Up Hudson River/Erie Canal

[Captain Sweetpea]

How many days should it take from south shore Long Island to Seneca Lake? 390 Trawler, average 8 knot cruise speed. (daytime travel only).

 

[Comodave]

We did it back in 2016 early in the spring. The water flow was very fast at times and they had the canal shutdown at times. But as I recall about 6 days running.

 

[rslifkin]

Figure it'll take you 2 days to get to Waterford to start the canal portion at 8kts. 4-5 days in the canals to Seneca Lake. Figure a week plus any delays to be safe for the whole trip.

 

[Bacchus]

Will depend on where on LI and Seneca.
I would say 6 days min w some pushing and long days. 7-8 more realistic. Timing of tides on Hudson can help or hurt.

 

[caltexflanc]

Take your time it is a beautiful cruise. Stop along the way and smell the figurative roses, so to speak, of which there are many. There have been a few detailed threads on your subject here in recent weeks.

 

[Captain Sweetpea]

Thank you all for the replies. I would love to "smell all the roses" but I have limited time to get the the boat there. Unfortunately, I have to get back to work.
Wanted to do the trip in early to mid April but just learned that the canal doesn't open till late in May. More time to prepare I guess.
Anyway, thanks again ?

 

[jimL]

We purchased our Mainship 430 aft cabin trawler at the north tip of Seneca Lake. It took us three, eleven hour days to get to Shady Harbor Marina (10 miles south of Albany), Somewhere around 232 SM and 29 locks.

JimL

 

[Captain Sweetpea]

Hi Jim L,
Thanks for that info. I'm surprised you had no air draft issues coming out of Seneca Lake with your 43 Mainship. Honestly, I was concerned about getting in with my 390. My radar mast does fold down, I'm sure I'll have to take down my flybridge enclosure. What do you think?

 

[rslifkin]

Hi Jim L,
Thanks for that info. I'm surprised you had no air draft issues coming out of Seneca Lake with your 43 Mainship. Honestly, I was concerned about getting in with my 390. My radar mast does fold down, I'm sure I'll have to take down my flybridge enclosure. What do you think?

You'll want to measure for air draft. IIRC, you're limited to somewhere around 17 feet on the Cayuga-Seneca canal.

 

[Bacchus]

You'll want to measure for air draft. IIRC, you're limited to somewhere around 17 feet on the Cayuga-Seneca canal.

[emoji106] see link for details. Need to scroll WAY down to the Cayuga Seneca section.
Lowest are near both ends Cayuga and entering Seneca
https://www.canals.ny.gov/boating/bridgeheights.html
Also depends on water levels at the time. That is also available on line.

 

[ssobol]

There are a number of locks to transit. The locks only operate during daylight (more or less). There is pressure to reduce the operating hours of the locks to cut costs. This may impact your transit time.

 

[Cliff Meima]

10

 

[Leonard Atkins]

Base lock hours are 7am - 5pm. Fees are waived for 2021. There is a list of locks west of Waterford with extended hours that can be found at https://www.canals.ny.gov/wwwapps/tas/notices/ntm.aspx?id=1623.



Leonard

 

[jimL]

When we departed Seneca Lake, we had the fly bridge, canvas and antennas all down until we got to the Oneida Lake.

 

[Zoar]

Did this trip last year from Long Island to Cayuga Lake (Seneca's next door neighbor). I would allocate 6 days, as others have posted here.

 

[Zoar]

When we departed Seneca Lake, we had the fly bridge, canvas and antennas all down until we got to the Oneida Lake.

Going acrosos Oneida Lake on a sunny day is astounding. Water so blue. It almost feels like you are in the Carribean. ....almost.

 

[mickand]

I can't remember the exact detail of the Hudson currents, but the timing of low tide at any given spot doesn't mean the current starts to flow north at the same point of time - I seem to think the current turns 2 hours after low tide at that point.
If you can start moving north as soon as the current starts in your favor, then you can ride it for about 10hrs - or you can at my lowly speed of 6kts which rises to 8 as the push develops.
Don't hold me to those figures as I'm old and frail, but it's certainly a lot longer than the 6 hrs you might expect under normal tidal conditions.

 

[jimL]

I use TideGraphPro app for my iPhone and it's pretty accurate.