Mahi Mahi- Jun 14/15/16 ; The Erie Canal, Locks #1-17

As we reported on the last post, the time has finally come to enter the Erie Canal.

Our infamous locks #16 & #17 finally opened up on Friday the 13th 😲.

Many Loopers at the Albany Yacht Club were planning on waiting until Monday, to hopefully let the rush/chaos of the initial boats, pass over the weekend.

The crew of the Mahi had other ideas. Saturday the 14th was gunna be a rainy/dreary day, all day. We knew that the poor weather would scare off many other boaters. But we still have fears that the locks 16 & 17 could again be shut down if the repaired embankment fails again with the ongoing rain.

So our plan is ; Saturday =Locks 1-7, Sunday=Locks 8-15, Monday=Locks 16/17/18.

Today, Saturday the 14, as predicted – the weather was salty & the boat traffic was indeed very low. We were the 2nd boat at Lock #1, and only had 5 other boats to travel with thru the first 7 Locks. It was a great plan to start the Locks today, and a great day.

The scenery on the Erie Canal was very cool, sometimes making you feel that you were thousands of miles away on the Amazon River.

Back to the Locks, here are some action shots. The first photo is in a short 8ft lift Lock (wood doors). Photos 2/3/4 are all in a 40ft lift Lock (steel doors).

In the following video, water is filling, coming up about 40ft

Since we are starting to go thru a lot of Locks now on the Erie Canal & Later on the Trent Severn Waterway – it seems like a good time to talk about Locks and what you have to do when traveling thru a Lock.

A waterway Lock is essentially transporting you between 2 bodies of water at different heights. As we mentioned in the last blog, Lake Erie is about 500 ft higher than the Hudson River. If there were no locks, the Erie Canal would be good for White Water Rafting.

There are about 4 different ways to tie up in a lock – 1) Drop Cables, 2) Poles , 3) Steel Cables, & 4) Floating Bollards. These 4 methods exclude some very special Locks called The Peterborough Lift-Lock & The Big Chute Railcar Lock both on the Trent Severn Waterway in Canada.

1. Drop Cables – they are just lines hanging from the top of the Lock with weights on the bottom. You simply use an extension pole to pull the drop lines towards the boat, then hold on as the water level goes up/down.

2) Drop Pipes/Poles – they are like they sound, just a pole recessed into the Lock wall. You pull up to the pole and wrap your docking line around the pole and hold on while the waters goes up/down, letting the dock line slide up the pole.

3) Steel Cables – they are similar to Drop Pipes, but are 1″ thick steel cables that go from the Top to Bottom of the lock. Just like the Pipes, you simply wrap your docking lines around the Cable and hold on, letting the dock line slide up the cable.

4) Floating Bollards – they are a big posts recessed into the lock wall that go up/down with the water level. You simply wrap your docking line around the bollard and hold on. The advantage to this Lock device is that the bollard will raise up with the water level, so you can actually clete the line during the ride.

The Peterborough Lift-Lock – It’s like 2 big trays of water on a teeter totter. To articulate the lock, they pump in 1 foot of extra water into the top tray & the valves in the lock lower the top tray and raise the bottom tray. Your boat is in the tray of water. In the photo below, we are driving the boat into the lower tray & you can see the piston of the top tray holding it at the higher water level. We will do this with the Mahi in a few weeks
Lift-Lock Video = https://youtu.be/CWLnukSTvRY

Finally , The Big Chute (the most exciting lock for me) – it is essentially a Railcar that picks your boat up on straps, and transports your boat from one body of water, ACROSS LAND ON A RAILCAR, to another body of water. It is an amazing Lock. We will also do this Lock in the Mahi in a couple weeks

Well, that is your lesson on Locks for today, hope you enjoyed it.

Mike, Deena, and Jerry

Thanks for reading our blog 👋