Fort Edwards Village Yacht Basin, and BIG Decision

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.