Day 85 July 10. On to Amsterdam NY. 28.6 Nm. Total 1848 miles

After getting the boat ready for our next leg on Saturday, we left Blain’s Marina and headed west on the Mohawk River section of the Erie Canal.

The river has many bends with woods and a scattering of homes on the shore. Must be good fishing, as the locals were out in force.

We locked thru #7 with a 27 foot lift. The river then continues its winding path, but the shores are more rock walls that vary in height from 4-25 feet.

We passed an aqueduct from the old Erie Canal on our to cruise thru the city of Schenectady, NY. Schenectady was settled in 1661 by Dutch settlers and established a trading center in the fur trade. In 1690, a fire destroyed much of the older structures. The historic district in Schenectady still has over one hundred homes dating 1690-1900’s. Along the Mohawk River, the city created many parks. General Electric has a large presence in the city which continues today.

At lock 8 in Scotia which is on the north side of the Mohawk River just past Schenectady and we rose 14 feet. After this lock, the hills surrounding the river grow from 500-800 feet with little to no development and forested right down to the water.

We tackled Lock 9, rising 15 feet; then Lock 10 rising 15 feet; and Lock 11 at the town of Amsterdam rising 12 feet. Today we were lifted 83 feet total through the lock system. All the locks we went thru today had dams associated with the lock and many had small hydroelectric plants.

We pulled up to the lock wall just past the lock and plugged in and had dinner. This lock wall, like many wall tie ups on the Erie are free.

The Amtrak and freight trains follow the canal as they followed the Hudson. We must have seen and heard 10 trains go by this evening. Must be lots of goods moving between Buffalo on Lake Erie to New York City.

Amsterdam was originally settled in 1773 at the juncture of the trade routes with the Iroquois Indians. The limestone manor home of Guy Johnson is the oldest home in Amsterdam, built in 1774. Guy Johnson was a loyalist to the Crown and his job as Supervisor of Indian Affairs required him to keep peace with the native Iroquois Indians. He persuaded the Iroquois Indians to side with the British, and when found out escaped with friends and relatives to Canada in 1766. After the Revolutionary War, the property was confiscated and sold. Later the manor home was used as a headquarters and museum for the Erie Canal until 2011, when it was damaged severely by hurricane. Repair to the building is still ongoing today.

After dinner we walked thru Amsterdam and visited the 1774 manor house which is adjacent to Lock 11. We also saw many old Victorian homes. Was sad to see the remnants of the warehouses and mills which made clothing, buttons, and carpet (Mohawk carpet) during the hey days of this town.

Reflections on the Bahamas

Reflections on the Bahamas Over the past 10 weeks, we have traveled through Abaco, Eleuthera and Exuma Islands and enjoyed the hospitality of the Bahamian people. We have learned all about the islands, its unique geography - limestone, caves, blue holes and chalk cliffs; and colorful history-pirates and rum running, salt ponds and cotton plantations, boat building and wrecking/salvage. Traveling over 1300 miles through narrow cuts and wide bays to vast depths of ocean, we negotiated the islands and found safe harbors, calm coves for anchoring, bays filled with moorings and marinas large and small. This trip required us to pay close attention to the weather, the tides and currents as we traveled between and through the islands. The Bahamian people are warm and friendly, willing to give us rides, advice and directions, as well as some secret recipes!! We enjoyed hiking trails, walking the beaches, snorkeling the coral rocks and reefs, discovering ruins and ol...

June 4-5. Day 63-64. On to Cape May New Jersey. 53.4nm. Total 1534 miles.

Left Delaware City at 5:35am to be able to take advantage of the strong currents going with us while traversing Delaware River and Delaware Bay. The Delaware River goes south about 15 miles and flows into the Delaware Bay. As we travel south, New Jersey is to the east and Delaware is to our west. We are traveling just outside the shipping channel and are really moving at 10.9 knots. That is three knots faster than we normally travel, as the outgoing tides are pushing us along. Nice to have Mother Nature helps us save on fuel. The Delaware River is about 8 miles wide so there is plenty of room for the freighters and the pleasure boats. So far, we have not encountered any commercial traffic, but there is a large freighter behind us that will eventually pass us as they travel at 14 knots. The Delaware Bay proper varies from 23-29 miles wide and 26 miles long. There are five lighthouses on the Delaware marking the shipping channel. We went by Ship J...

Day 98. 2nd year. August 27. On to Manistee. Miles 25 Total miles. 3910.

We weighed anchor on a sunny 50 degree morning. So we put on our sweatshirts and drove from below as we left Frankfort. Going through Frankfort’s channel and breakwater we encountered a few intrepid fisherman and further along as we cleared the breakwater there must have been over a hundred fishing boats. Almost like playing bumper cars, but with boats. Had to negotiate a path between them as the fishing boats were all trolling fishing lines behind them. We were still seeing fishermen 4 miles south of Frankfort. These guys sure take their fishing tournaments seriously! The shoreline that we pass heading south are still sand dunes bluffs some as tall as 200 feet. As we travel, we pass the small town of Arcadia and Portage Lake, each situated on an inland lake which is connected to Lake Michigan by a dredged channel. Interesting to note that the dredged channels were originally small rivers connecting the inland lakes to Lake Michigan. As we passe...

Crustacean Travels

Search This Blog