Stepping Our Mast in Catskill,NY

Several days have past since I've been able to access the internet. The days seem to run together. The last I journaled I mentioned lock 17, the picture is of that lock with Doug and Amy passing through it. The gate lifts up over your head and gives you a shower as you pass through. It's the only gate that is over head when it opens. One of the flood gates is closed and also lifts over head and gives a shower.

That Wednesday evening we tied up to a town dock in Canajoharie took a walk to town and watched the sunset. Canajoharie is known for the library and art museum but it was closed, we'll have to catch it next time though. They closed while building a new facility and this past Spring were flooded out when the river and canal had high water due to the amount of rain. This gave them a set back for reopening. It is amazing what damage the floods created and not only to the canal locks in June.

Thursday we traveled 58 miles to the flood gate above Waterford and the Flight of Five Locks. It was a good day with some sunshine. We tied up on the wall just West of the flood gate ready for morning departure.

Friday we were looking forward to a short day. We had the flood gate to go under and five locks that are one after another right after the flood gate to lock though. We planned to tie up on the wall in Waterford and explore the town but their was no room in the Inn and it was raining very heavy at this point. In fact it rained all through the night before. We had no choice but to go all the way to Catskill, which was another six hours and one more lock. We went for it and were glad we did, as we traveled down the Hudson River near Albany the sun began to shine and dried us out. We arrived in Catskill at the Riverview Marina about 5:00 PM. It was nice to plug into the electric and get warm.

Saturday morning we became a sailboat again by stepping our mast. It went up smooth and easy, that's always a good thing. Patience arrived around noon to spend the night and part of Sunday with us. She gave us a hand with the final steps of putting the boat back together. Patience, Amy and I took a break and went to the store for a few provisions. It was nice not needing a large amount since I stocked the boat with many non-perishables before we left. When we got back we did a few more things to help Larry before we set out for dinner or shall I say attempted to set out for dinner. Our plan was to go to Anthony's an Italian restaurant we ate at last time though Catskill. They were closed for renovations, so we decided we would go to another one that was closed last time, they had an hour wait, so we left. We then tried another at the other marina we had been to last fall, they were closed for a private party. We were beginning to think we would have to go back and cook on the boat which, none of us had the energy to do. We finally ended up where we were the night before with Doug and Amy.

It had started to rain last evening and continued though today, letting up in the afternoon only to down pour around 4:00 PM. During the lull we fueled the boat, paid our bill and moved our boat to the dock at the restaurant for the night. You guessed it the one we ate at last night. I was going to make lunch but Patience said I'll buy you lunch let go in, so we did. The owner provides the dock and you are welcome to stay the night if you eat here. Yes you guessed it again we will eat dinner here tonight. We say free docks are good we would rather spend our money going out to dinner.