Day 257 – 6/17/24

Starting location: Free wall at Waterford, NY.

Weather: 60 am, 90 pm, partly cloudy

Ending location: Free wall at Whitehall, NY.

Statute miles: Approximately 60

General summary: We backtracked a brief section of the Erie Canal to turn North on the Hudson for our first lock on the Champlain Canal. These locks are a bit different from what we experienced in the inland rivers (Mississippi, Tennessee, Cumberland, Ohio, and Ten-Tom) as the do not use bollards – basically floating cleats that you tie off to that rise and fall with the water level in the lock. These locks have ropes, cables, and pipes you can use. Took a little bit of practice to get used to them. We planned on getting through 6 locks, but they were so efficient that we went through 10. The Champlain Canal locks are numbered 1-12 but there is no 10, for no clear reason. We ended just before lock 12, the last until we were at the water level of Lake Champlain, as there was a free wall with power at Whitehall, just a few hundred feet from the last lock. Tied up there with 3 other looper boats and made plans for a coordinated flotilla locking through the next day. Didn’t spend much time in town. The local museum is only open on weekends until 6/28.