Passage through the “Waterford Flight” a series of 5 locks raises us to the level of the Mohawk River. Not as wide as the Hudson, and scenery is of a different flavor. Beautiful area, mostly rural with each small town having a “terminal wall” where the old canal system would pick up or drop freight & passengers. We cruise 33 miles to Amsterdam, where we stop at a newly-renovated park, Riverlink. A very nice place to tie up, with power and water, although there is a charge. The park is adjacent to a train crossing, and each passing train (and there are a LOT of them!) lays on the whistle as they make for the crossing. We’ve seen more train traffic than we ever knew existed! The rails follow the natural course of the rivers and canals, so they are ever-present. A short walk across the foot bridge and a short tour of Amsterdam downtown. We happened to land on the night of a free concert, so we were treated to some live entertainment by the “Rhythm Boys”. They were actually very good, music from the 40’s mostly. An older crowd, they really enjoyed it.
We experienced some mechanical problems, minor ones, more of a learning experience. We had been keeping the engine idling during our locking procedure, the Waterford flight involves about 2 hours of low speed/idling operation, and we learned that the exhaust system gets too hot with the constant idling. The recently added high temperature alarm sounded. It is designed to alarm when temperatures begin to rise, before any damage is done. It served its purpose, and alerted us to the impending overheat condition before it became a problem. We’ve since shut the engine down during locking, and eliminated the overheat potential, not to mention getting gagged by the diesel fumes!
