Tuesday May 31: Waterford on the Erie Canal

After spending two nights in Kingston, we planned to travel the remaining 60 miles to Waterford and the start of the Erie Canal. It was to be another nice travel day but then we remembered we would be arriving at the Erie Canal on Memorial Day!

Not the best plan as Waterford is a busy port for boaters as they head toward either the Trent Canal or Lake Champlain.

Instead we stopped after a relatively short 23 miles at Catskill and spent the night at the Catskill Yacht Club. Very friendly people but then it seems most boaters are :-)

What happened to our cool days? Quite hot today so no biking around for me. Steve, however, walked the mile to Walmart – TWICE. And uphill to boot. Downtown was across the river from us. Cute town though – stopped here five years ago.

Our last day on the Hudson was amazing.

No wind to speak of. Catskill Mountains behind us.

Once past Albany (the present capitol of New York), we anchored for a short time in order to take the mast down. The mast is 21.2 feet. The bridge up ahead is 20 feet as are the majority of bridges on the Erie Canal.

Not a hard thing to do. Steve is bolting the hinged railing back is place as we continue on. Removing the lines and stays and storing the mast and boom will happen once we are tied up for the night. No rush on that.

Finally! The sign and turn you don't want to miss :-) We went left …

No problem finding a spot – there were a couple to choose from – in and tied up. Now traveling on fresh water and no tides. It's wonderful :-)

Once again Steve was off to the grocery store with GREAT success: live lobster for $5.99 a pound! So he picked up a couple of 1 ¼ pounders – perfect size for dinner.

A well done Visitor's Center – complete with an Erie Canal mule!!

So since leaving New York City behind, we traveled another 160 miles north on the Hudson River before turning West.

Many small towns along the way (locks as well :-(  ) so it will be quiet travel.

Tomorrow: after breakfast out, we'll start West on the canal …..

Sunday May 29: The Best Laid Plans

It was the perfect plan. Leave our anchorage at Cornwall-on-Hudson about 2:30 pm, catch the current going up the river and arrive at 5 pm at the dock at the restaurant. Just in time for dinner. Already knew what we were going to order.

And then we turned toward the restaurant – Mariner's on the Hudson. Mmm.... we couldn't see any docks. Looks the place isn't even open! No cars, no people. No longer any restaurant. Bummer. (We found out later it has changed owners and is undergoing a renovation!)

Not much to do but continue on up the Hudson. Beautiful day – neat scenery. Nothing wrong with that! Destination was now Kingston – the original capitol of the state of New York.

We stopped there five years ago so knew there was a great maritime museum there.

Passed some really incredible light houses along the way. Some of these were home to the light keeper and his/her family. Although most of the light keepers were men, occasionally a woman would end up being the keeper upon the death of her husband.

One (don't recall which one) was home to a family and when the father died, the mother took over. When the mother died, the daughter ended up taking over! Talk about keeping things in the family :-)

The boat in front of us at the dock was very familiar – it was a 1991 Albin and looked exactly the same as ours. I thought ours was in at least as nice of shape so that was kind of fun!

The other LARGE boat – covered in shrink wrap – was a wooden sailing vessel that is being restored. We were permitted inside to see the work that was being done. Can't remember the length of it though. Tons of work to replace many underwater planks. It was scheduled to be finished up in the next month but to me it doesn't seem like they could possibly make that deadline.

The covered sailboat (it's actually sitting on a barge) is docked just before the bridge.

On the right is the dockage along the Roundout Creek – right in front of the museum!

Which was again great! I had an opportunity to practice driving a tugboat out of the channel and am glad to report that I did not run it into any rocks :-)

Ice boat racing was a popular hobby for the rich that lived along the Hudson. The collection of racing skiffs and equipment was quite impressive. The skiffs could weight as much as a ton and had to be hand carried onto the ice. Guess it's a sport where you invite lots of friends - or in the case of the wealthy, just pay for lots of help!

And my favorite pastime in a museum: the videos! This one had several – quite well done and really gave a perspective of the area over time. It included some of the pictures of the flooding in the past – Irene and Sandy included.

