Saturday, June 23, 2012

Leaving the first Champlain Canal lock

We left the dock at 7:00 a.m. We didn't know how long it would take to get through the 5 locks we planned for the day, so we left a little early. The crew on the Champlain Locks were very accommodating. There wasn't much traffic and it felt like they were there just for us. When we got to the second lock, we didn't have to show our pass ($15 for two days). The lock tender from Lock number one called our information ahead. We had to wait about 15 minutes for the first two locks because there were boats locking through from the other direction. The rest of the locks were open and ready for us. Joe's sister, Patty, lives within walking distance of the 4th canal, so she and her son, Joe, came to the lock as we were locking through. They joined us for the leg from the lock to our marina. The lock tender wanted to know our schedule and when we told him we would resume tomorrow morning, he asked where we were spending the night. He told us to call Lock Number five when we were ready to leave the marina, so they would have it ready for us when we got there. Pinch me. We arrived at Schuylerville Yacht Basin at 2:00 p.m. The weather forecast was 20% chance of rain and we found it. Joe's sister and her son had about 15 minutes of nice weather before a storm seemed to come up out of no where. The wind was gusting over 30 miles an hour and we were in a downpour shortly after that. On WeatherBug, the storm cell covered western New York and parts of Vermont. A couple we met on a 33 foot Grady White while passing through Georgia were two locks ahead of us. They sent us an email at the end of the day asking how we did in the storm. They stopped for it, but because we can pilot from inside the cabin, it was easier to continue through the storm.

The lowest bridge clearance is 15'4"
We lowered the mast the day before
and lowered the bimini to get under this
bridge. We had to duck to get under it.

The winds were
 pretty strong and the rain did a nice job of washing off
the boat. By the time we arrived at Schuylerville, the wind
 had ended, but we did get pretty wet docking in the rain.
After about an hour the sun was out again. Patty's husband John arrived with the car which gave us an opportunity to go to a grocery store and then we meet for for dinner at a very good Mexican restaurant two blocks from the boat in downtown Schuylerville.