We had read in the Guidebook to the Champlain canal about the currents between the lower 7 locks. It was mentioned that small craft might have difficulty with the five to six knot current in places! Our average speed is four knots and, if I sprinted I might get it up to six. We decided, therefore, to reverse our direction and go with the flow.  So we drove to Admiral’s Marina just above lock 4 in Stillwater.  There was no one there to accept the $3.00 fee for parking. We launched and headed across the river to the inlet to lock 4. This was our second lock passage and we were going to be lowered this time. There was no current.  We sat above the gate waiting for the lock to open and be sucked in to the lock. The sun shone hot and we waited and waited. I itched to get going and row some miles. The lockmaster apparently did not see us waiting because as soon as a larger powerboat came along he opened the lock. No suction. Just quiet flat water to row into. I wondered if the fact that we were small made us less important. Perhaps preference was given to those that burned more diesel? No, I think our size prevented our being noticed. We exited the lock first and lead the powerboat out into the river and headed down stream. No current!  In about ten miles after passing through locks 3,2 and 1 we had dropped almost 60 feet and rowed to the park where we had taken out the day before.

Dave Blackman, a very nice and interesting environmental engineer met us there and drove me to the Admiral’s Marina to find the car. Dave is the executive director of the Rennselaer affiliate of Habitat in Troy. We talked about the upcoming dredging to remove the PCBs dumped in the river for years by a GE plant. This was to be a $680 billion project. Perhaps local people who obviously need it in this depressed region will earn some of this money.  No ticket, no one collecting money, so I drove back to Waterford to find Heather and the boat.

We drove north to Schuylerville, which would be our next destination. The current was not going to present any problem. We found the Schuyler Yacht Basin, parked in one of its many unused campsites and, after a poor meal at the local Chinese restaurant, got to bed in the back of our new Honda Element.