We left Albany at 10 AM headed for the Erie Canal. Today was a partly cloudy and humid day.
Lulu was the navigator today; as you can see she is on top of her Navigation skills:

 

I have two GPS Chartplotters on the boat, one at each helm station. Unfortunately the one on the flybridge decided not to work; it had power but would not bring up the charts. So we navigated by the printed charts which do not have the same detail as the chartplotter. I plan to stop at Winter Harbor Marina in Brewerton , NY to have them look at the unit.

Since we were in the River and would be going into the canal, I didn't think that it would be a problem. However, around 11:00 AM we were on the River in Troy, NY and there was an island in the middle of the Hudson, and it appeared that we should go to the right of the island and under a bridge half way down the channel next to the island. When we got near the bridge, there was a Danger Buoy in the middle of the channel. So, I turned around and started down the other side of the Island.

 

Wrong! We touched the muddy bottom, but were able to turn around without going aground. I then got in touch with a local Marina operator who told me that the Danger Buoy had drifted to that location in the heavy rains and the Army Corp of Engineers hadn't yet removed it. The Canal had been closed in sections due to the rainfall during the past several weeks, but reportedly it is fully open now.  

 

We went through the Troy, NY Federal Lock at Noon. Here is a picture as we approach the lock. This is our second lock so far. The first was on the Inland Waterway in Va. However we are going to go through many locks in the next four days.

 

 

When we reached the Erie Canal Junction on the Hudson, we turned east toward the Canal Welcome Center and the First Canal Lock.

 

 

 It was our intention to move further down the Canal before stopping for the night. But when we reached the first lock we tried several times to contact the Lockmaster in the VHF Radio, but got no response. Since we were in front of the welcome center, a volunteer came out and said the they were trying to contact him by phone but he did not answer. We treaded water for a half an hour, and then tied up to the wall in front of the lock to wait. At 2:00 PM we decided to

turn around and dock on the wall by the Welcome Center for the rest of the day and stay tonight. So, here we sit running the Generator to power the air conditioners. It is close to 90 degrees and Humid, so my first mate might leave me if I didn't make it comfortable on the boat. Even Lulu didn't want to go out.

 

We will try to make the first lock through tomorrow morning at 7:00 AM.  Here is a picture of the first lock and the boats at the Welcome Center.

 

 

This is a painted Mule standing in front of the Welcome Center. It is one of many in Waterford, NY that was part of a Charity program.

The Mule is the one on the LEFT not the RIGHT!,