Sailing with 'Sophisticated Lady'

298.5Nm

Position:
42*47.2N
73*40.8W
Waterford, New York
Junction of Erie Canal and Hudson River

Sunday, October 22nd

Well, we made great progress through the Oswego Canal... even as we battled our way upstream against 3 knots of current. The current finally died down by half when we hit the junction of Three Rivers and turned East towards the Hudson River.

Battling the current in the river

We couldn't have asked for a better day to cross Lake Oneida, it was calm and sunny, there was a mild following breeze as we steamed across at over 7 knots... finally making some headway! We just made it across and tied up at the Sylvan Beach terminal wall before the sun dropped below the horizon.

'Sophisticated Lady' and 'Emanuela' at dock in Sylvan Beach

That's when we discovered that the Erie River was significantly higher than it was supposed to be, and upon calling the lockmaster of our next lock we were informed that the whole system was shut down because they had to drop the guard gates to contain the high water and divert it from the river... great! So now we get to sit and wait for the rain to stop falling... and that's not likely any time soon!

Overflowing River Banks has Submerged all the Docks

Tuesday, October 23rd

We spent almost 3 days sitting at Sylvan Beach waiting for a call from the lockmaster indicating that the water levels were suitable to let us through Lock 20. After the first night being extremely cold and rainy, we realized we weren't going through the lock anytime soon so we put into one of the marinas where we could plug in and get heat... it was freezing!! The call finally came today at 1pm that if we wanted to get through, we'd better get down there now! You've never seen a bunch of sailors move so fast... within 5 minutes we were all dressed in our foul weather gear, engines warming up, lines off and we were under way! That got us about 5.5 miles closer to our destination, but we still ended up waiting at the other side of lock 20 for the next locks to open... oh well, every step helps!

'Emanuela' Beside Us in the Locks

Wednesday, October 24th

Luckily there was very little rain overnight so we were on the radio to the next lock early in the morning. Everything looked good so we were on our way again. It was very cold and wet which made the locks very difficult on all of us... just standing there in the biting wind and rain is not high on my list of favorite activities... we are after all on our way to the Caribbean! We got held up at lock 17 as there was a huge tree that had fallen across the river and blocked our path... great! The river barges set to work and started to clear it away... They finally let us go through but said to go slow and the tree should be gone by the time we got there. We passed by and it was a huge tree laying in the river, but luckily they had already cut most of it away and we were able to steer around it.

Colin on Deck as we make our way through the Locks

We got the word that the rest of the way is finally open so we agreed to set out early on Thursday morning and try and make our way out of the Erie Canals and into the Hudson River. We were up and under way by 7am in near darkness and freezing cold, but it was great to know that we were going to get a whole day in for once. By 4pm we had made it all the way through to the final 2 miles where the 5 step locks were... these were the locks that would take us down over 200 feet to the Hudson River! We cleared the last lock just as the sun went down and managed to find a slip on the wall to settle in for the night. There was supposed to be electricity but apparently it had just been disconnected today for the rest of the season... oh well, good thing we just got our propane topped up! Tomorrow we'll be under way at dawn again on our way to Castleton Yacht Club where we can put our masts back up and finally look like sailboats again... Then it's off to New York City!

Cheers,
Rick (& Terri) (& Colin)
'Sophisticated Lady'

PS... we heard that the link to our Sail-A-Thon Sponsorship page hasn't worked properly in some of our emails... sorry about that but we don't have working internet to test before we send. Hopefully it's fixed this time, but if not, you can always find the page from the Children's Wish banner on our website at www.WindInMySails.com . Thanks again to everyone for your support... talk to you soon!

Rick & Terri