Mohawk River Valley - Familiar Places, Familiar Faces

Following the Mohawk River, the Eerie Canal raised us 420' in 20 locks.  The 21st and 22nd locks took us back down 52' to the level of Oneida Lake, where we are docked in a marina owned by the Oneida Indian Nation.  Throughout our cruise, which was especially slow b/c of the locks (typical day of 30 miles, 6 locks, 7 hours), we saw familiar scenes:  rolling hills with dairy farms; tall palisades boxing in the train running on one side of the river and the NY State Thruway on the other; and many small mill towns, which have since lost their mills.  Although the Mohawk River Valley is beautiful, much of the cruising on the canal is just that - long straight, boring stretches of canal at 8 mph.  As mentioned in the previous blog, we also got to reacquaint ourselves with old friends and relatives.

Here are some pics:

Mural in Arkell Museum, Canajoharie, NY

a familiar face, Arkell Museum (this is the one on the $1 bill)

cousin Don giving us the 2-hr tour of his Olympic collection

Winner's Medal, Garmische, Winter Olympics (1936)

Old, active dairy farm along the Mohawk

Mike Nicholls - friends forever

Hush-a-Bye,  Hugh and Sherri Grant

One of the Waterford Flight locks -6 in a row, 1.5 miles total

Mohawk River - check the mural Lenore's in front of

Larry Pacillio - still interesting, still a friend

Eerie Canal

"I had a mule, her name was Sal;  fifteen years on the Eerie Canal; she was a good old worker, and a good old pal; fifteen years on the Eerie Canal; we pulled some barges in our day;  filled with lumber, coal, and hay;  and every inch of the way we know, from Albany to Buffalo;  low bridge, everybody down;  low bridge, for we're comin' to a town;  where you always know your neighbor; you always know your pal, if you've ever navigated the Eerie Canal"  As sung often by first mate and lover of the Eerie Canal.

We did indeed have repairs at Coeymans Landing.  Now both engines have rebuilt starters - and, boy, do they start well.  While we were there, our old college friend, Mike Nicholls, visited with us and helped us do 'shore chores'.  It was great seeing Michael and we're glad to have had the chance to rekindle our friendship.

From Coeymans we went up to Waterford, the beginning of the Eerie Canal.  When we pulled into the Welcome Cntr we found our friends Hugh and Sherri Grant at the dock as well.  So, instead of pushing on, we decided to have a fun night together - good friends, good drink, good food.

Now we have risen some 230 ft through 12 locks after traveling 60 miles on the canal.  It feels like home at every turn.  We stopped in Scotia, Lock 8, and were treated to a wonderful evening with cousin Don Bigsby.  He is THE Olympic Memorabilia collector.  Don has been collecting pins, certificates, medals, torches, etc for 36 years and his collection is extensive - medals from every modern olympic and materials from those that were cancelled by war.  He built a 1500 sq ft addition to his house to showcase the collection.  He gave us the tour - the 25 cent tour that is - and it took about 2 hrs to go through it all.  Our jaws were agape the whole time.

Now we're in Canajoharie - we'll visit a museum that houses a collection for paintings from American artists, including an extensive collection of Winslow Homer.  Tomorrow we'll stop in Utica to visit with another old friend - Larry Pacillio - whom we haven't seen for four decades.

(more pics to follow when we have WiFi)

Moving up the Hudson

Miss Hattie is in fresh water!  Yay!

We passed by Manhattan Sunday and out of the megaopolis to the very scenic Hudson River Valley.  Spectacular palisades and mountain views to the west.  Much, much money in Dutchess County.  We're now in Kingston and will be another 45 miles north at Coeymans Landing by the end of the day, but we may stay put there for a while as we have the other starter motor replaced - remember to watch "This Old Boat" on your local PBS station with Bob and various mechanics showing you how to b.o.a.t.

pics to follow

Haverstraw Anchorage, Hudson River

West Point

Hudson R, near Dutchess County

train along the Hudson

lighthouse at Hudson City

The Catskill Mountains

bridge across Hudson w/ barge

The Big Apple

A few pics from 2 days in the Big Apple.  The energy level is this city is tough to cope with!

