GLORY DAYS ON THE GREAT LOOP: EIGHT LOCKS.............NO BAGELS!

DAY 10
Mon. June 13, 2011 Cloudy, cool, light breeze L 50* H 67*
Dep. Waterford; 08:00 Arr. Schenectedy, NY Lock * 1:20

After a restless night replaying all the horror stories we've ever heard about locks, we dragged ourselves to the helm and faced our fears. The first five locks on the Erie, called the flight of 5, raise you 169' within 1.5mi. Talk about baptism by fire! As usual, once you face the issue, it turns out to be not as bad as you thought. As we slowly pulled into lock #2, which is the first lock on the Erie C. the walls towered above us dripping with slime. There are many vertical channels formed into the concrete walls that house a taught vinyl coated steel cable about 1" thick. The trick is to get a line behind the cable and tie it to the midship cleat so it holds the boat close to the wall. As the water level rises, the line slides up the cable with the boat and that's it. The gate opens and out you go to new heights (in this case. It could also be new depths when "locking down.") In any case, we were "ex spurts" up until lock 8. Not only does lock 8 have no cables, but the lock tender tells us one of the doors is broken and doesn't open This is going to make for a very turbulent ride, but he will do it slowly to minimize the turbulence, thereby prolonging the agony! After surving that, we had to squeeze a 14'2" wide boat thru a 14'3" opening. Since we were meeting Pat's cousins and Aunt at lock 8, we tied up the boat to the wall and I changed my underwear. We survived a lock "HORROR STORY". Cruising between the locks, about 23 miles, went thru areas with steep granite walls, areas with a lot of summer cottages, and finally an area of natural beauty with trees and islands on both sides. In fact, Pat's comment was I didn't know the Mohawk R. was this pretty. It looked just like it must have to the original inhabitants, and, if not for the charts and bouys, we felt like Lewis & Clarke on an expedition.