Day 4

 Okay, true confession, today was a MUCH better day.  We had a rough ending yesterday.  Cruising from the main canal to the Fort Edward Yacht Basin we grounded!!  Terrible thud and boat shook.  Jerry and I had a terrible sinking feeling, but thankfully it wasn't the boat.  We were mid channel with 12 feet of water under us.  Did we hit something or was something wrong with an engine??? Nothing was floating that we could have hit, but possibly a rock??

Thankfully we were only yards away from the wall to tie up.  Once docked Jerry opened the engine compartment and we both continued saying prayers that there wasn't any damage.  Engines seemed okay and there wasn't any water coming in...  No vibrations from a bent prop or shaft either.  

We were counting on St. Brendan to watch over us.

Sleep was limited and we were up at 6am.  We drained our water tanks and moved surplus weight temporarily to the bow of the boat.  We hoped we wouldn't be as low in the water and would avoid hitting anything on the way back to the canal.  We nervously left the dock at 7:07 and slowly, carefully forged ahead.  Nerves eventually calmed and boat behaved.  Our day was officially better. We've been told that there are 2 kinds of boaters on the Loop - those that have grounded and those that are going to!

We traveled from Fort Edward Lock 7 through Lock 1 to Waterford Harbor Docks.  Lots of interesting sites to see.

Nesting Osprey

In case of emergency..........

                                                                                   

                                                           We CAN'T DO 45 mph!!!                                                                                                                                            

Left turn for the ERIE CANAL!!

 Several boats tied at the Waterford Harbor, 6 doing the Loop.  Locks 2-6 (there is no Lock 1) are done as a set and will raise us 167 feet, cover a distance of 2 miles and take 1.5 hours.

Original Erie Canal Lock 2

We will start our Erie Canal journey tomorrow with a goal of making it to Lock 11, 39 miles away.