Sailing South- Erie Canal, Lock 10 to the Hudson

Sunday September 27, 2009  - The end is in sight

We tied up at the Amsterdam River Link Park. When we turned around from Lock 10 and were heading back to Lock 11 for the night, we were hailed on the VHF radio. “Westbound sailboat, we have docking, electricity on the dock, washrooms, showers and a restaurant.” It seems the operator of the café in the park was not against going out to find business.The overnight in Amsterdam was excellent – except for the exceptionally large number of trains going through the valley at high speed and blowing their air horns all night long.

We tied up at the Amsterdam River Link Park. When we turned around from Lock 10 and were heading back to Lock 11 for the night, we were hailed on the VHF radio. “Westbound sailboat, we have docking, electricity on the dock, washrooms, showers and a restaurant.” It seems the operator of the café in the park was not against going out to find business.

The showers were the key selling point as we had already sorted our dinner plans out. We did order an appetizer – crab cakes – because we did not have any snacks left on board. Mary had her shower, I poured drinks and the enterprising café operator delivered the crab cakes to our boat. What service.

The dock also had WiFi so I was able to catch up on correspondence, banking and get the first newsletter out.

We had listed communication as a high priority on this trip, because after all, this is a business venture to create, edit and distribute video through InformedBoater.com. WiFi had been hit and miss. I had upgraded my Rogers Rocket Stick to roaming, took a look at the cost after a few weeks and will be canceling the service.

There are may WiFi antennas we can install. The best seems to be a commercial one by Shakespeare Antennas, but I have to get it delivered and our mast is only down for a few more days. Once we step the mast, then the installation will be more problematic.

We got away from the dock in Amsterdam around 8 am. We confirmed our decision to not race for a lock or a landing and started off on a day that promised rain. It did rain on and off all day.  Finally made it to Lock 10.

We were also heading downstream and the current allowed us to pick up .5 of a knot in boat speed.

Note: We are traveling from Toronto to Florida at an average speed of 5.5. knots. A knot is a nautical mile (about 2000 meters) per hour. To put it in prospective we paced a jogger for almost half an hour today until he finally pulled away from us. Yes, we are ‘jogging’ to Florida.

We figured we would not be able to complete all of the locks down to Waterford, NY today. By some luck of wind and current, we got to Gate #2 just after 3 pm. The locks close each day at 5pm and it takes 2 hours to lock the last 5 locks

We radioed the gate and asked if there was any chance of locking through “We will get you there”, was the confident response of the gate keeper We got to Waterford just before 5 pm. We were on the Hudson River.

Monday  September 28, 2009 - Down the Hudson

We were up before dawn and underway by 6:30. There is one more dock to clear – the Federal lock at Troy, NY. We are through by 7 am and on the tidal water of the Hudson River.

150 miles up the Hudson River, the tide raises the water level 4 feet at Albany, NY. Low tide was at 7:41 am. By the time we were a few miles down the Hudson the tide started to flood. That means the current was against us and at its fastest, reduced our speed by ½ knot.

It rained. It blew. The sun shone. It was overcast. We had it all

At 1:41 pm high tide was reached and the current reversed. The last 2 hours were at ½ knot faster than our boat speed was recording. We needed that, because the skies were threatening serious rain and the wind had built to 20+ knots. The gusts were 30 – 35 knots.

We were working to reach Catskill Creek – the village of Catskill, NY.  Dinner on land at the marina restaurant.

The marina there, Hop-O-Nos, was recommended as the place to raise you mast by Paul and Sheryl Shard (DistantShores.ca), Lori Mason (TheStoreMasons.com) and a whole slew of others.

Tuesday September 29 - Stepping the mast

Sean, the owner of Hop-O-Nos was a true professional. The mast crane was rated at 5 tons, more than sufficient for our 54-foot mast. In addition, Sean worked with 2 crew – Mike and Junior. We were one of 3 masts stepped that morning The other 2 were a crew from Montreal who had wintered in St. Martinique the past few winters and a boat from Buffalo who had made this trip 5 times prior.

With the mast stepped, we set to tune the rig and bend on the sails We were finished by 5 pm, having started our preparation at 7 am and stepping the mast at 11.

Exhausted, bedtime came early, as did first light.

Aboard s/v Sojourn
En route to the Bahamas

Mary and Rob MacLeod
rob@informedboater.com