JUST HANGING OUT

The Big Line Up

October 3, 2009

We ended up spending another 8 days in Waterford; we were too comfortable to get motivated to leave. Plus, there were some activities going on that we decided to wait around for anyway. The good news is that the canal police never showed up again to ticket the boats that had been there for more than 48 hours. I also decided to sign the registry again after a few days so that if they did show up it would look like we had arrived at a more recent date than what we did, thinking they would only go back so far in the registry to try to figure out which boats had come in when.

The Star of the Show's Arrival

September 30 was homecoming day for the Day Peckinpaugh, and the Waterford village was giving it a welcome home celebration complete with live music supplied by the high school jazz band. Several of the restored tugboats that still work in the area also were in the boat parade and were available for boarding. The canal ship would be spending the winter at the nearby historic Matton shipyard where it would undergo some needed maintenance.

Just Like in the Big Harbors

The village fire department showed up with their big ladder truck and sprayed a stream of water high in the air that fell on all the boats that paraded by the terminal wall. It was quite chilly with overcast skies, so I felt sorry for all the deck hands that had to be outside through the mist. Even our own deck hand, Eddie, got in the act and lent a hand as a linesman to get the Day Peckinpaugh tied off to the terminal wall.

Working For Free

The Day Peckinpaugh, launched in 1921, was one of 5 canal motorships built specifically to transport cargo on the Erie Canal. At 259' long, 36' wide, and a draft of 14' she could just fit within the dimensions of the locks. It could carry 1650 tons, fives times that of the wooden canal boats towed by the mules in the 1800s. I took this photo of a photo of the DP in one of the locks.

Fully Loaded

The DP stayed in service until 1994. It was rescued from the scrapyard in 2005 by several historical organizations and the park service and was put in the hands of the New York State Museum (as its largest artifact!) to be used as a working classroom to educate students about the history of the canal system. It has traveled 600 miles along the Hudson and up the Champlain Canal as part of this year's Hudson quadracenntenial celebration. Thousands of people had the opportunity to tour the vessel as it stopped at many ports of call. The parks department has set up informational displays down in the cavernous cargo hold.

Wayne in the Belly of the Beast

The Governor Cleveland, the flagship tug of the NYS Canal system fleet, also showed up for the celebration. We had seen that tug, painted the NYSC royal blue and gold, out on the waterway a couple of times during our travels, and we always wondered what she looked like inside. She was converted from steam power to diesel power years ago, but still kept her pretty overhead steam vent windows. Since she was available for boarding, I decided to take a peak. I was delighted to be able to enter the pilot house and even more thrilled when Captain Pete asked me to have a seat with him and talk about our travels. We were both full of questions and exchanged a lot of information about our waterway adventures. He even hooked up the beautiful, original compass oil lamp for me to see. It is visible in the photo to the right of the helm station wheel. The brown box houses the compass, and the oil lamp supplies the light needed to see the compass through the tiny hole on the top of the box. Captain Pete and I both laughed when I remarked he really didn't need the compass any more with his present assignment of just working on the Hudson and in the canals.

Inside the Pilot House

The following day when all the ships were leaving the dock, the Governor Cleveland crept by the Visitor's Center area where we were docked and Captain Pete blew the big ship's horn. I ran out on our upper deck to wave good-bye and then ran inside and blew our big ship's horn too. I could see the smile on Captain Pete's face!

These two Dutch sailing canal boats docked right in front of us also arrived during the welcome home celebration. A dozen of these boats were shipped over aboard a cargo freighter from the Netherlands to take part in the quadracentennial celebration of Henry Hudson discovering the Hudson. Remember, Henry Hudson was contracted by the Dutch, so it is fitting that these boats took part in the summer celebrations and traveled to ports all along the waterway.

Foreign Visitors

The boat on the right, the Vrouwe Cornelia, was operated by a Dutch father and son team, and they were very friendly, welcomed all kinds of questions, and just plain liked talking to Americans. Their boat was in great shape, had a lot of artistic flair to it, and just a lot of character, like her owners.

Canal Boat Specifications

Notice that the Vrouwe Cornelia was built in 1888. She has endured the years so well because of her sturdy steel hull. The mast is designed to be easily lowered and raised because it has a huge counterweight at its base and is held upright by stays that go to either side of the boat. They gave a demonstration of how it worked, easily done in about 5 minutes! The masts had to work like that because of all the low bridges on the Dutch canals, much lower than those on our canals.

Mast Base Carving

The boat is steered using a huge tiller in the aft end. These two mermaids lend assistance in all kinds of weather and make for interesting conversation pieces.

Carved Mermaid

Mermaid Sculpture

When I saw these shoes on the boat deck, I remarked that they didn't seem like they would be good boat shoes. The Dutch captain laughed, and in his heavy accent, he gave a hearty big NO, and said “for the garden”.

Not My Size!

They were dog lovers and welcomed Ursa aboard. It was funny hearing real Dutch speakers say Ursa's breed name, a Dutch word, Schipperke. They told me they had a Jack Russell Terrier at home, but for their American adventure they kept this dog aboard. He requires much less care!

Low Maintenance Boat Dog

While we are on the subject of dogs, I have to mention how interesting it is to see the man with his 3 Australian Shepherds hired by the Village to keep the water fowl, mostly the Canada geese off the public lands, including the Visitor Center's docks. Those high energy dogs stop on a dime when he gives commands and are so intent on doing their jobs all the ducks and geese vacate the area even when the dogs are in the distance. When the dogs aren't around, we have seen these silhouettes stuck in the ground. Generally they are just black, but the Lock 2 operators jazzed this one up a bit! We also saw some silhouettes that looked like wolves or coyotes stuck on canal banks in hopes of warding off the geese.

Anti Goose Silhouette

Here is another dog that was a regular visitor to our dock area. He had lost the use of his rear legs, but his caring owner gave him these wheels, and he was really able to get around well, even easily wheeling himself around on the grassy areas. Notice the handicap sign on his license tag!

Looking For a Princess

Toad could probably find a princess, or at least a woman who thinks like one, at Ursula of Switzerland, located within sight of Lock 2 and easy walking distance from the dock area. This eye catching building was once a ribbon factory back in the mill days of industry. Ursula purchased it and breathed new life into it as a design studio and dress making center of higher end apparel for women.

Ursula of Switzerland

I took a walk over to check out the company store. While I wasn't able to find any clothing that I thought would be appropriate for my cruising lifestyle aboard FLUKE, I did marvel in the beauty of the clothes, colors, and fabrics.

Nothing For Spearfishing!

We always managed to find something to suit our tastes at the farmers markets. Eddie thought this vendor at the Sunday Waterford Harbor market deserved recognition for her efforts to decorate her tent with the corn stalks.

Fall Harvest

We've had a week of drizzly weather, no sun, and lower than we like, temperatures. By the time you read this we will be headed south again. Other than the direction, we still don't have a schedule, and we're sticking to it.

(Note from Wayne: I increased the width of the posting area so I could make the pictures bigger. If the causes a problem for anyone, please leave a comment to let me know.)