Albany to Whitehall

We were excited when we departed Albany as this would be the day we were to begin the locks. The first we encountered was in Troy, NY called the Federal Lock; we immediately noticed the spillway running along side of the lock, an impressive amount of water was flowing over it toward the river below. We radioed the lockmaster, the gates opened and the light changed to green indicating they were ready for us to enter. This lock had steel posts along the side and we were instructed to pull up to one, we had a line cleated to the boat amidships which we wrapped around the post allowing us to hold the free end. As the boat rose, the tension on this line needed to be adjusted. The gates closed and we rose 14 feet, the gates opened and out we went to continue on our way. We subsequently arrived at Waterford and a fork in the river, if we were to turn left, this would take us to the Erie Canal. If we continued on the Hudson River and took the more northern route we would begin what is known as the “Great Northeast Journey’, this historic waterway links the Hudson River, Champlain Canal, Lake George, Lake Champlain to the Richelieu River and Chambly Canal of Quebec. It is also known as the Lakes to Locks Passage. We chose this “road less traveled”. The Champlain Canal connects the Hudson River with Lake Champlain; beginning at Troy it covers a distance of 64 statute miles. There are 11 locks in this series. The process involves rising 139 feet with 8 locks then descending 44 feet in the remaining 3 locks prior to reaching Whitehall, NY at the beginning of Lake Champlain. Entering Lock 1 we found lines draped over the lock walls, we pulled up to one, Leslie was on the bow where she was able to reach over and pick up the line. Harry then stopped the engines and rushed to the back window where he reached out with the boat hook to catch a second line. Once both lines were secured and the large steel gates were closed; we were in a canyon of concrete. Then a rumble could be heard, bubbles began to surface and we were slowly lifted to the high water mark on the wall. Once the water was level with the river upstream, the gates opened and we cruised out and continued on our journey. We completed the journey of the Champlain Canal in two days, ending in Whitehall, NY, the birthplace of the U.S. Navy. In 1776, ships were constructed in Whitehall for our nation’s first Navy. We chose to stop in Whitehall to tour the museum and enjoy the history of this village at the entry point of Lake Champlain. It was our good fortune to arrive this weekend as a group of steamboat enthusiasts also arrived with their steamboats. They tooted their whistles as they cruised into town. Tomorrow we will begin our exploration of Lake Champlain, the sixth largest freshwater lake in the United States.

Albany, Capital of New York

The weather cleared with a beautiful rainbow for our last evening at Castleton-On-Hudson, a small village 9 miles south of Albany. We have thoroughly enjoyed the journey through the Hudson River Valley, this is truly gorgeous country! Albany was an unexpected pleasure, the historic buildings have been well preserved many displaying plaques with historic information; a sense of history permeates the city. The State University of New York is located in a building which was erected in 1915 to serve as a headquarters for the Delaware and Hudson Railway. The Weather Vane, a replica of the Half Moon, the ship that Henry Hudson sailed into Albany, is the largest working weather vane in the United States, 6 feet 9 inches long and 8 feet 10 inches tall from its keel to the tip of its mast. It is absolutely striking! The Capital Building exemplifies late 19^th century grandeur, built by hand it is said to have taken 32 years to complete. This is contrasted by the Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza. Built in the 1960’s,a showplace of modern granite architecture. The Plaza houses the Corning Tower Building with its 42^nd floor observation deck and the Center for Performing Arts affectionately known as the Egg for its bowl shape. It is said to have a reputation of acoustical excellence. The egg is visible from the river. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Jack’s Oyster House, opened in 1913 and still run by the family. We were greeted personally by Jack II with a warm “Welcome Home”. We will head north tomorrow toward The Champlain Canal and Whitehall, NY.

