We happened to be there to see their special hands on approach to boating. The club is located a few blocks away from a large shopping center. We got up early on Sunday morning, had breakfast aboard, took showers at the clubhouse, and then headed up town to buy some more provisions for the trip. When we got back to the boat, the club members were down on the dock in force, and were bringing boats out of the water for winter storage on the clubs unique marine rail system.
The clubhouse and yard sit up on top of the river bank about 25 feet up a sharp incline above the water level of the Hudson. Shortly after the club was organized the membership had built a very unique rail system to make launching and recovering the members boats a relatively easy task.
A steel cable runs down from the electric winch in the garage at the top of the incline. The cable attaches to one of the numerous rail cars owned by the club and lowers the car down into the water. The boats are maneuvered by hand into alignment with the car, and then the winch hauls them up the incline. One of the members ties the bowline to the cable with a few hitch knots, and with a remote winch control slowly walks the car up onto the flat at the top of the rise.
Listening to the guys banter as they aligned the boats onto the car was fun. As you might expect, there were lots of opinions as to how the boat should be aligned, when it was set properly, and what to do with the winch control. The commodore Mike had the the final say in this committee process. Through all the shouting and the well intended verbal jabs, it was very clear that the safety of the members and the proper care of the boats were his prime concern, but that they also had a lot of laughs with each other.
The lower part of the rail system is pretty standard stuff. Lots of marine yards have rail systems to haul out boats for work on the hulls. What made this system so unusual is what happened at the top of the grade. This thirty footer with car rolled with ease onto a secondary set of tracks. The second short set of track is just long enough to accommodate the car. It sits on the top of a horizontal run of steel that allows the boat and car to be pushed sideways by a forklift. The second set of mobile tracks are then aligned with a third set of permanently positioned tracks in the boatyard where the boat will stay for the winter. The car is pushed off the second set of tracks onto the third by hand! The wheels of the car got stuck on the first try and they needed more manpower. When I saw what the guys were preparing to do, I set down the camera and helped roll this heavy power boat to its final winter storage location. Old tech in usage, and very cool to be able to participate just a little.
Watching these fifteen guys working together to support each other and their club was the best part of the experience. If we were boaters who lived in Troy, you can be sure that we would be applying for membership here. When we were ready to depart around noon, I went looking for the commodore to square up our bill. Mike said that they were on a tight schedule for the boat haul and not to worry about the overnight dockage. He wished us a safe trip and then went back to the next boat on the haul schedule.
We started the motor and made the short trip to the other side of the Hudson. If you go north from Troy you will shortly enter the Champlain Canal. Heading west under the railway bridge puts you in Waterford NY and the Erie Canal. The Erie system begins with Lock 2. There are four locks in the first half-mile of the canal. You exit lock Lock 6 about 150 feet higher than the Hudson.
Waterford has a town dock just under the entrance to Lock 2. We stopped at the town dock while I walked up the stairs to pay our $38 fee to use the system and to let the lockmaster we were ready to enter the system. He asked how far we were going today. I told him I was not sure, as this was our first time through. He advised that once we started this flight of locks, we had to get beyond Guard Gate 1 above Lock 6 before the locks closed at 5 PM. After that point there were some wide spots in the canal to anchor out for the night. Each of the locks takes around a half-hour to transit depending on the traffic.
With Niki at the helm, and Steve manning the lines on the lock walls, we said our final goodbye to the Hudson River and officially entered the Erie Canal.
We did not make time for many photos while transiting each lock. I grabbed a line up front and Niki had to slow the boat and then reach for a line at the stern. Boat hooks were flying. Fenders were fending. We had to haul down on the lines with considerable force to stop the boat and then try to keep her centered along the wall. The mast was overhanging the boat at the bow and at the stern. If we did not keep the boat on a parallel line to the lock wall, the mast would be damaged on the rough concrete surface of the lock walls. Once the lock gates closed behind us, the sluices were opened and the lock began to fill. This created a lot of turbulence that alternately pushed the boat into and then away from the wall. Lock 4 had a set of inoperable sluice gates, so instead of a fairly balanced ride up, the current came strongly from the back of the lock at a really rapid rate of fill. It was a real workout. Each lock was setup differently as well, so there was a lot of changing orchestration of efforts between us, as we maneuvered through to Lock 6.
The lower Erie Canal follows the course of the Mohawk River. Dams have been built along the river's route to raise the height of the water for navigation purposes. At each of these dam locations there is a lock to raise boats to the next higher water level. As soon as we got past the first flight of locks and above Guard Gate 1, it became clear that the system had sustained considerable damage during the recent floods. All along the path of the river there were NYS workboats and dredges. Crews were not out working on this Sunday but their boats, barges, and rigs were evident all along the waterway. The dredges were connected to the far shore by long lengths of pipe to carry the mud extracted from the river bottom onto the riverbanks.
The crews were housed in barges that were two story houseboats. Each houseboat had a tug tied up alongside to transport the crews to and from their daily work locations.
We did not arrive at the dam and Lock 7 in time to transit through before closing. There were no marinas along this stretch of river, so we had two choices. We could either turn around and go back down river to find a wide spot in which to anchor out for the night, or we could just tie up below the lock on the seawall. We had seen how much turbulence occurs below each lock as water is released to drain it down. The north seawall at Lock 7 was fairly short.
We decided to chance a tie up along the lower lock wall for the night. It turned out to be a beautiful evening, so we had a little wine and pasta on deck for dinner. Lock 7 is way out away from any towns or highways in a very rural location. It was quiet and very peaceful. A flight of south bound geese reminded us that we were Wrong-Way Corrigans. We watched a kingfisher diving in the spillway on his supper. After the meal, we broke open the cranberry desert wine given to us at Cape May. We rigged our solar lantern above the mast as an anchor light and turned it on. We set the alarm clock for 5AM so we could be the first boat through the lock on Monday morning, and slept undisturbed by anything except for the occasional sound of a passing midnight train on the far north shore.
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