M/V MAERIN

Eastbound back through the Canal System with stops at Ilion, Canajoharie, and Scotia. Ilion is the home of Remington Arms. There is a museum at the factory, unfortunately the museum was closed for the Labor Day 2050Holiday. The marina at Ilion is run by the village of Ilion, it is one of the nicest facilities we stayed at in the Canal system. Very well-kept, friendly folks, and a short walk to town. Most of the towns along the canal are suffering the same fate. Lots of industrial buildings standing empty, hulking reminders of what once was. An overnight stay in Ilion and a walk around the town, and a quick deck wash down for Maerin, then on to Canajoharie.

Canajoharie is the home of Beech-Nut Packing company. Bartlett Arkell founded the company in the 1800’s. He was a local native, and was evidently a staunch home town supporter. His Arkell museum houses American art by Winslow Homer, Andrew Wyeth and others. A walk up the hill took us to the Arkell family home, a huge mansion that is now a nursing home. 20712080A walk around town was rewarded with many examples of turn of the century architecture, huge old homes reminiscent of the past boom days when the canal brought so much prosperity to the region as the area exploded with new industrial growth made possible by the cheap transportation the Canal provided.

Wednesday morning we headed east, and stayed at a public dock in the village of Scotia. The public park there is delightful, nicely kept and huge. We saw many very nice parks throughout the Mohawk Valley. The floating dock at Scotia is about 50 ft long, no hookups, but no charge for tying up. We had a personal welcome from the Sergeant of the Scotia PD, just stopping by to greet us! Not much in the town, but a nice stopover.

2104Passing through Waterford we saw a variety of tugs tied up at the Waterford visitor’s center in preparation for the tug fest scheduled for this weekend. Lots of interesting looking vintage tugs there.

Thursday night is in Albany, back at the Albany Yacht club. Folks there are nice, the facility is well kept. We’ll head south down the Hudson in the morning towards Kingston, keeping an eye on the weather forcasts, especially the track of TS Hanna, which is predicted to come up the east coast Saturday. We’ll probably stay in Kingston to wait out the passing of the storm before resuming travel south. Local predictions are for heavy rains Saturday with gusty winds 20-30 kts. Probably a good day to stay put!