June 30-July 2, 2013 back at the Waterford dock

We moved down from the basin above lock 3 and returned to the Waterford Dock early this afternoon.  A last minute plan was hatched to try the Champlain Canal route  instead of the Erie Canal.  The Erie appears to be headed for a 2-3 week closure.

 We planned to leave the dock here around 6:30am for the first Champlain Lock about 3 miles up the Hudson.

The air height restrictions for bridges on this route is  17 feet.  I removed the KVH Satellite, and one of the radars and then lowered the stub mast on it's side as far as it would go.  Calculations indicated we were at 17' 1" but I figured that inch would be wiggle room and we'd have no trouble.


 Yup, you know where this is headed.

We were up a 5:30am to fill the water tanks and get everything ready to depart.  I was still worried about the height so Mary looked at the boat's profile again and said the radar mast was fine.  The solar panels stuck up higher.  Oops ...

I had taken measurements from the rear of the solar panel rail mounts.  But I'd forgotten they actually have a slope to them so water doesn't collect and block the light.   So what I thought was 16' 8" is really 17' 3" which is well outside the the 17' limit.  


Our friends departed at 6:30am while we put one of the radar's back together.  Next we have to decide what to do.  There is a steamboat festival slated for this coming weekend and we'll have to vacate the dock. And of course the current forecast is for heavy rain in the Mohawk river valley today and tomorrow which usually means high water and flooding for us down here.  We might (dont mention this to Mary) have to lock back up above lock #3 (where we were twice before now) to wait out the high water.  The Canal itself is still closed and might be for the bulk of July.  Where we go from here has yet to be decided.