After a few great days in Waterford it was time to say goodbye to “Puffin” move forward on the Erie Canal.
The night before we had a captain’s meeting about departure times. We stated our intention to go through the 1st opening. We got up early and idled in the channel. We were not looking to be the first in the lock but did not want to miss the first opening. We went in 2nd and the order was set for the todays locks. The first set of five locks were close together so we planned to go through quickly. The lock operator at lock E3 was an older gentleman with the biggest smile and enthusiasm who set the mood for the day. He radioed the lock ahead, but no one answered so he jumped in his truck and ended up being the operator for Locks 3-5.
We slowly moved forward taking in all the sights. The rising locks had cables and lines for us to pass our lines around and secure our boat. It was a great learning experience for us and everything went smoothly.
After passing through 6 locks the weather started to turn with rain and wind so we decide to stop at the small docks at Scotia Landing. There was a swift current leaving the creek so it was slippery getting into the tiny slip.
We were joined by “piglet” and there was only power and water at two slips but since there was only two of us there, we hooked up and settled in for the night. We took a walk to the small town of Scotia and grabbed an ice cream Jumpin’ Jacks Drive In then stopped at the Scotia-Glenville Little League Field and took in a great baseball game. It went down to the bottom of the sixth inning with the home team had a chance to win with runners on first and second but an field hit and a play to second base ended the game.
It started to rain again so it was off to bed for another set of locks tomorrow. We were however rocked quite a bit due to the water skiers that were practicing right in front of the marina.
