troy. We hailed the lock master and he informed us there would be a twenty minute wait as he was locking thru a southbound vessel, so we tied up to the lock wall to wait.
When we got the green light to enter the lock, we came in behind two other boats and looped our line around the cable for the 8foot rise in water in the Hudson. After the lock the river is narrower here with homes and condos on both shores. We are still in the city of Troy until we go under the bridge one mile north of the lock and turn into the Mohawk River- the beginning of the Erie Canal. We tied to the linear dock and hooked up to electric and water. Since dockage is free we only paid to use the electric. Plan to stay two nights.
The local grocery store allows boaters to take the shopping cart back to the docks and they come by later to pick up the cart. What a nice service!
