Beyond the Locks

The fog lifted and we have enjoyed beautiful weather cruising up the Hudson River from NYC.  We stopped at some picturesque marinas as we continued north.   Just beyond Troy, NY, we entered the Erie Canal system.  This series of locks was originally constructed in the 1820’s for the purpose of moving commerce from Albany, NY to Buffalo.  The original small barges were pulled by mules.   Now the Erie Canal is managed by the NY State Canal System and is used primarily by recreational boaters like ourselves.  Our only previous lock experience was passing through a few locks in the Okeechobee  waterway several years ago.  The first eight locks on the Erie Canal heading east to west are encountered one after the other, each raising the water level approximately 20 feet.  With just two crew members, we had to quickly learn to coordinate manning a weighted rope hanging from the lock wall on both the bow and stern while the lock was filling rapidly with water.

We kept ascending in elevation with the first twenty locks.  With Lock #21 and Lock #22, we are now starting to descend again as we work our way west.  We are near Syracuse, NY now and soon will be turning north on the Oswego river to venture into Lake Ontario.