The Champlain Canal

Friday, 31 May – New Baltimore to Albany, NY – 16 mi., 1881 cum mi.

Blue sky, 77 degrees. The Shady Harbor Marina offered repair services, so I approached them about my steering cylinder seal leak. Paul (their service manager) was very accommodating, sympathized with my problem, and tried to find the part that I needed. He was from Michigan and told us about some “must do” ports of call that we should try to see when we got there in August. He also called on his friend and mechanic at the marina next door, Jimmy, who might have some connections for finding parts. We met Jimmy at the bar last night – nice guy – and he said he ordered the part, but he wasn’t sure when it would arrive. We enjoyed a nice meal at the bar, where we met several locals with

interesting tales. And Brian, the owner, was the guest bartender with interesting stories as well. We were plotting alternatives to find repair services, perhaps on Lake Champlain where we would spend a few days with our daughter and her family. All the marinas there were very busy launching boats that were stored for the winter and tending to the needs of their regular customers. I couldn’t find anyone
willing to service our boat until 17 June. We were almost resigned to stay at Shady Harbor until Monday when the part might arrive. But then Jimmy came to our dock with the part we needed! What a pleasant surprise! Paul and Jimmy repaired the steering cylinder, and we were on our way north by 2 PM. I can’t say enough about the excellent service we received at Shady Harbor. We heard that Troy Dock was closed, never repaired from the storms, so we headed to the Albany Yacht Club about an
hour south of Troy, fighting the debris floating down river. We were invited to join the club members (as honorary members) for dinner. Everything at the club is done by volunteers, including tending bar and cooking food. One of the members gave us a tour of the photos on the wall, and we learned that this was the oldest yacht club in the country.

Later that night, our son AJ and his family (Erika, Eli, and Winnie)
arrived to join us for the weekend and drop off our grandson, Eli, who we invited to join us for our trip through the Champlain Canal locks into Lake
Champlain.

Saturday, 1 June to Sunday, 2 June – Albany Yacht Club.

We went to the Troy farmer’s market where we enjoyed breakfast, and when we saw the wide variety
of vendors, our mission was to buy everything we needed to make dinner. We found cheese, sausage, crackers, fresh pasta, scallops, salad makings, wine, bread, honey, and cookies. AJ and I visited the

Browns Brewery and tap room, sampling all of their beers.  It was fun spending time with AJ and his family, sleeping in, hanging out, relaxing and catching up with everything happening in their lives.

Monday, 3 June – Albany to Schuylerville, NY – 30 mi., 1911 cum mi.

Blue sky, 67 degrees. With Eli, we prepped for the locks and low bridges, lowering the mast and antennas, getting out the gloves, life jackets, and setting up our fenders and lines on both sides of the boat (since we don’t know in advance on which side of the lock we will be). All three of us took turns at the helm. The forward bilge pump

light came on, indicated it was pumping. I searched the boat and could find neither the forward bilge pump nor any water. I called Thunderbolt Marine (who had someone that previously worked for Mainship). They did not know where the forward bilge was. I called St Augustine Marine Center, who used to build and repair Mainships – their service manager did not know. Not finding any water anywhere, and with the light being on intermittently, we pressed on. This is where you make a choice between the Eire Canal (to the left) or the Champliain Canal (to the right). Our choice was Champlain and up to Lake Champlain. We went through five locks, rising 67 ft. The Troy lock had a vertical

pipe that you loop one of your own lines around at midship as you rise 14 ft.  Some of the others also had a pipe, but they had lines hanging down from the top of the wall, and, since we had enough crew, we preferred to use bow and stern lines. Charli and Eli held the lines, with Al at the helm. Life jackets are
required only at federal locks (e.g., Troy), but we wore them through all locks. The gloves are to keep the rope slime off your hands and get a better grip.  We docked at Schuylerville (sky-ler-ville) Yacht Basin and campground, roughly half way through the locks. Phil

and Judy run a nice, clean marina and campground. Folks who did the loop years ago and stayed here are now revisiting via RV at their campground. Great books in the library. We walked to Amigo’s, a Mexican restaurant which was highly recommended, but it was closed on Mondays, so we asked a local for the next best restaurant, and she said “follow me, I’m going there.” Joelle was pushing a stroller with her seven-month old son. We dined Italian,
then went to Stuart’s convenience store (for “the best home-made ice cream in town”) and, of course, the liquor store (for medicinal fluids).

Tuesday, 4 June – Schuylerville to Whitehall, NY – 38 mi., 1949 cum mi.
Blue sky 49 degrees. A little cooler today, but still nice.  We worked through seven locks today – four

up 56 ft to the highest point at 140 ft, then three down 43 ft.  We also went under the lowest bridge (15.5 ft.) but they lowered the water level so the vertical clearance was 17 ft. There were several other bridges with 17 ft clearance, and we made it by inches. There were dredging operations between locks
5 and 8, with cranes, shovels, barges, tugs, and a 5 mph speed limit. We got pretty good at going through locks, especially helpful was Eli who took the stern line, allowing me to adjust the fenders and return to the helm. The forward bilge light was on again. Steady on. This was worrisome.

We fueled up, pumped out, and docked at Whitehall Marina, recently under new management. Nice, friendly folks. Enjoyed dinner at their smoke house BBQ.  They offered some repairs, so we told them about
the bilge pump light, and we agreed to address the bilge pump issue in the morning.

Wednesday, 5 June – Whitehall to Westport, NY – 49 mi., 1998 cum mi.
Blue sky, 74 degrees. Ronnie, the mechanic, came over promptly at 7 AM. We looked everywhere for the forward bilge – under the beds, under the lower helm – everywhere. No clue where it was. So I called some of the Mainship 400 Trawler loopers we met along the way. Finally, I find someone who did not have a washer/dryer under the steps, and they knew – right under the steps (under the washer).

Ronnie and I pulled out the washer. We didn’t find water (fortunately), but we did find a stuck float valve and a burned out bilge pump. We replaced the pump, put back the washer, and we were on our way north by 2 PM. We decided to go as far north as we could get today, since the weather was nice, and rain was expected tomorrow afternoon. The Champlain Canal continues from the locks up to “the Elbow” where it becomes the border between New York and Vermont. Not sure where the Champlain Canal ends and Lake Champlain starts, since it looks like a river for quite a while before getting wider and deeper at Chipman Point. The scenery gradually, but dramatically, improved as we went up river, with both shores getting steeper and growing into mountains in the distance – the Adirondacks on our port side, the Green Mountains on the

starboard. We passed by several marinas that were potential overnights but pressed on to the Westport Marina, arriving just before they closed at 6:30 PM.

Thursday, 6 June – Westport, NY to Burlington, VT – 32 mi., 2030 cum mi.
Cloudy, 57 degrees, calm. Navigating Lake Champlain was fun. First the winds were calm, so the water was smooth. It’s deep (60-400 ft) so there's no chance of running aground. And the scenery is beautiful. We got an early start, in order to beat the predicted afternoon rain. In fact, we arrived at the Burlington Community Boathouse

by 10:30 AM. The Burlington waterfront was familiar. Our slip was facing the cruise boat that toured us around the lake the last time the Thrill Seekers were up here for the kayak and bike trip. Pam, our daughter, picked us up for lunch at the Duino (Duende) [sic]
restaurant, where jazz musicians were playing as part of the Burlington Discovers Jazz festival distributed all over town. We will spend a few days visiting with Pam and her family (Andy, Sam, and Chloe), while planning our cruise into Canada.