Delaware Bay to the Erie Canal

Faithful readers (both of you) may be wondering where we've gotten to since the last post.  We left Delaware City Wednesday, June 10, and had a smooth Delaware Bay crossing entering the Cape May Canal around noon.  We passed by Cape May and went back out into the ocean bound for Atlantic City.  Here is a shot of some casinos from the ocean.

 We anchored for the night behind Harrah's (seen below).

After Atlantic City we traveled up the NJ Intracoastal Waterway to the northern end of Barnegat Bay.  From there, back out into the ocean for the run to NYC,  The Verrazano Narrows bridge is very impressive from the ocean.

On our way thru NY harbor we saw the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the Freedom Tower.

At the northern end of Manhattan we passed under George & Martha.

We cruised up the Hudson past the Tappan Zee and anchored near the cliffs on the western side across from Sing Sing prison.  We felt perfectly safe here since no one ever escapes from NY prisons.

The next day we stopped at Half Moon Bay Marina in Croton-on-Hudson where our son, Jeff, met us by taking the train from Brooklyn.  We enjoyed a nice dinner at an Eye-talian restaurant in town.

Underway again the next day, we continued up the Hudson passing by the Orange County School for Wayward Boys (aka West Point).

After a nice anchorage near Hyde Park, we continued north past Albany to Troy where we started passage thru the locks of the Erie Canal.  Pictured below is Lock #2 at Waterford, NY.  There were seven boats in the lock.  The boats lengths range from 36-48 ft and 30,000 - 60,000 lbs in weight.  It gets exciting with all of the jostling around inside the narrow locks.

We passed thru 9 locks on our first day in the canal.

                                Curse of the weather gods redux

Due to heavy rains in upstate NY, the Erie Canal and Oswego Canal were closed on June 15th.  The pic below shows the heavy water flow over one of the dams.  At Troy, NY, the USGS reported the peak flow over the dam at 30,000 cubic feet per second.

As a result, we are stopped in Amsterdam, NY.  I just realized this discussion is  becoming a geography quiz on upstate NY, so I'll use this map as a visual aid.

Amsterdam is located on the Erie Canal under the letter "L" in the word "CANAL" closest to the Hudson River.  Our original plan had us on Lake Ontario in Oswego by June 21 for a family reunion.  We did make the first day cookout because my sister picked us up in her car on the way.  Shown below are my siblings Mark and Patsy with Susan and me.  If I look grumpy it's because my boat was supposed to be anchored in the background instead of stuck in Amsterdam (I suspect several of you are thinking...grumpy?...looks normal to me).

Rumor has it that the canal will reopen Wednesday.  Whenever it does, there will be a waterway scramble because hundreds of boats are stuck between the Hudson River and Oneida Lake (north of Syracuse).  Stay tuned.