AquaFennatic Great Loop Blog: New Baltimore New York to Whitehall New York

Jun 16^th – It was a cool and rainy day with moderate winds decreasing throughout the day. We decided to stay one more day at Shady Harbor Marina to take advantage of the pay for 2 days and get one day for free deal. I took a bucket of soapy water down in the bilge to wash off anything that looked like it may have had a salt residue from our salt water travels. I also lubed some of the parts that developed some corrosion/rust. Afterwards a nice hot shore shower and then I spent the afternoon watching movies while Maria got caught up on her shows on Netflix. We went to the on-site Boat house restaurant for an early Fathers day dinner and had their Prime Rib special … It was Exxxcellent!

Jun 17^th – It started out as a muggy cloudy day and transitioned to an extremely hot and sunny day with the winds increasing at the end of the day. We left Shady Harbor Marina this morning and headed 33 miles up the Hudson river through 3 locks to Mechanicville New York and pulled into their free town dock. We first headed to get a pump out at Shady Harbor’s fuel dock, however they weren’t open yet thus I pumped the boat out myself with their permission. Our first lock was the Troy Lock … after passing through this lock we are out of tidal waters … yea! We then continued on the Champlain Canal route and went through the first 2 Champlain locks. The free town dock is great and it has power and water as well as washrooms with showers better than most marinas that we’ve visited. We walked into town to tour around a bit and then get some supplies and headed back for a BBQ dinner on the boat. Later we walked back into town to get some “Ben & Jerry’s” Ice Cream … Yum!

Jun 18^th – Happy Fathers Day! It was a hot and mostly sunny day with moderate winds which increased in the afternoon. We got up early and left the Mechanicville town dock to travel north 50 miles on the Hudson / Champlain Canals through 8 locks to Whitehall New York and pulled into their town dock which is free with free power & water. I’m liking these free docks … Exxxcellent! The locks opened at 7am and close at 5pm thus we were concerned about making it through 8 locks, however there wasn’t much boating traffic and most locks were ready to take us on arrival. Our daughter Amanda called us on route … which made it a challenging call especially since we had a poor signal. Communications with my Dad and our son, Sean, happened after we arrived in Whitehall when we were able to relax and focus on the people instead of the navigation. We met a few boaters on the free dock and then decided to walk into town to do some exploring and ended up getting take out pizza from Joe’s Pizza which was Exxxcellent! A great Fathers Day dinner … Pizza & Beer!