We got an early start and took the dinghy to Hudson, New York. Frank was excited for his walk and we were looking forward to exploring. We found a dock and disembarked to find a film crew filming something along the river. We made our way in to town and walked around. We stopped at a coffee shop for a snack and some coffee. We walked around town and took plenty of pictures. We know we’re coming close to the end of our journey and it’s bitter sweet. We figure we have about three weeks until we’re back home in Cleveland, Ohio. Today we are heading to the beginning of the Erie Canal which will eventually take us to Lake Erie. Canada is still closed and not planning on opening to travelers any time soon so we already know we will not be able to do the Oswego Canal/ Georgian Bay like we had planned. We also know we are very blessed to be continuing our adventure while lockdowns and uncertainty is happening in the world. Back toHudson- we were chilling out at an overlook enjoying our snack when I struck up a conversation with a couple standing nearby. We exchanged information and chatted for a bit before it was time for us to head back to the boat and make our way up the Hudson River. Our destination is Waterford which is the last stop before entering the Erie Canal. We pulled anchor and we’re on the move right around 1pm. The current was in our favor so we were cruising along about 7.5 knots and life was good. I was researching our destination when I suddenly realized something; we needed to drop our mast before getting to Albany. WTF!?! Somehow it had slipped my mind that we needed to drop the mast before now. I thought we had more time! We were cruising along when I suddenly throttled down. Lauren came out to see what was up. I explained we would be soon approaching a low bridge and we need to drop the mast. Now. She looked at me like I was crazy, then went right in to “ok. Let’s do it.” mode. Lauren took over the helm while I did a little more research. From what I could tell we were going to come across a bridge that is only 20’ high and that’s not enough clearance for us with our mast up. Next I found a ‘marina’ along the river ahead of us and gave them a call. Me: “Hi. Can we stop and tie up for a short time to drop our mast? We’ll leave quickly and pay you for the space/time.” Marina: “uhh… sure. When? You’re here now? Yeah, ok.” I told Lauren the plan and we pulled in to the marina to an empty spot. We went right to work and got everything disassembled and finally attached the winch to the mast. Now the final part was to actually drop the mast down. That went fine and we secured everything. Whew. We still have enough time to get through the Troy Federal Lock and get to Waterford before dark. We now had the mast down, cast off from the dock which was so gracious and didn’t charge us and made our way to the lock. We made it through with no issues and eventually came to Waterford where a lot of boats were tied up to stage the next jump. We slowly pulled up and found a spot between a couple of cruising boats. The dock master welcomed us and gave me a run down of the area. He also told me we docked in a pump out zone- we would be ok for the night since we arrived so late, but couldn’t stay there tomorrow unless we moved. Ok… We planned on moving on tomorrow morning anyway so we decided to stay where we were. We walked around town and walked Frank, then stopped to pick up some beverages from a gas station. There wasn’t much going on so we headed back to the boat and planned our next stop. We have quite a few locks to go through so we researched that and possible side trips. We don’t want to rush through so maybe we can take our time and explore areas along the Erie Canal.
