Hello from Little Falls, NY. Since the last post we have finished going up the Hudson River, done a lot of sightseeing, and started across the Erie Canal.

We had planned to go straight up the Champlain Canal from the Hudson, but they are having a lot of trouble this season with the locks and bridges going into Lake Champlain. Amy and I decided it was not worth getting caught and having to turn around, so we decided to just take our time and go across the Erie Canal. We are getting to see towns we just blew by when we bought the boat and brought it back from Long Island 4 years ago.

We last posted from Kingston on the Hudson. We enjoyed the afternoon and evening there before getting up early the next morning. We left early to take advantage of the incoming tide. Yes, there is a tide of 5-6′ all the way up the Hudson to the Federal Lock in Troy, NY.

We stayed in Kingston at the Maritime Marine Museum Dock. This was a very historic town, like most along the Hudson, and we really enjoyed the museum and learning more about the Hudson River area.

We were tied to a wall, but well protected up a river about 1/4 mile from the Hudson.

It was a neat little town with a lot to offer. Live music and a great Italian Restaurant.

The town was about 3 blocks long but very clean and nice.

Street view of the Museum.

We were tied up between two tour boats. They only went out once while we were there so not a big deal.

The next morning we were up early and headed up to New Baltimore, NY. We would spend two nights there to try and solve a low fuel pressure issue on the port engine.

It was a short run of just over 40 miles so we took our time and saved some fuel.

There are four historic light houses in this area. They are old but in pretty good condition.

The remains of an old Rockefeller Hotel on the Hudson River.

We arrived at Shady Harbor, New Baltimore, NY, and started to clean the boat and relax for two days. We are officially out of salt water and time to cleanse the boat of it! They had a pool as well, so with the hot days it was nice to cool down after cleaning the boat.

Pano of the harbor. We are way over to the left.

I also took advantage of the two days and worked on the boat a little. The name plates on the sides were in bad shape from all the sun and salt. These are the only two parts of exterior teak I did not redo last year before we left on the trip.

A little elbow grease and some fresh varnish and they were all set to go back up on the roof!

We also enjoyed a great dinner at the restaurant in Shady Harbor. Not a bad view.

We had a nice slip after leaving the fuel dock.

We did have a lot of large ships that continued to go by for the two days. We didn’t realize that these large ships came all the way up to Albany, NY.

We left New Baltimore and headed up to Waterford, the beginning of the Erie Canal. This was a short run of 66 miles with calm winds and river. An easy run.

We pulled into the very Historic town of Waterford just after noon and tied to the public wall. Total cost of $15 for the night!

Coming by the city and port of Albany.

Downtown Albany

Continuing on and putting Albany behind us.

Coming into the city of Troy, NY. Troy is a much smaller town.

This is the Federal Lock in Troy. This is the first of many locks for us as we will cross the Erie Canal next.

The Federal lock also means we are officially done with tides for the Loop! Amy could not wait to stop looking at the tide app on her phone. I am pretty sure she has already deleted it!

When you arrive at Waterford, you have to decide to take a right up into the Champlain Channel or a left into the Erie Canal. We took the left!

We arrived in Waterford just before noon and were able to get a spot on the visitor center wall. This is the beginning of the Erie Canal.

You can see the white bricks in the sidewalk, this is the path of the New York canal system from just before New York City all the way Niagra, NY. They have all the towns and locks marked on the bricks. You can walk from NYC to Niagra in about 400 yards!

Our spot on the wall for the night, the wall did fill up by 3 PM.

We walked town for a bit and then found a great diner for lunch.

Don and Paul’s Coffee Shop is a truly local joint. We got looked at hard when we walked in, but the food was great.

Inside the diner after they all stopped looking. The food was so good we went back for breakfast before we left town. The locks are only open from 8am-6pm daily.

This mule is a tribute to all the mules that pulled the boats through the Erie Canal at the beginning of the canal use.