The couple in our 'twin boat' had their boat on land and blocked up during Hurricane Sandy. The tidal surge was 11 feet. Their boat would have come out of it unscathed except for the damage done by a boat that FLOATED into theirs! Fortunately, their boat did not float off the jack stands as the surge of water was only 4 feet deep where their boat was sitting.

These are pictures for my brother Tom. We found a Mexican restaurant named Mole, Mole. Sauce is in the left picture.

Steve's chicken wrapped in a corn husk with mole in the right picture. He said it was very good. I passed on it :-)

The last steam powered tugboat is right next to the museum – currently being prepared to be exhibited. It's crazy how much a a tugboat is under the water and no wonder then how it can push the huge ships around!

Steve is dwarfed by the size of the rudder alone!

Tomorrow: the Erie Canal!!!

Saturday May 28: Cornwall-on-Hudson

We left our anchorage behind the Statue of Liberty about 11 am yesterday - waiting for the current to head up the Hudson River prior to our leaving.

The Hudson River is actually an estuary. The ocean tide actually runs in and out of the Hudson River causing currents that run north then turn and run south - twice a day.

We wanted the current going north!

First we needed to make our way through the New York city harbor with it's crazy number of vessels speeding across the harbor.

Staten Island Ferry

It was the roughest part of the travel today! We dodged racing sailboats (about 10 of them sailing in the harbor), numerous coast guard boats (with guns!), water taxis going every which way, and of course the uniquely colored Staten Island ferries.

Ellis Island

Ellis Island (actually very close to the Statue of Liberty) is a very fun looking building.

Steve's relatives (and mine too actually) came through Ellis Island when they immigrated to the US back in the early 1900's.

Pretty interesting history to the island. For more information, click here.



Once we passed under the George Washington Bridge, we knew we were home clear!

George Washington Bridge

The plan was to travel as long as we had the current with us - we were following the current going north and so were traveling at a steady 9.2+ mph. Made for a quick trip up the Hudson and helped make up for the later-than-usual start.

The views along the way are so varied - there is always something to look at.

I thought this obviously abandoned ?? was certainly reminiscent of earlier time on the Hudson.

As we approached the Tappen Zee Bridge it was difficult to determine exactly what was going on at the bridge. Finally, once we were close enough, it became clear that a new bridge was under construction. I don't know how long this has been going on but it is quite a project - years in the making for sure.

Once we were truly in the mountains, small towns would line a shoreline. Seemed every building was right on the water line.

Towns and trains. Lots of trains. Along both sides of the river. Seemingly constant! Both Amtrak (east shore) and freight trains (west shore). We found out last night the trains run all night and like to blow their whistles :-)

The route through the Catskill Mountains (a part of the Northern Appalachian Mountains) is incredible.

Picture left was taken shortly after a pouring rain - a slight bit of fog (?) leftover.

Finally after 60 miles and 7 hours we anchored just off shore from Cornwall-on-Hudson.

Not much here except a yacht club and a small town up the shoreline a bit.

And of course a train track ...





Steve caught a picture of one from the flybridge as it traveled along the shoreline near the small town.

Everything looks like a set from a model railroad train set. The vastness of the river is hard to really understand.

Today (it's now 11:39 - truly an enjoyable morning!!) we'll head out at 2:30 to catch the next northbound current. But we're only traveling 18 miles to a restaurant with a dock. Dock is free if you eat dinner with them - if we have to we have to, right? I've already checked out the menu - shrimp stuffed with crabmeat for me! Seafood platter for Steve :-)

It's about time he had a night off from cooking dinner ... and of course if he doesn't cook then I don't have any dishes to do :-)

Thursday May 26: New York City!

 The morning was hazy on Tuesday as we headed out of the Cape May inlet. Weather was for very low winds so it made it an easy decision to travel to Atlantic City on the ocean side rather than on the New Jersey intercoastal waterway.

It's quite shallow and guidebooks tell you that if your boat draws more than 4 1/2 feet don't even think about it! And if you do go, travel only between the time the tide is half risen to when it has half fallen - especially the part between Cape May and Atlantic City.

After 44 miles and 6 hours we spotted the entrance to Atlantic City. The casinos were VERY easy to spot even through the haze.

