Day 132 - We Leave the Hudson for Waterford

We all woke up refreshed and ready to start our journey.  Captain Randy left to return the car in Poughkeepsie while Dad and I had breakfast.  The plan was to wait for the rising tide so that we could “ride the tide” up the Hudson to the Troy Lock.  The Captain calculated that if we left around 11:00 am we could do this.  Tides on the river you ask?  Yes, even though we are 80 miles north of New York City, there are still significant tides (4-5 feet) all of the way up the Hudson to the federal lock at Troy.  The lower Hudson is actually a tidal estuary (where freshwater river meets the sea).

At 11:15 am we untied lines and left the dock.  We turned to the north at the Hudson and could see the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge ahead of us.  There were a few raindrops as we left, but it soon stopped and the day was warm with clouds and sun.  Several miles beyond the bridge is the town of Saugerties on the Esopus Creek.  On the east bank sits Clermont, the oldest estate on the Hudson, owned by 7 generations of Livingston, including Chancellor Robert Livingston who negotiated the Louisiana Purchase and co-invented the steamboat with Fulton.

 

 

Soon we saw the Rip Van Winkle Bridge and the town of Catskill.  The “Middle Ground Flats” were next, an area where a strip of land separates the river into 2 channels.  A lighthouse marks the start. 

 

We passed several small towns including Hudson on the east bank and Athens on the west before we got to Albany, on the west bank.  Albany is a port as well as the capital of the State of New York.  As we approached Troy, we saw a marine police boat with its red light on in the center of the channel.  A smaller boat zipped over to let us know that there were divers in the water and that we should skirt to the port side.  There are a number of small marinas and restaurants on the river here, such as the Rusty Anchor. 

 

 

 

There is a lock at Troy that will take us up 16 feet and we waited a few minutes for a boat to lock through from the north.  We entered the lock at 4:10 pm and were out at 4:20 pm.  This lock is very narrow and the lockmaster opened only one gate to exit.  With only one gate open, we had less than 3 feet of clearance on each side.  We later learned that the other gate was broken, limiting the size of boat that could pass through until it was repaired.

 

Just north of Troy we saw the blue sign that stands at the confluence of the Erie Canal and the Hudson River.  We turned to the left and tied up on the wall at Waterford at 4:45 pm.  This “marina” is run by local volunteers who staff the Visitor’s Center.  The first lock on the Erie Canal, Lock 2 (there is no Lock1 on the Erie), sits in front of us and the VC gave us detailed “local knowledge” about the Canal.



 

Captain Randy made cocktails for us and it was very pleasant sitting on the back of the boat.  I saw something move under the stairs on the dock behind us and grabbed the camera.  We think it was a muskrat.  Later we walked into town for dinner on McGrievey’s patio, a favorite spot for the locals to gather.