We are underway and have gone through

two locks already.....the first day....Jim and Paul went through 7 locks (there used to be 27 locks on that part of the original canal...now there are only 7 biggggggggggg ones...meaning that you still have the same drop in the river height....and so therefore the locks are very deep...so as they left Albany, they experienced a rise in the Canal of 237 feet to get to Schenectady.)

Jeff Geltz and Paul left Schenctady on Sunday and traveled through 3 locks (a total rise of 56 feet) and pulled up to a park in Amsterdam for an overnight.  Helen arrived at Albany airport at 11:05 pm and when she told her taxi driver she didn't have an address....he was a bit perplexed....she told him our destination was a purple bench on Route 30, located on the right side of the road just after you go over the canal bridge.  Well, this took a while to digest..."No address...no street?"  he said.  "No", I said....."You don't have a street?" he repeated. "No, just the purple bench on Route 30....do you know how to  get to Route 30?"  "Yes," he said....so he put on his Lebonese music and the GPS and off we went into the night.  For you Harry Potter fans...it had a familiar feel...

So it is Monday morning and we have fair weather and a little wind, which makes canal lock passageway a little tricky....you sail into the lock, they close the gates and you grab on the algae covered lines and try to keep the boat steady and off the wall of the lock wall so you don't scrape up your fenders or the sides of your boat.....and the water comes in....and the wind blows.... and with a little work with the engine, the bow thrusters and rope handling you finally reach the level of the water on the other side of the lock, the gates open and you are on your way.  

Here is one of the locks today....

Here according to Jeff is his wife, Elizabeth's final retirement home on the canal

and a little news from home.....Janeen dropped by one morning in her Southwest Co-pilot uniform...so proud mom snapped a picture...

We are coming up to lock 5 for today....so I am up to take the helm...Captain Bob....I am getting lots of "crabbing" practice today....