This trip wasn't going to be a long trip but we planned to stop for refueling. Dick had called a couple of marinas for pricing on fuel. One marina we called Coeyman's quoted us at $2.99/gallon, and went on to say they were the cheapest. Well we found out differently, barely two miles down from that , Castleton marina was the actual cheapest at $2.65/gallon plus $0.10 discount for boat US. $0.44/gallon is a significant savings when your purchasing 200 gallons.
We past Albany ,NY a very busy barge terminal and basin. Albany, is the state capital of New York. Dick's aunt Barbara lives near Albany so we're going to make a stop on the way back, right now she's on vacation. At this point there are 8 bridges with minimum clearance 21 ft, if you were on a sailboat you would be required to take your mast down, which is called mast stepping. Most marinas in the area offer this service.
- Lock 1-The Troy Federal Lock is a lift of 16 ft and its the first of many locks we will be traversing. The locks have 3 different ways of 'locking' your boat secure in the lift, ropes, cables and pipes. This lock introduces you to pipes, where your line is secure to a midship cleat, then wrapped around the pipe and back around the cleat. We found lifting in this lock very smooth, however there was a lot of debris inside the lock. This is where we noticed the bow thruster no longer working properly. Our thoughts , ok we need to contact a diver when we're docked.
Shortly after the lock, the Hudson river comes to a fork, the Erie Canal to the left or the Champlain Canal to the right. Our destination today is left and as soon as we turned left, there were the Waterford town docks.
The Waterford town docks have about 1000 feet of dock space along the wall. They are great floating docks with water and electric and they are free for the first two days, yes that's right, FREE. If you decide to stay for a third night you'll pay a nominal $10.00 fee. So, we tied up and went into the registration office where volunteers worked the desk and asked for a number for a diver or a mechanic. They had a couple, so back to the boat we went and made a few phone calls. We needed a diver to check out the bow thruster under the water, to see if the prop was damaged or if anything was jammed inside the prop to cause it to not work properly. Left a message with a couple of divers, now all we had to do was wait, in the mean time, we checked out Waterford. We walked up to Lock #2,(there is no #1) because we had to purchase a seasonal pass $75.00 to traverse the numerous locks, which would take us round trip through the Champlain locks. We did get a call from the diver and he is going to come on Sunday would you believe. The next morning since it was our 1st anniversary we went out to a nice breakfast in town. This little restaurant was noted in the cruising guides because the food was plentiful,delicious and cheap. On our return to the Summer Wind the farmers market had begun right on the docks in front of our yacht. Suffice it to say, we spent more there then breakfast.
That afternoon the diver arrived and we put on quite a show for everyone as he went under and I was able to talk with him through his helmet. Nothing wrong with the prop and all looked great under the boat. 
Since it was on Sunday we couldn't get a mechanic, but we dressed nicely and went to a very nice restaurant to have a grand, romantic dinner. After dinner we got back to the Summer Wind and opened a bottle of Champagne (thank you Lucy and Jimmy) and toasted our anniversary. the rest will go unsaid. ;)
That evening my bride surprised me with the sundeck decorated with balloons and signs and she even had a cake, yes with candles. LOVELY!!!!
So on Tuesday we slipped our lines and proceeded through Lock #2 ,etcTo be cont'd
Waterford notes of Interest: Waterford is the oldest incorporated running village in the United States. Ethelda Bleibtrey at 18 yrs of age is the first American to win Olympic gold and first female to win 3 Olympic gold in 1920. She was born in Waterford.Waterford is known for the flight of 5, the five lift locks that lift your boat 169 feet.
