Coeyman, NY

Sadly, Sunday, October 7 was to be our last day on the Erie Canal.  We went through lock 7 at 10 a.m. and cruised along the Mohawk River which makes up part of the Erie Canal at this point. The Erie continues to be a lovely waterway and we are so glad that we came this way.

As we approached Waterford we prepared to go through the flight of five locks, each of which was 35 feet in height.  Going through these locks took a couple of hours with each of them being about a mile from the other.  All our passages went very smoothly and we were the only vessel in all of them!

We cruised past Waterford which we had stayed in on our Down East journey but would skip this time. 

We were now on the Hudson River and in Troy we went through the last lock of our journey.  The wind had picked up by then and we had to struggle a little to stay straight in the lock.

We proceeded past Albany and a pair of bridges that had a beautiful lacy appearance.

Our destination was the little town of Coeyman just south of Albany.  We had tried to find a marina in Albany but “there was no room at the inn” at any of them (due to all the boats that were having to exit the Erie Canal and be put up for the winter).  We had reservations at Coeyman’s Marina where we would leave Zendo for five days while we traveled to Miami. Originally our plan was to take Georgio with us and leave him with Andy for the rest of our cruise. But for various reasons (including the fact that we would miss him) we changed our mind and found a petsitter for him at the marina. 

The local boaters at the dock were very friendly and helped us tie up.  We got a kick out of the name of the restaurant at the marina, seemingly named after our friend Yannis - but we didn’t eat there.

Upon arriving at Coeyman’s we started our list of boat chores which for Jonny meant cleaning the outside of the boat and for Lynn meant laundry.  They had a free washer and dryer but unfortunately it didn’t work well and it took Lynn at least ten back and forth trips to get just two loads inadequately washed and dried!  In the meantime, Jonny met one of our neighbors who had the same boat as ours but a year newer.  This never happens so he got to go aboard and see it and compare it to ours.  That evening we packed and ate leftovers for dinner trying to use up as much food as we could since we would be away.

The next day we did more boat chores (oil change, vacuuming, freezer defrosting, etc.) and caught an Uber to the Albany airport for our flight to Fort Lauderdale where we would stay with Andy for the week.