Скачать или смотреть Piloting a Houseboat on the Erie Canal, Part Two

🔊🔛 The next leg of our houseboat cruise along the #ErieCanal brought us from Pittsford to Spencerport—but not without passing through locks 32 and 33 along the way. Fortunately, going through locks was a part of our hands-on training before taking the Cayuga out. The pilot (me) navigates the boat to an empty spot on either the port or starboard side of the lock walls, where ropes or chains dangle from the top. The two deckhands need to grab the ropes—or lasso the chains with rope—to keep the boat from swaying or floating into the middle or into other boats, as the water lifts or lowers the boats. Westbound, the locks act as elevators upwards, and the whole process takes about 20–30 minutes.

The training we had also taught me how to do an emergency sudden stop, which came in handy when we encountered a group of about 30 adolescent first-time kayakers (and their nonchalant teenage camp counselor) who cleared the way for the four Lockmasters passing through—except that one idiot kid paddled right in front of us when the coast had already been clear.

Eventually we made it to Spencerport, our most westbound port town in our suggested route with @ErieCanalAdventures, but we still had miles and ports to come… — Locked into the locks on the Erie Canal, NY, USA.

#theglobaltriperiecanal #theglobaltripwesternnewyork #visitrochester