Waterford, NY to Erie Canal Lock #8 Lock Wall

Day                 10
Depart             Waterford Visitors Center, NY  9:20 am
Arrive              Erie Canal Lock #8 Lock Wall, NY 3:00 pm
Distance            20 Miles
Cumulative      304 Miles

 NOTE - Double click on a picture for a larger view


We had stayed two days at Waterford, so no post yesterday.  We used the time to do "chores", grocery shopping and laundry.  The local grocery store allows you to take the grocery cart back to the Visitor's Center, a distance of approximately 3/4 of a mile.  What a weird, strange feeling walking along the town streets, pushing a grocery cart with your day's shopping!!

Back to the boat with the groceries!

Today, July 8th, we will travel the "Waterford Flight of 5".  This includes locks E-2, E-3, E-4, E-5, E-6 Guard Gate 1 and Guard Gate 2.  This set of 5 locks provides a total lift of about 170 feet in less than 2 miles.  The first lock of the day was not without incident!  As we entered the lock we made sure all the fenders were in place and the midship line was attached to the cleat.  Lynda secured the boat to the cable on the lock wall and went to the stern and grabbed the line that was hanging down from the top of the wall.  All of a sudden Bob exclaimed "Oh #?$!, get the boat hook!"  One of the new ball type fenders had come loose and fallen into the water.  No problem, we were able to retrieve the fender and continue to be lifted up in the lock without further incident.  We do learn from our mistakes; the fenders are not only attached with the fender straps, but are now also tied to the rail!

Entering Lock 4, looks like it has a bit of a leak!

Lock 4 took us up 34.5 feet

Leaving Lock 4 and Lock 5 is up next

Lynda holding the stern on the lock wall

We continued on through Locks E-6, E-7 and E-8.  We will spend the night at the lock wall at E-8 (FREE!!).  No electric or water, but we have the generator so we can cook dinner and the inverter so we can watch a bit of television.  Life is good!

Here are some pictures of scenery along the Mohawk River.

This is like the canal boat we rented approx. 14 years ago!

Rain storm while docked at Lock 8