Sunday, September 8th

Two more locks and we are officially out of the Erie Canal!  This lock tender was young and apparently liked the bit of authority that went with the control of the locks.  He wouldn't allow us to enter until 8:15 am, even though he knew there were four boats waiting.  As it turned out sv Haven decided to not leave so early, so it was Challenge IV, Grand Blue, and us that locked down together in #3 and 2. 

Passing through Waterford was awesome since the tugboats were still there for the day.  They came in all shapes and sizes!  It didn't take us long to take in the sights and head into the Hudson River and to the Troy lock.

 

As we motored to the Troy lock, Grand Blue could have blown by both of us sailboats, but they were gracious enough to stay last maybe thinking that we did the last few locks in this order and everything went smooth with no problems....why ruin a good thing!  We had to wait to get into this lock because a huge sightseeing boat was very, very slowly motoring. out.  I think I read that this lock is 44 feet wide and this tour boat didn't have much room to spare. 

 

Be forewarned, the Troy Lock only has pipes and no lines to grab.  The pipes are so widely spaced that we had to loop our line around the pipe at midship.  With just one line I had no control over the bow and we didn't want the mast to swing in and hit the wall.   What worked for us was having two lines looped around the pipe.  Mine was pulled toward the bow to prevent it from swinging and Chuck's line controlled the stern.

 

Once through the Troy lock, Grand Blue sped away and we continued to cruise keeping up with Challenge IV.  Our plan was to get to Riverview Marine on Catskill Creek and both be prepared to step our masts in the morning.  Our 40.8 mile trek down the Hudson had us passing larger cities of   Troy NY

 

and Albany NY

The further we progressed, the stronger the winds got and the river started to cap.  We not only had the winds to deal with but the tide with its current. For the most part, we had the out going tide but of course that always changes every 6 hours.

 

We passed barges being pushed by tugs and barges past us.  We saw huge beautiful homes up on the side of the hill and a lighthouse in the middle of the river....and off in the distance were the Catskill Mountains!