Welcome

Lunch at Fraunces (Geo Washington ate here)

The "Charging Bull" fight

One World

PATH Center (not done yet)

9/11 Memorial 

One World Trade Bldg

You can see forever - from the 102nd floor

The PATH Cntr from above

the concrete canyon

We beat you Colin!

We've spent the last two days cruising the Atlantic Ocean.  We were going to stop in Cape May, NJ for a couple of days after coming down Delaware Bay, but the weather prognosticators indicated that if we did so we might be caught for several days down on that end of New Jersey because tropical storm Colin was on his way.  And when we neared Cape May the ocean looked ideal for traveling - 3 ft swells with 8 sec periods, so we continued on to Atlantic City that day - 85 miles, 10 hrs.  Today was also perfect on the ocean so we went the next 96 miles up to Staten Is, 11 hrs. WE HAVE ARRIVED!  Shore chores tomorrow and visiting the Big Apple the next two days - 9/11 Memorial, Tiffanys, Empire State Bldg, etc. We❤️ NY.

Annapolis

We arrived in Annapolis for the 2016 Naval Academy's Commissioning Week.  We had stayed in Calvert, MD for a rainy weekend on the way up and Bob took the opportunity to do a little boat yoga - changing the oil in the engines. After Calvert we had a bit of a scrape with mortality - we were headed on a course of 30° and passed across the bow of a very large cargo ship (600X 100 ft) moving at 19.6 mph.  As it approached the red ATON to our south it was going due north.  Having passed it "safely" we continued on without a worry.  But luckily Bob turned around just in time to find that the bow of the ship filled our whole aft window - about 150 yds behind and closing fast - she had changed course at that ATON to 30°!!!!  After 3 attempts at putting our autopilot into standby so we could steer the boat, we succeeded in avoiding a collision.  Apparently the ship's pilot was not looking - they were on full autopilot - otherwise there would have been a blast from their horn that would blow us out of our complacency.  Adventure = disaster averted, once again!

We did arrive in Annapolis safely and we viewed the men and women in white celebrating their achievements and showing off to their parents and siblings. And we got to see the Blue Angels up close and daring.  After a couple days of the Academy festivities and eating as much crab as humanly possible, we were off to visit our dear friends the Sobeckis (you may recall they surprised us back in January in Clearwater Beach, FL).  Christina put on a none-stop gourmet feast for us for 3 days - what a treat.

We then visited with other old and dear friends Steve Seche and Susan Canning - we hadn't seen them for 9 years.  Steve and Susan live in a lovely little house in Vienna, VA, and it happened that the day of our arrival was their 40th wedding anniversary - they pulled out the pics of their wedding and showed us how it was way back then when we, and all our friends, were so young.  Although we we only had a 24 hour visit, it was as if we had never been apart.  On Memorial Day Steve and Susan took us to the National Arboretum - a treat for Lenore as there is a tremendous exhibit of bonsai plants, some of which were nearly 400 yrs old - boy, talk about a long-term hobby.

Oh, and we stayed in Annapolis a bit longer than anticipated.  The starboard engine's starter motor was failing;  we went to a boatyard and spent a couple of days there while it was being rebuilt.  Meanwhile, Bob took the opportunity to make a 'work around' on a failing seawater pump on the generator.  All is in good working order now and we are off to northern Chesapeake Bay tomorrow and then on to Cape May, NJ two days hence.

Moving along,
The Vagabonds aboard Miss Hattie

Calvert Marina, Solomons, MD

Boat Yoga, anyone?

Annapolis, sailing capital

Tecumseh on USNA Campus, painted for Commissioning Week

USNA Pipe and Drum

"Old Friends, sitting on a park bench, like bookends,....."

We're still young at heart Steve and Susan

Bonsai everyone!