Today is the day…we set out early and crept up to our first lock…the Troy Federal Lock. But not before…drum roll please…we floated under our token bridge of the day– Castleton on the Hudson.
Technically the Troy lock is still on the Hudson River, but that did not make the situation any less intimidating. As we came closer to the structure, it seemed more like a scene from Jurassic Park than a gateway to the Erie Canal. Gargantuan metal doors hid the chamber we would be sealed in as the water filled and raised us up over sea level. Right next to the massive metal doors, a tidal wave of water was rushing at us from the dam and, with no time to think, we were given the green light to proceed inside. I stood on the bow with my boat hook in hand and waited to see what was in store for us now.
As we passed through the gates, the Jurassic Park analogy was spot right down to the ominous bang of the enormous doors to signal we were locked in. At this point we had to choose to grab weighted lines that hung from the top of the lock walls or put a line around the cable running down the recess on the wall. I decided to put my line around the cable and hold tight as the lines hanging from the wall were disgusting and slimy. Soon the water was bubbling around us and we felt the boat rising. I held tight and pulled the line to keep us against the wall as the force of the water was doing its best to push us around. It felt like an eternity, but the water finally stopped flooding the chamber and the doors on the other end creaked open. Duane started the engines as I pulled the line from the cable and pushed us off the wall. Lifted 14 feet… Lock 1 down…..100 or more to go.
Being sprung from the lock, I let out a sigh of relief. At the fork in the road, we took off to the Erie Canal without any hesitation. Stopping in Waterford, we were able to tie up the boat and walk to the second lock in order to get a bird’s-eye view of the whole process. Duane, of course, was preoccupied with the machinery behind the system. I was just amazed by the shear force of the water barreling against the doors.
The next 5 locks were aptly named the “Waterford flight” as they would lift us the greatest height in the shortest distance of any canal in the world–About 169 feet over the course of a mile and a half. My ears are popping just thinking about it.
Each lock on the Flight had their own deceptive charm from the outside, but inside the concrete walls with layers of sludge looked familiar. As we soon realized, the situation could get hairy at any minute. Sometimes the boat would swing out from the force of the water and I was practically lifted off my feet trying to wrangle the line hanging from the wall and get the 10 tons back into position.
Being ambitious that day, we set out to accomplish 2 more locks. Duane kept updating me on the dark cloud formations rolling in so I should have guessed mother nature had other things in store for us. Once we left Lock 6, the lock master told us to give him time to drive over and open the guard gate. Not really sure what he was taking about, we both smiled and waved…then I saw it. Two tremendous structures resembling a guillotine that could probably chop the boat in half were right in our path. We were told that these gates were built every five miles on the canal in order to provide protection to the land below in case of an emergency or to close off a section of the canal when a lock needed to be repaired.
As soon as we made it to Lock 7, the skies turned black and we heard thunder in the distance. We were not more than a quarter mile passed the lock when the skies opened and lightening was streaking across the sky. Duane was now in full apocalypse mode as I cleaned up the peanuts that spilled on the fly bridge in the excitement. Not being able to see 10 feet in front of us as we were pelted with rain, we dropped anchor right in the channel and waited out the storm. After about 30 minutes (a long 30 minutes which I was trying to use productively but kept getting summoned to marvel at how it was raining sideways), we pulled up the anchor and took advantage of a lull in storm. No more locks today…we took refuge for the night at the Schenectady Yacht Club and called it a day. Hot showers and homemade pizza from the gas station were our reward after an exciting day on the canal. Tomorrow we will tackle Lock 8 and move on…
Very cool!