July 17 – 19, Fort Edwards
Village Yacht Basin, plus BIG Decision
After
leaving Troy, NY Municipal docks, the next step was to transit the
Troy Federal Lock. We left at 8 the next morning, and transited the
lock with Viva la Vita (Mike and Jille). We parted company with them
as they turned off to head out the Erie Canal, and we went north to
go up the Champlain Canal. We are so excited to finally be taking
the trip through Canada that we have been anticipating for 2 years!
That
day, we transited the Troy Lock plus 6 more on the Champlain Canal.
We were alone in every one of the locks. Each lock lifted us about
20 feet. The procedure is pretty simple. The lock master opens the
gate, gives us a green light, and we drive the boat in until the
First Mate (Gena) can grab one of the lines hanging down from the
top. The Captain (Dan) has to do a little maneuvering to keep the
boat in place, as Gena holds on tightly to keep the boat next to the
wall. Once the boat is up at the top, lock master opens the gate,
Gena drops the line, and we cruise on to the next lock. We decided
to stop for the night at the village of Ft. Edwards, which offers
free dockage, electricity, restrooms, and showers for 48 hours!
Yippee! We will stay two nights, so both of us can get some needed
rest.
We
arrived on Monday, and every single restaurant in town was closed!
Next morning, we had breakfast at a diner, complete with a long
dialogue (almost just a monologue) from the owner, who seemed glad of
an audience to hear about his 4 years with the Marines back in the
1960’s!
BIG
DECISION:
Dan
and I had both been thinking. His symptoms are not getting better,
in fact, by some measurement, they are worse. Just walking about 2
city blocks to the diner was a painful experience. This is not the
way we want to travel. So, rather than continue on, we are turning
back, retracing our steps back to the turnoff to the Erie Canal, and
going across the Erie Canal to Winter Harbor, the marina and boatyard
where we had already planned to leave the boat for the winter. They
said they could fit us in and get some work done that we wanted. So,
we’ll take the 4 or 5 days to get the boat there, and then go home
for Dan to recover and see his own doctors. We are disappointed, but
know this is the right decision for us at this time.
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| flotsam does collect on the waterways |
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| approaching a lock |
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| entering a lock |
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| inside a lock - the water line is where we'll end up! |
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| our home for the night - free!! right by a park in Ft. Edwards Village |
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| cool building, seemed to be connected to a church next door |
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| cool mural depicting downtown |
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| lovely old home, with a terrific porch |
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| pretty home, another porch! |
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| a little cluttered,but patriotic! |
