The summer cruise after New York City

The Erie Canal begins about 160 miles north of New York City at the town of Waterford, New York.  This canal built in the early 1800’s is three times as long as the Nivernais Canal in France which was our home canal for dozens of years.  We excitedly look forward to building a new set of memories about cruising in America and eventually the several canals in nearby Canada.  Bonjour Quebec.

Waterford, NY is the host for an annual Tugboat Roundup usually held on the second weekend of September.   Waterford also says that it is the oldest continuously incorporated village in the United States and is located in southern Saratoga County where the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers join. The roundup was begun in 1999 and a number of old and new tugboats meet at the 1600ft long waterfront to show the roughly 25,000 spectators how tugboats have evolved through the years.  The 2011 Roundup was cancelled due to the ravages of Hurricane Irene in August.  The Erie and Champlain Canals were closed for long periods of time in the Fall of 2011.

Tugboats played an important role in the commerce of the region.  After the eastern half of the Erie Canal was upgraded in the first part of the 20^th century, horse drawn barges that were using the canalized Mohawk River turned to tugboats to move them along.  The new, larger locks allowed more barges to work through together and that meant that it was more efficient to tow more barges with a tugboat, as on the Mississippi River and the larger waterways of Europe.  It was interesting to me to find that the Waterford Harbor Visitors Center address is 1 Tugboat Alley.  Hah!  Much more information about the New York Canals can be found by looking up their website.  http://www.nycanal.com.

An organization you may not know about is the American Great Loop Cruising Association that can be found at www.greatloop.org.   This volunteer group has a wealth of information available about cruising the waterways of the eastern half of the U.S., in other words, everything east of the Mississippi River.  The main goal of this group is to complete this-nearly 6,000-mile-long route.  They sell books to help you plan such a voyage or tell you where else to obtain information.  There is a daily forum to sign onto once you are a member to answer any conceivable question you may have.  There are hundreds of other websites and blogsites that cruisers have written or are writing about their adventures.