A picture on a back post in the diner of the first tugboat to go through the Erie Canal on May 15, 1915. The canal was opened on October 25, 1825 but this was the first tug to go through.

As I said above, this area is rich in history. Waterford was a cute little town and we spent only one night before moving on to Amsterdam, NY the next morning.

We didn’t arrive in Amsterdam until almost 4pm because we went through so many locks. They were fairly efficient in getting us through, but they just take a while as they are so old.

This is approaching lock E-2. This is the first lock on the Erie Canal and is the first in the FLIGHT! The flight is a series of 5 locks they raise you up almost 150′ in just over 1.5 miles. This is the greatest lift in the shortest distance in a locking system in the world.

Just pulling out of lock E-2 into the canal system.

They have these signs at every lock. It tells you how much you will go up or down, the distance to the next lock in either direction, and other general information that we enjoy reading in every lock.

Many of them do look alike! E-5

This is what they call a guard gate. It actually has to be lifted straight up so we can pass under it. Besides all the water that runs off and on to your boat as you go under, you just hold your breath and hope the old cables hold it up!

This is a fairly typical view as we approach locks. There are water falls off to the side and the height of the waterfall will give you an idea of just how far up we will be lifted.

This is another smaller waterfall and lift.

We will be going upbound for 21 locks, I believe, and then we start to go back down before arriving in Oswego, NY.

We were supposed to stay on the wall in Amsterdam, but when we arrived a smaller boat was blocking about 100′ of the lower wall where we were supposed to tie up. There is an additional wall but it was almost 10′ above the side of the boat and no way for us to get Memphis off the boat. I took the boat over to the high wall and Amy got off by climbing a ladder, to ask the other boat to move forward and they simply said they would not move. Needless to say, we were not happy. I called the harbormaster, who was not on site, and told him we would be moving on. I explained that he had someone else running his marina and he was not happy. We moved on through one more look and then tied to a free lock wall just past E-11. So that made 10 locks for the day. The wall was fine, and we even got free power for the night.

Almost got to see a sunset. We have not see one since the Bahamas, as we are on narrow waterways on the east coast. Looking forward to seeing them again! It is the little things that you miss sometimes.

We were a few miles from town, so we got the scooters out and ran into Amsterdam. We were glad we ended up past town on this wall. The town was very depressed. We were told by a local that all the industry had left town and that is why it is run down now. No worries, we had a great night on the wall and one less lock for the next day!

We got up to be at the first lock of the day at 8am when they open. We planned for 41 miles and 6 locks for the day on our way to Little Falls, NY.

The day was going fine until the second lock that was broken when we arrived. The lock master got it working after we drifted in the canal for over an hour.

Continuing to move west across the Erie Canal, only today we moved in the rain all day! Not a lot of fun as you hold lines from the lock walls to secure the boat, so you are standing in the rain outside in each lock.

Came across a few Amish men fishing on the channel. We loved their sports car they had tied to the tree near the canal.

We arrived in Little Falls around 2:30pm, just in time to secure the last spot on the wall. This marina wall is first come, first serve. The wall is run by the Rotary club, and the cost was $59 for the night. Have to love the cost of the walls along the Erie so far! For three nights so far on the Erie, $74!

As you can see the wall is packed. We did not have power for the night, but we can run the generator, so all is good.

This is a little out of order, but this was the view for much of the day running the Erie Canal in the rain. There are some wide areas as well, but the narrow areas are the fun ones to drive while watching out for stumps, deadheads, all while staying in deep water. By deep water I mean trying to stay in 9-14′!

We will go out for dinner tonight in town and see what Little Falls has to offer. I will post again from Brewerton in the next few days. Until then I hope you have a great weekend.

I forgot to tell you, the low fuel pressure was due to a small pressure sensor that was replaced and now all is good. I am getting a little tired of all the sensor issues, but I guess I have to expect that after the previous owner did not use the boat that much. We bought it with 724 hours on the engines, and just turned 1440 hour yesterday. All good though, happy it was small and moving along nicely.