Waterford, NY – Fonda, NY - June 25, 2008

We were into the Erie Canal Lock #2 at 7:45 this morning. (Lock #1 is at Troy, and is not considered part of the Erie Canal). The first 5 locks of the Erie Canal, lock #2-6, raised us a total of 151 feet over 1.5 miles. We got through lock #6 at 9:20 a.m. and were then able to cruise awhile before the next lock(s).

The Erie Canal was the dream of New York State Governor DeWitt Clinton. It opened October 26, 1825 and was 4’ deep and 40’ wide. It was over 340 miles long and connected Troy, NY on the Hudson River to Buffalo NY on Lake Erie. It was a great success and settlers went westward, sawmills and other industries sprang up and prosperous towns were established. The Erie Canal has been enlarged and modified since then and is still the mainstay of the New York Canal System. We were on the Mohawk River most of the day, not a dredged part of the canal.

We aren’t going to Lake Erie so will be on the Erie Canal only until we reach Three Rivers. We will then go north on the Oswego Canal, which will take us to Lake Ontario.

The scenery is very pretty. The land alongside of the canal appears sparsely populated and undeveloped, with natural woodlands. There are a few homes and a marina every once in awhile. Most of these are where towns are close by.

We had a long day today. We stopped at a free dock in Fonda, N.Y. and were tied up by 5:45. On the water 10 hours and only went 48.4 miles. That is because of the time it takes to go through the locks.

We will now start keeping track of the number of locks we go through. As of yesterday there had been 3. Two locks in the Dismal Swamp, one at the start and one at the end, and one lock at Troy. Today, we went through 11 locks, 286’ vertically, for a total of 14 locks.