Schenectady Yacht Club

 

 

Every once in a while I splurge on myself. When I read about the amenities at the Schenectady Yacht Club in my Erie Canal guide book I decided to spend the night docked there. We arrived shortly after 3:00, and while the club does have all the amenities listed, I do not count this as one of my splurges. A photo of the club house is below (the porto-potty is on the far right). 
The docks are very nice and the dock master was a great guy.

Travelling north this morning we arrived at the Troy Federal lock at 9:00. The lockage went great. Next up, entering the Erie Canal. When we arrived at the first Erie Canal lock just north of the city of Troy I hailed the lock master on channel 13 of my VHF radio:

 "Lock one  at Troy, pleasure craft Whatever It Takes, requesting westbound passage"

 -no answer. I figured he was busy so I waited 5 minutes and tried again, still no answer. A few minutes later the lock master came on the radio and asked if I was calling lock 2 at Waterford (the first lock on the Erie Canal). I answered yes and he opened the lock doors. Oh well...

The Schenectady Yacht Club !

The eastern section of the Erie Canal is primarily travelling on the Mohawk River, very pretty.

All of the locks have adjoining dams.

Entering a 35 foot lift lock.

This is a cable tie. We loop a line from a center cleat on the boat around the large cable to hold the boat in place and the loop rides up the cable as the boat rises.....

and rises, and rises....

 

 

...until we get to the top of the lock.