We awoke after a rainy night to find a very wet Catskill Marina having a foot or two higher water level than the shore bulkhead. Luckily the power stanchion didn’t arc and kill us all in the night – our neighbors in their trawler seemed fairly disgusted by the situation. 

We left shortly thereafter but not before hearing at a fuel stop of the real hardships that Hurricane Irene brought to this region in 2011 – nearly destroying many of the marinas, their docks, power supplies and fuel storage tanks – with historic high water and torrential floods. So I felt bad for having been so judgmental of the less than salubrious condition of the marina we just left. 

In any case, a number of marina members in Catskill approached us and said they recognized our boat – which puzzled us as we’d never been to Catskill. As it turns out a boat remarkably similar to ours with a similar name used Catskill as home port – and we had actually seen this boat in Montauk 5-6 years ago and had read about its adventures in a motoryacht magazine.  Small world – as Evan had copied some of the designs used in that boat to accessorize ours - and no wonder our boat was noticed.

We proceeded further up the ever narrowing river and saw some spectacular wilderness and marsh landscape occasionally interrupted by a Victorian or pillared mansion with narrow alleys of lush lawns down to the water that I would imagine carry enormous landscaping bills.  We passed Coxsackie of virus fame (isolated by Dr Dalldorf from specimens gathered here) at a safe distance – yet it retains a very handsome lighthouse. 

Cocksackie Lighthouse

Then New Baltimore … then Coeyman’s Landing with an extensive cement works that keeps ginormous barges going up and down the Hudson even this far up the river.

But lo! Even from Coeyman’s one could start to see the silhouettes of Fort Orange – sorry – Albany - rising over the horizon – and then suddenly you find yourself in the Port of Albany followed shortly thereafter by the center of what the Post regularly tells us is the source of most of the evil in the state (three men in a room, corrupt political class, etc.).  The people that have run New York have nonetheless over the years built a busy cityscape… 

Albany

This was followed on by Troy which also seems to have lost its waterfront mojo in the Irene catastrophe. And coincidentally where Henry Hudson also lost his mojo in going any further in search of China – because it is the end of the freely navigable river (or so it was in 1609).  

Troy Waterfront

It is here at Troy that the Hudson ceases to be tidal (we had 5 foot tides at Catskill). Salty Dog was missing her salt too, as the Hudson ceases to be brackish at Newburgh.

 The Troy Federal Lock

There then stood before us the imposing and gut-churning Troy Federal Lock – we’ve never locked through before and this gave us some uncertainty (and a feeling of coming catastrophe) as no one actually tells you how to lock through – all the guidebooks just describe what a lock is.  Ultimately, we cleated a single line amidship and wrapped it around one of the vertical poles (there are only 3 on each side of the whole chamber - you can only reach one since they are so far apart) and then waited. The lock tender was polite and patient. He filled the lock chamber slowly. The rope/line cinched slowly up the pole, and then it was over - "You can leave now".  We came out 16 feet higher and into a non-tidal realm and without a scratch (or deep embarrassment and shame).

At the crux of the Champlain and Erie Canals is Waterford. Waterford Harbor has a town dock where you can stay for free up to 48 hours. The town is full of Federal-style gabled houses built at a time when the town was engaged in serious industry – powered by water (when that mattered) and all the natural resources arriving from the canals. The town still seems relatively prosperous as it lies in the suburban reaches of Troy and Albany – and has survived as a gem of 19th century Hudson Valley architecture and community because of the dedication of the town supervisors and volunteers that work to preserve their beloved home. 

So we’re staying a couple of days in Waterford to make an excursion to Schaghticoke (some 10 miles away) – where my great great grandfather grew up before moving to Dedham, Massachusetts. I am curious about this town of Knickerbockers (yes, that family immortalized by Washington Irving), native Americans (many from New England and elsewhere were resettled here after King Philip’s War), and also farmers and millworkers, working in the Hoosic River mills - one of which was my young great great grandfather.