Locks & the Hudson

    As the title indicates, the past few days have been spent in the locks and on the Hudson River. This has been quite an adventure, partly frigid but mostly very fun.
     Thursday and Friday we did the 11 locks on the Champlain Canal. Words cannot express how amazingly COOL locks are. I feel like a dork for saying that, but when you motor into a humungous chamber and millions of gallons of water are drained out just for your boat to pass, you feel pretty cool. My dad always gave me a hard time when we were in locks because I never would pay attention to fending off the boat, I'd always be looking around or poking at the scum on the lock walls.
     We spent Thursday night on a dock outside of a lock. It was pouring rain. The weather was really cold and dreary. I was convinced that I was dying of hypothermia. I had soup and hot chocolate and I talked to friends on Skype. The next morning, bluer skies cheered me up and we set off to finish the Champlain Canal locks.
     Friday night we got free dock space at this little town called Waterford, New York. I took a shower and we decided to scope out the town. After hearing from a fisherman fishing near our dock that there was a good greasy spoon restaurant in town, we decided to scope it out. For twenty dollars, we collectively consumed enough calories to feed an army for a year. I think I gained a good 15 pounds from the waffles alone.
     Saturday morning we went through the Federal Lock in Troy. After that, we were at sea level. We motored to a sleepy little town called Castleton on Hudson to step our mast, which we had taken down a couple days before in order to pass under bridges.
     Turns out there was a party at the Castleton Boat Club where we were going to be operating the do-it-yourself crane. Dozens of people milled about, cocktails in hand, as we wrested the mast into a somewhat upright position. As we were hoisting it up, countless powerboats churned up large wakes that made the delicate task of mast-stepping extremely treacherous. Eventually, the mast got up and we motored to a mooring on the other side of the river. Moral of story; do not step a mast when there is boat traffic and alcohol near by. We spent the night there last night and went in for showers this morning.
     As I am writing this, we are motoring against the tide down towards Catskill where we hope to spend the night. We have been passing huge ships, tugs, and barges all day. We also just passed an old-fashioned brick lighthouse in the middle of the river.
     Well I guess that is the update. I'll write more later when something new and exciting happens!

P.S. This is me in the Mechanicville lock. I believe that this one had a 25 foot lift!