Day 1 0– July 30

After a night of restless sleep due to the trains and their whistles we are departing Amsterdam at 7:30am. Today was a long day again with 9 more locks to navigate and 1 at Troy on the Hudson River. The last 5 locks lower us 183 feet in just over a mile of river. Our journey took us through the town of Schenectady (try to pronounce that one) where we saw the Lenorec Mansion (30,000 sq ft), bald eagles, egrets and even deer. We also saw the damage done by last years hurricane floods on the Mohawk River, and some of the lock stations are still pretty beat up. There were plenty of tugs and dredging barrages at work on the canal. We have also encountered our first locks with zebra mussels, and by evidence of our dirty cleats from their lock cables it’s clear they have not had much effect on clearing the water.

Once we were on the Hudson we decide to stop at the Troy Town Dock for the night and called it an early day at 4:00pm. The Troy town dock although here, was not in full operation for power, water or fuel due to the damage from the flooding. We met crazy Abigail who had been drinking all afternoon and welcomed all us Canadians to Troy and rang her ships bell as she left the dock on her boat, thank goodness she did not stay the night. The good news was there is no charge for staying the night and we were close to the Dinosaur BBQ for a dinner of smoked ribs. It was interesting to come back from dinner to find our boats 3 feet lower down the wall due to the falling tide, a sure sign we have entered the Hudson.

Two more days travel and we should be in New York City.