North Star on the Great Loop Journey: Amsterdam New York

Preparing for the trip

Captain Jerry has been making the final preparations to North Star, our 32 foot Cape Island down east trawler. We are anxious to leave our landlubber lives behind and begin our long awaited journey around the Great Circle. Join us as we travel 10, 000 kilometers: through the historic Trent Severn Waterway; the pristine waters of Georgian Bay; the North Channel of lake Huron; and hop from beach to beach on lake Michigan. We will visit Chicago and begin our trek along the rivers: Illinois; upper Mississippi; Ohio; Cumberland: Tennessee; Tenn-Tom Waterway and the Black Warrior. We will have transited through 68 locks at this juncture. We have chosen the inner route from Mobile Alabama to Tarpon Springs Florida and the shorter Ocheechobee Waterway to reach the East coast of Florida. We will skip over to the Bahamas to wait out the winter before heading North on the Atlantic Inter Coastal Waterway.
The 10 years of researching and planning are finally at an end and we invite you to come along on our adventure.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Amsterdam New York

We had a tour of this one

we left Waterford at first lock this morning which was 7:00 am. They are getting ready for Canal Fest so many barges and tugs were locking through at 8:00 so it would have been a long wait. There were only two of us in the 5 flight locks so it was quite comfortable with light winds and the sun shining. it was somewhat cool though.
The wind picked up thus afternoon so the remaining 5 locks were somewhat challenging. We started on the starboard side in Lock 9 and ended up on the port side after banging off the walls. I just didn't have the strength to hold the boat and the rope was too short to cleat. No damage and all is well in the end.

The shores of the Mohawk River

We were fighting a two knot current all the way here because they are still have all the dams open to lower the water level. Their dams are close to the locks so entering the lock can get quite exciting. This is not the same canal we travelled through in August 3 years ago, it is much wilder. We are seeing some of the damages from hurricane Irene last fall.
We are tied up in Amsterdam at, you guessed it, a free wall near Lock eleven. We have power so it won't get too cold tonight. There is one other boat here as well.
We had dinner on the boat and we are having a quiet evening to rest up for tomorrow's 10 locks. We have been here before so we don't feel the need to go exploring.