June 12 - Day 17
Waterford NY - Scotia Town Dock, Scotia NY

Start 7:50 AM
End 1:05 PM
Underway 2:52
Distance 18 Miles
Weather - Cloudy, 67 Degrees, 1KN E
Locks 6
Total Locks 7
Total Miles on Trip 407
Avg Speed 6.1 Knots

This is take two, the first post I duplicated the Waterford post. This is the real Scotia paot!

We started our day with a little screw up. We had planned to leave at 7AM, and with a quick look at the hours the locks were opened, we all thought it was 7AM. When no one answered the radio by 7:15 we looked closer at the hours. Most locks open at 7AM, but the Waterford locks open at 8AM.

The locks at Waterford are referred to as the Flight Off Five. They five locks in the first 1.5 miles of the Erie Canal that lift you 169 feet. It is quite the initiation to locking for most people. While it took 5.5 hours to reach our destination we only traveled for 3 hours. The rest of the time was time we spent waiting for or in the locks.

Overall the day went very smoothly, except for one boat that decided to pass us without calling on the radio. As I was turning in to a bend on the river, he called out asking what I was doing, cutting him off. I looked back and he was 10 feet off the back of my boat. The proper way to pass a boat in a narrow space is to call on the radio, and most often the boat being passed will slow down and move aside. The best part of him passing us; when he got to the next lock he had to wait for us to get there before the lockmaster would lock him through. I am not sure why people are in so much of a hurry.

After leaving our last lock for the day we continued onto Scotia NY. Scotia is listed in our guide books as having a free village dock with electric & water. Upon arriving we found the docks as listed. The docks had slips with finger piers. There were 3 slips with 40 foot piers and 4 with 30 foot piers. Being the only boats there we took the 40 foot piers. The slip was about 15 feet too small for us, but the prices was right. Since our guides were published the village has updated their policy and they charge for dockage. It was $20 per night for dockage and $10 per night for electric. The come around 3 times a day to collect, and if they don't it is the honor system with a drop box for the money.

Later in the day Sea Turtle (Rod & Stuart) and Janthina (Mac & Deb) arrived, and I was surprised that more loopers did not stop there.