Fred has posted some very interesting pictures of the early winter along the Erie Canal. We live about 100 miles south of Waterford but I still find it tough to convince my born and bred Florida relatives that the typical winter temperature is colder than in their kitchen freezer. We even went X-C skiing once in -30 F. The Hudson south of Albany doesn't usually begin to freeze now until January but a few years ago it was impassable in late December. In the 70's my son and I walked nearly across the frozen Hudson at Cold Spring counting the boats from their moorings and frozen into ice flows. American iceboating began in the Hudson. In the cold 1800s the river would start to freeze at Thanksgiving and not thaw until Easter, creating a 100 mile long avenue of ice from Peekskill to Albany. John Roosevelt, FDR’s uncle, founded the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club in 1869. Iceboats were up to 70 feet long, some weighing as much as 3000 pounds. Commodore Roosevelt’s personal boat, the Icicle, was 69 feet long and carried 1,070 square feet of sail. It had a top speed of nearly 100 mph in the proper winds and would race, and often beat, the Hudson River trains to the next town. To the regret of many iceboating diehards, the Hudson does not freeze like it did in the 19th century and good iceboating days are few and far apart. Larry Z * * * * * To all you snowbirds: Last nite we had our first snowfall in the frozen north on the Champlain Canal. This is the view from my couch: http://www.tug44.org/snow.jpg My harbor is drained though there is still a bit of water in the bottom of the channel. They drain it down to the natural river level and leave the lock valves open. Notice the big plank leaning on the porch railing. That plank was laying on the bottom of the canal on the day I first arrived here by boat 4 years ago, and of course the prop hit the plank. Now it serves as Bear the Cat's scratching post, he has removed a half inch of solid oak in the years since. Soon, Bear will be able to go pheasant hunting in the snow. And now it's time for me to go find out if the snowblower still works. Meanwhile, here's a selection of winter scenery on the NY Canals: http://www.tug44.org/canal.winter/scenery/ Boating season starts in only 5 months. Fred Tug 44 http://www.tug44.org/ ------------------------------ Subject: Digest Footer _______________________________________________ http://lists.trawlering.com/mailman/listinfo/great-loop_lists.trawlering.com To modify your Great-Loop subscription options (change email address, unsubscribe, etc.) go to: http://lists.trawlering.com/mailman/options/great-loop_lists.trawlering.com ------------------------------ End of Great-Loop Digest, Vol 120, Issue 1 ******************************************