Mechanicville

Mechanicville and the lower Champlain Canal

This is a story of PCBs.  One of the more recent economic engines in Fort Edward has been the GE plant which unfortunately also seems to have added some pollution to the river and canal.  As a result, the last few years GE has been dredging along the side of the Champlain Canal – in the area between locks 8 and 4.  This work has essentially closed many of the places that cruisers stop or in our case would like to have stopped.  As a result we blew passed the villages of Schuylerville and Stillwater and the Saratoga National Battlefield to land in Mechanicville. 

We missed the history for commercial access.  From the gap in posting it might be clear we have been in WIFI slim zones – but in Mechanicville there is a wired Laundromat a short block from the free dock – FREE -  with brand new restrooms and showers, plus water, power and pump out directly behind the police station so safe as well. While the town is short on historic forts and museums, it is long on shopping opportunities, restaurants, and handy post offices.  We used our stop to stock up and clean up…. and, deal with our latest crisis.    (Well Steve did the dealing while I did the laundry and blogging…..)

Our water heater dramatically failed – fortunately while Steve was doing the monthly check and clean out of the seawater intake screens….  We shudder to contemplate what would have been the result if it had failed either while we were off the boat or underway. (The hot water system is connected to the engine cooling system!) Clever and handy Steve – removed and ordered a replacement and installed a temporary bypass so we have cold water for the interim.  Well, we did until the water pump sprang a leak. (Now it might be clear why those showers on shore were so welcome!) The town website says they were named for all the mechanical businesses located here so it seemed appropriate (or ironic?) to have our latest mechanical problems in Mechanicville where mechanics and supplies are to hand.