I spent the early part of the summer sailing my Catalina 22 on Lake Champlain. I had a great time but found it wasn't quite enough boat for the lake. Champlain can kick up some serious wind and waves and toss a Catalina around pretty well. So I started looking for an alternative. What I found was a Bristol 24 named "Echo". It was on the hard (land) in Riverhead, Long Island and was whispering "buy me" the moment I saw it. :-) It has lines and weight didtribution very similar to my Victoria and is reputed to be one of the more seaworthy boats for its size. It was set up for single handing with all critical lines led back to the cockpit and had standing headroom in the cabin. So, I contacted the owner and after a flurry of e-mails back and forth, I bought the boat.
So on August 5th Echo was delivered to Coeymans Landing Marina who then launched it with a travel lift.
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The next morning my son joined me and we headed north on the first leg of the journey to Champlain. We had to catch a flood tide to negate the flow of the Hudson so we left at 9AM. By noon we reached the first lock on the hudson putting us out of reach of tides and currents. The following pictures are scenes along the Hudson as we passed Albany and Troy.
A really cool octagonal house.
A riverboat the reminded me of Dutch canal boats.
A bit of the Albany skyline with the old train station in the foreground.
That's the Troy town dock with a brewery and pub right behind it.
A little north of Troy we saw our first Eagle.
The Federal Lock in north of Troy ends the tidal influence in the river.
Just a bit north of the Lock we spotted this Cormorant.
Eagles Nest.
Another Eagle.
Approaching a canal lock.
Cruising up the Champlain canal.
Passing some locals.
At the North end of the canal I arrived at the Lock 12 Marina.
I spent the night there, had shower, a steak dinner and had my mast raised.
Dawn on Champlain the next morning. 40 miles to Port Henry.
It was damp, chilly and misty.
The sun finally came up over the mountains.
The Dresden Narrows.
The booming Metropolis of Dresden.
The Crown Point Ferry. Just beyond the ferry, at the base of those
mountains is Port Henry, Echo's new home port and the end of this journey.
Finally tied up in its new home.
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