We scored a great dock at the Aquarium docks just inside the inlet. What's not to like about that? Even included admission to the aquarium :-)

Steve in particular is always a sucker for the fish tanks.

Guess maybe he should have stuck with that Marine Biology major in college .....

Plus he seems to make a pretty good turtle ;-)


After a peaceful night (and a ride around for Steve in search of a few groceries) we were off again early Wednesday morning.

We originally planned to go outside again as the weather was going to allow it but after seeing the waves would be from the East, we elected to just go inside.

This section of the intercoastal is not as problematically shallow as the previous section from Cape May to Atlantic City.

We did though find one inlet in particular that had major shifts in the original route due to the damaging winds and tidal surges of Hurricane Sandy.  It's still very well marked but nothing hardly close to what the chart plotter shows as the way through. Rule Number 1: follow the visual aids - not the chartplotter!! This rule has served us well ....

It's very different travel through the marshes of New Jersey rather than traveling offshore three or so miles - with sandy beaches lining the shores of New Jersey.

Here's it's many, many birds in the marshes along with folks caring for the fishnets in the shallows.


The route inland was a bit longer by 4 miles but was way better than spending 8 hours in broadside swells on the ocean. The most interesting passage is the cut about 4 miles from the Manasquan inlet. Crazy current - fortunately going our way!

Once at the marina at which we were spending the night, things became quite interesting.

This boat had been towed in by SeaTow - and parked in "our" spot. So we temporarily docked elsewhere.

But shortly after we were docked, this boat headed off again. Ok - that was easy!

Not so much. He tried to turn around and come back into the marina. Lost one of his transmissions so had only one engine and ended up slammed against the bridge because of the current.

The tow boat picked him up and towed him back to the spot in front of us - held off of us only by Steve being able to push him off.

Whew. Disaster averted as the damage to his boat was minimal considering the situation.

Time for us to pull forward. Easy. Just to a dock 20 feet forward of us. Into the current. Extra guy from the marina to "help us". Whatever.

So we move forward. Extra guy tells me to slow down. I ignore him. Extra guy tells me again to slow down.

Shouldn't have listened. I know how to dock this boat but thought, well, he maybe knows more than I do about docking in this current. He didn't.

Ripped the railing right off as the end of the open gate caught on one of the pilings.

But they were great about getting someone to look at it. In the end Steve did the work of replacing it as it was at this point a safety issue. Can't have a gap in the railing like that - I would have lasted at best one day without falling in :-)

He stole a stanchion (the stainless steel post holding the railing up) from the back of the boat (to be replaced ???) where it wasn't as critical as right at the gate in the railing.

Good to go! Terrible place to dock though. Crazy current, docks fixed so almost impossible to get off the boat at the low end of the 5 foot tide). And at $3 a foot to boot!!

Next time we'll anchor out ...





Off this morning at 5:45. Really? That really isn't even a civil time to be up and about for retired folks.

But the calm winds were calling as we headed out the the last leg of truly weather dependent travel until we reach Lake Ontario.

Outside as Manasquan inlet is the end of the inside route through New Jersey. Destination was the anchorage behind the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor!

We traveled about a half mile offshore most of the 6 hour trip north to New York. Wasn't hard to spot! Again hazy but perfect for traveling with light winds from the west and 1 foot swells from the south west. Just enough to push us a bit.

Steve spotted the Parachute Jump on Coney Island from quite a distance. His Mom grew up in Manhattan and his family made many trips to New York (with a stop a Coney Island) over the years when he was a kid.

Nice to know it's still there even though it isn't really the original one.








The highlight of course was when we approached the Statue of Liberty!!

It's so cool that we drove right by on our own boat and will spend tonight anchored at Liberty Park to the west of the monument.

Sadly the trees have grown up so much that we no longer have the view we did 5 years ago when we could still see the statue lit up at night. You can't see them in the picture above but there are huge numbers of people lining the several levels of the statue. Coming and going on the Statue Cruise boats. The boats were coming and going constantly.

Tomorrow we head up the Hudson River - two wonderful days of sun and low winds forecast. Should be on the Erie Canal by Monday!

Our route the last few days: