Niskayuna, NY

We planned to leave at 7 a.m. on Saturday, October 6 when the lock opened but didn’t get around to calling the lock tender until after that.  We were informed that another vessel heading west had already called and he would have to lock through first.  Apparently the rule is whoever calls first goes first even though the other vessel wasn’t even in sight of the lock and we were right there on the lock wall!  

When it was time to lock through we went to tie up inside the lock and Lynn reached for the lock line with the pole as she always does.  Jonny went to reach for an aft line and mistakenly put the boat in reverse instead of neutral.  Because of this Lynn couldn’t continue to hold the line and to avoid losing the pole that hooked onto the line, she tossed it up onto the lock platform. Fortunately she could climb onto the platform (which you are not supposed to do) and retrieve the pole.  All this caused Jonny to be very grumpy and he was kicking himself for these little mishaps.  Fortunately, he gets over things quickly and was able to move on!

The dams and bridges by the lock walls can be mezmerizing.

Because the weather was so chilly we drove from down below for most of the day.    Georgio took a stroll around the deck to get some fresh air!

The cruise took us past Schenectady and we saw some lovely little waterfalls along the Mohawk River as well as impressive architecture and the start of some fall foliage.

The weather didn’t keep the fishermen away but beyond that there were very few pleasure craft out.  The Erie Canal closes on October 10 so we and everyone else need to be off the Canal by then. 

We arrived at the lock wall in Niskayuna at 4 p.m. and decided not to go through because the western side had power and we wanted to be warm that night.  In our cozy cabin we treated ourselves to a delicious steak dinner with the rib eye steak we had purchased at the great butcher shop in Toronto.