The Hudson River, “The Rhine of America”

We departed New York City on the 17^th of June after a fabulous few days of exploring this great city. The Hudson River was waiting. We cruised north under the George Washington and Tappan Zee Bridges, past the Palisades and Ossining with Sing Sing prominent on the hillside. We passed Bear Mountain State Park, this is truly gorgeous country! We arrived at our destination, Highland Falls Marina, the closest town to West Point and the United States Military Academy. Imagine our surprise, there were three small boats tied up in front of a house, we found out later was the former Highland Falls Train Station which, of course, came with trains passing at all hours of the day and night! There was no place nearby from which to tour the Academy so we tied up in the one place large enough to accommodate our boat. To say this was rustic would be an understatement! We found out later that the docks pictured in the cruising guides had broken away with the ice during this past winter when they weren’t removed in time for the onset of cold weather. The dockmaster, Skeeter, was wonderful to us, he took us in his car to the Military Academy Museum from which the tours originate and took us to the commissary to do our shopping. He also gave us a tour of this historic town. We stayed an extra day due to heavy rains. We were told this is the wettest June in history for this area, it certainly seems that way. On Friday we departed for Hyde Park with its small marina which is close to the birthplace and home of FDR.

The dockmaster, Capt. Joe, took us to tour the home of FDR and helped us with reservations for dinner at the Culinary Institute of America. We have heard many who have made this trip speak of the kindness of strangers they had met along the way, who weren’t strangers for long. We have certainly experienced this for ourselves. We enjoyed our stop in Hyde Park very much and had a wonderful dinner at the Culinary Institute. We have continued on, through the Catskills, enjoying the breathtaking scenery of the Hudson River Valley. We are currently enjoying a weather delay tied to a mooring ball at Castleton-on-Hudson. Tomorrow we plan to go to Albany, the Capital of New York.

The Big Apple

On Sunday, June 14^th we departed Great Kills Harbor for our transit into New York Harbor. This was one of our goals for this trip and we were quite excited! As we approached the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, the entrance to the harbor, a Coast Guard boat approached with its blue lights flashing. Once inspected for all of the proper safety requirements, we were issued a document of compliance and allowed to continue our journey. We have noticed the Coast Guard presence all along the waterways, nowhere is it more noticeable than in New York, we were told they had boarded 54 private boats the day before. Once under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, the Manhattan skyline loomed ahead with Lady Liberty raising her torch to greet us. A breathtaking sight! We chose Liberty Landing Marina in Jersey City, directly across from lower Manhattan with water taxi service every half hour, as the base for our exploration of this great city.












Once we were tied up in the slip and washed down the boat, we were ready to explore! Our first afternoon was spent at the World Trade Center Site and the St. Paul’s Chapel, where so many sought solace after the terror attacks of 9/11. It is located directly across the street from the site itself yet sustained no damage at all, not even a broken window pane. They had set up quite a moving memorial inside. We then found our way to the financial district and Wall Street. There were so many fascinating places to be explored. We looked forward to the next two days to see even more. We chose to use the Grey Line hop on, hop off bus tour to see as much as we could in the two days we had remaining. We loved wandering through Battery Park, Rockefeller Center; had lunch at the Rock Café, the site of the skating rink during the winter months. Times Square was amazing, with Broadway blocked off for pedestrians only, people were milling around day and night. We were able to see so many places we had only heard of. We learned to use the subway system. We capped off our visit with dinner at a small restaurant near the Theatre District, Jack’s, and were able to get tickets for Chicago to celebrate our 42^nd wedding anniversary. We enjoyed every minute of it, what a fabulous city!

