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!!!
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