June 14
Today was a milestone day.
We finished our 153 mile assault up the Hudson River with a final day run from
New Baltimore to Waterford and the entrance to the Erie canal. We left at 9:30 which was supposed to give
us a fair current most of the way to Albany but somehow the timing must have
been off on the websites we used as we fought a foul tidal
flow most of the trip. Albany is 144 miles
from the NYC harbor entrance, yet it still has a tidal range of 5 feet! It finally
stops at Troy, NY due to the dam and lock.
Above Troy lock there’s still current but it’s all downstream.
Leaving Shady Harbor marina the Hudson continued it’s scenic
natural wooded shoreline. We passed by a
Riverkeeper boat with a crew doing some water sampling. This conservation program was started on the
Hudson back in the 60’s and spread to
other polluted waterways. They are attributed with helping turn the tide on wanton
pollution of the river. Their wooden
boat was built at the Maritime Museum in Kingston we visited.
Riverkeeper boat
A fun little tour boat - we gave the passengers a toot from our air horn
We reached
the southern end of Albany which is the
Port of Albany area and the final destination for ocean going vessels and barges that run the river. Very industrial on both sides and then
Albany itself appears on the port side of the river. Surprisingly, you’re through Albany very
quickly and back to wooded landscape again until you see Troy. In 1609 Henry Hudson and men from his ship Half Moon took a longboat up as far as present day Troy before they found the water became non
navigable and thus was not the alternate route to the Orient they had hoped. It did give the Dutch an early foothold in establishing trading posts as time progressed.
Port of Albany
Albany
Restored old Delaware and Hudson Railroad headquarters - now headquarters for the NY State University System
Troy
We were looking for an easy passage through the
Troy lock (also known as Erie lock 1 or
The Federal Lock) with just 3 pleasure boats lined up for entry but as we were passing Troy a big canal tour boat pushed off the seawall and into our que. Since he was 185’ long and just a few feet
narrower than the lock he got to enter first and then we filled in behind him.
We made it into the lock successfully despite a current
coming at us off the dam and a strong 15-20 breeze. We only had one pipe to tie a mid ship line around and it made us nervous as the stern of the boat wanted to keep swinging
off the wall. Martha finally figured a better way to wrap 2
lines and got us secured. From
there a very short trip to the town of Waterford where we tied up at
their free floating dock right at the
entrance to Erie Lock 2.
My high school friend
Dave who lives in the area stopped by tonight for a beverage then took us on a tour of Troy and around the campus of his alma mater Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. We capped it off with a nice Italian dinner at Verdile's and a bottle of wine. It's one of those family owned restaurants that have been around a few generations. Waiters still very formal
wearing white shirts and nicely pressed black pants and jackets. It’s been awhile since we’ve gotten together so lots of catching up and reminiscing. And we even remembered to take a picture!!
Journey for June 14
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