Cape May to Great Kills Harbor

We enjoyed our stay in Cape May. It is a charming Victorian town with so many well-preserved late 19^th century structures, the entire community was designated a national historical landmark in 1976. We happened to arrive on the 5^th of June and the town celebrated D-Day with many tributes to the veterans of WWII and special tours which highlighted the role played by Cape May and its residents. We took a WWII trolley tour of the town, climbed the199 steps of the Cape May Lighthouse erected in 1859 and the 102 steps of Fire Lookout Tower 23 which is the only remaining tower in the series of 11 built to look out over the Atlantic Ocean during the war to spot enemy ships approaching the entrance to Delaware Bay. Once a ship was spotted, its location was radioed to Fort Miles, Delaware. With two stations reporting, the guns were able to triangulate to target the enemy ship. We rode our bikes all over town; Cape May was an unexpected pleasure. We had a weather window the first two days in Cape May but, as we wanted to explore a bit, we delayed our departure, then the weather turned and we were delayed several more days. We attempted to depart on Wednesday but turned back and spent one more night at Canyon Club Marina, an excellent place to stay while in Cape May. Thursday morning we departed at 6AM under foggy skies. The visibility never got less than a quarter of a mile but the seas were a little choppier than predicted. At one point, a wave crested ahead of us and a dolphin popped out of the water. What an incredible sight! We stopped in Atlantic City at the Trump Marina which is a hotel and a marina complex. We stayed an extra day there as the weather was once again not conducive to an open ocean transit. We spent our free day touring the casinos, the Trump Marina and Harrah’s are away from the main casinos and the famed Atlantic City Boardwalk with shuttle busses that run in between. All of the casinos looked tired and in need of renovation. The boardwalk was quite different than we had imagined and had souvenir shops and carnival rides on the piers that jutted out into the sea. We saw the steel pier where W.C. Fields got his start, billed as America’s Comic Juggler in 1899. It is said that he would fake drowning on the Atlantic City Beach and be “rescued” by the lifeguards, when the concerned crowd would follow him to the beer garden, he would allow them to help him be “resuscitated”. Salt Water Taffy was invented here as well.

We departed Atlantic City this morning and arrived at Great Kills Harbor by 1:00. The seas were relatively calm and the skies were clear so we used our speed in order to ensure we completed this 90 mile transit before the winds began to pick up in the afternoon. Great Kills (a Dutch word for river) is a snug harbor in Staten Island. We will move to Liberty Landing Marina tomorrow and begin our tour of the Big Apple.

Trump Marina

C & D Canal to Cape May

We departed Baltimore on May 31, our destination, the small Victorian town of Chesapeake City. While there, we toured the very well done C & D Canal Museum highlighting the original pump house and water wheel, built in 1837 to fill and empty the old locks. The locks were eliminated in the mid 1920’s and we had a smooth transit through the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. Our next stop was Philadelphia where Bob and Chris Keeler drove down from their home in Reading to meet us for dinner. They had selected a fabulous Italian Restaurant near the marina. It was a delightful evening and a highlight of our stay in “The City of Brotherly Love”. We visited some of the historical sights of Philadelphia among them, the Liberty Bell, Independence Square and Congress Hall, Betsy Ross’s house and Elfreth’s Alley, said to be the oldest residential street in the Country.

We enjoyed our stay in Philadelphia and departed on June 3^rd for the trip back down the Delaware River. Our intended destination was Cape May, New Jersey but the weather changed and the wind picked up in the afternoon so we deviated up the Cohansey River to a very small town, Greenwich, NJ. As we headed up the Cohansey River, we felt we could have been in Georgia or South Carolina with the salt marsh and wooded setting; we were in Eagle Country and spotted a number of Eagles sitting along the banks of the river. Greenwich is truly a town which time has forgotten. Their claim to fame is the burning of a load of tea to protest British taxation, December 22, 1774. The marina owner himself told Harry “we don’t like change here” and we were certain it was true. He loaned us his golf cart to go into town for breakfast at Tom & Mabel’s General Store, the building itself was 150 years old, breakfast was prepared to order by Tom himself. This truly was a step back in time and we wondered if any of our friends from New Jersey had ever heard of Greenwich, NJ.

. We are currently in Cape May, New Jersey awaiting better weather. We are fortunate that we will be here for the World War II Weekend with many events scheduled commemorating the role of Cape May in defense of our Country and a tribute to the World War II Veterans.