We left our dock on Cayuga Lake on Sept 23 to begin moving the boat. Whether it's called moving the boat or cruising depends on weather and schedule. We had eight days to get the boat to NYC so I could hop on a bus and get back to Ithaca for the guild's quilt show, so we didn't get to be the relaxed cruisers we hope to be later in the trip. People ashore are amazed that we can get from Cayuga Lake to any port in the world on our boat. The Erie Canal and Hudson River are the link. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erie_Canal . We had to get through 26 locks to reach New York City, going up in each lock to Rome, NY and then down. The canal is a great bargain, a season pass for $75 gets us home in the late spring and out again the following fall, with free tie ups at walls adjacent to the locks, as well as some town docks. We have our favorite stops, Baldwinsville for a walk and visit to a small museum, Sylvan Beach with its fifties feel, amusement park, and Eddies for a fish dinner. Little Falls is another town frozen in time, maybe it's just that we don't see the strip malls and McDonalds from our watery route. We tied up after going through lock 17 at Little Falls, the biggest lock at 40 feet. Too bad there wasn't time to hike around Moss Island which has huge chimney potholes made over time by the swirling water, hard to believe you're in central NY. Having other priorities, we walked straight into town, past practicing rock climbers, to our favorite bakery, still in business. A quick browse at the grocery store left just enough daylight for dinner at Piccolo restaurant. Another learned skill in our boater life is to sit at the bar, if you want local knowledge/opinion. Early in our years of cruising I felt a little decadent sitting down to lunch next to the owner of mug #1 at a bar where patrons have their own mugs . Now I rationalize it as research. Chris, the bartender at Piccolo's calls the regulars buddy and the waitress mom. They all agree that Little Falls has the state's highest percentage of welfare recipients, a sentiment shared by most of these hard-hit canal towns. As with many of the canal towns, Little Falls evidences in the beautiful old houses the good years when industry flourished due to water power . By the second day we have the routine down pat . Call the lock keeper on the VHF radio or phone, wait for the green light, motor slowly into the lock, fenders down, grab the lines hanging along the wall with the boat hooks and then with gloved hands to keep the boat positioned as the water is let in or out. There isn't much turbulance and the line can be wrapped one turn around a boat cleat if extra force is needed. We only lost our lines once a few years ago when a gust of wind across an expanse of water when we were exposed above the lock walls pushed us beyond the end of our ropes. The little fishing boat locking through with us made sure to stay at the other end in future locks. The Erie Canal meets the Hudson River at Waterford where a left turn will take you up the Champlain Canal to Canada and a right turn takes you down the Hudson to NYC. The Hudson is an estuary rather than a river with tidal flow as far as Albany, so we try to move with the tides. Kingston, Hyde Park, West Point, the DIA museum at Beacon, Bear Mountain State Park where the Appalacian trail crosses the Hudson, there are more favorite stops than we have time for. One important stop is at Castleton, just past Albany, where do-it-your-selfers raise their masts. We radio any boat headed that way to organize a mast raising party. This year the couple on La Flaneuse and our friend's grandson who lives nearby made it do-able. A noose around the midpoint of the mast and attached to a hook hanging from the crane lifts the mast into place where it dangles until the rigging can be attached. The crane now is motorized with a hand-held push button control; I'm a little sad that my job turning the wheel to raise the hook inch by inch is obsolete. The wind picked up, everthing swayed, the mast got seated, the roller furling jib got attached, nothing landed in the water, and La Flaneuse got their turn. By dark we were both anchored across the river sharing stories and tea. They will head to St Martin and then Europe in the spring. We got the word from a boat ahead of us that our favorite NYC stop, a mooring ball at the 79th Street Boat Basin two blocks from Broadway, no longer accepts catamarans. Tarrytown Marina was our other option and only a block from the Metro North train station, and that only a 45 minute ride from Grand Central Station. We stayed two nights and visited with our city kids. Now I'm home recuperating from the quilt show and Lee is parking the boat today at the north end of the Dismal Swamp Canal near Norfolk. He'll rent a car, return his crew, work a few days, and then we'll head back. Mission accomplished: we can now enjoy the many ports of the ICW, hopfully staying ahead of the cold.