Day 247 - June 29, 2013: Escape up the Champlain Canal

This morning the Erie Canal chief came over and briefed us on the situation. Basically, the 5 inches of rain that hit the Utica and Herkima areas yesterday, and flooded so many homes, pushed a quarter of a mile of debris into lock 12. A dam road washed out, and a damage assessment of all the dams is needed. The best guess was that an additional one-week delay was very optimistic and two weeks is more likely. Plus, there is another week of additional rain in the forecast which could cause more havoc. When I told Anne, we both said simultaneously, "Let's go up the Champlain."

Within 30 minutes we were locking down and turning north, happy to be out cruising and anticipating where we would be by the end of the day. Fortunately for us, Great Laker has a low draft and a height that enables her to make it under the many 17 foot bridges despite the elevated water levels. We were sad to leave all of our new friends whose boat heights exceed 17 feet, and hope they'll get good news that sends them along the Erie Canal soon.

By 5:00 pm, we were through six locks and in Fort Edward on the free city dock, where they were having their annual Heritage Festival, with rock bands, a carnival, food vendors, and fireworks.

Cruising again on the Champlain Canal!

Here is our farewell to Waterford, a place we enjoyed but should have left 11 days ago when the Champlain Canal first reopened. These are our favorites:

Favorite Laundromat

Favorite Bar with Celtic music

Favorite Chinese take-out

Favorite fine dining

Favorite hair salon

Favorite barbershop

Favorite city for delay