An invitation for those doing the NY Canals through Albany

[labatt]

If you are cruising and are going North or South, East or West through the New York Canal system this Spring, Summer of Fall, and will be passing through the Albany or Catskill NY area for an overnight, drop us a line. If time permits (i.e. it's not the weekend and we're not on our own boat on Champlain), we'll help you to the market, West Marine or other stores in exchange for some good times talking about cruising and sailing. If any cruisers coming through the area need a place to ship something to, we'd be more than happy to help too. We're right next to Albany, about 10 minutes away from the Hudson River, about 30 minutes north of Catskill, NY. Feel free to pass this around. Contact me at cruisingthroughalbany at ispmanage dot com.

Chris

[sailingdog]

Chris-

Nice of you to make the offer.

[xort]

Hopefully we'll be seeing you next fall (2009), don't go anywhere!!

[labatt]

June of 2008 is when we're supposed to be leaving on our OWN trip! Up the Erie, to Lake Ontario and then out to the Atlantic via the St. Lawrence Seaway, and onwards. Still reach out though...

[ClaryHawes]

Hello Labatt I have been reading your posts with a great deal of interest. I have purchaced a 36' Morgan 0I center cp. She is curently in Sag Harbour NY. This summer I am bringing it to Ontario, Trenton and on up the trent Canal to Orillia. It's a long trip I will be happy if I get it to Trenton This year. I read your post about stepping a mast at 1700.00 dollars. This seems huge to me I can do my current boat with a modest dock mounted crain in about an Hr. The mast on the Morgan is not alot larger. Is this normal priceing? Do you know of cheaper alternatives?

[labatt]

Sorry if it was confusing. The mast stepping was not $1,700. I paid a few hundred (under $400 I believe) to take it down and a similar amount (under $300 I believe) to put it back up. You basically pay for the crane rental time and the time for the guys to operate the crane and handle the mast during the process. We took care of undoing all of the rigging and the wiring and creating the cradles to put the mast on, but worked with both groups to secure the mast to the cradles. The > $1,000 price was if we wanted to have the mast shipped via truck to our marina on Champlain vs. securing it to our boat.

[labatt]

By the way - the offer for anyone traveling the canals, passing through Albany, still stands!

[ClaryHawes]

Hello Labatt.
Thank you for that clarification. I was hopeing you could tell me how many days approx. It would take to motor/sail up the Hudson in our Morgan OI 36 to Lake Ontario. I will be on the move not lingering for long. I plan to make the trip first two weeks of July. From Sag Harbour as far as I can get.

[labatt]

I can't tell you about the Erie - we haven't done it yet. Our trip up the Hudson was done in the following stages: Liberty Landing Marina to Haverstraw Marina. Haverstraw to Catskill. You'll need to take your mast down in Catskill - there are a couple of places there. Catskill is about 30-35nm south of the first Lock, so depending on when your mast is down... My recommendation would be to get up to Albany Yacht Club, about 5nm south of the first lock. Overnight there and start fresh in the morning. If you get through early, you'll miss the later in the day "crowds" that (only sometimes) go through the locks. You might want to check out this thread - http://www.sailnet.com/forums/genera...ain-canal.html - for some info on traveling the locks - it should be just as applicable for the Erie Canal. I believe the standard transit time, barring flooding or other issues, is 3 days for the Erie Canal, but I may be wayyyyy off. I have a couple of blogs at home about going through the canal, but I won't be able to check them until Monday.