Sittin' in the Hudson River

Watchin' the time roll away;
Sittin' in the morning sun;
And we'll be sittin' when the evening comes......

Yep, that's what we are doing, sittin'. Oh, and we are watching the ships roll in, and we're watchin' them roll away again.

All ready to transit the Erie Canal for Home, and no where to go. We had wanted to get to Waterford to wait, and it turns out we can't even do that. Apparently they won't let us go through the Federal lock at Troy even to get to the Erie, because there is nowhere to go. The docks aren't in the water, at Waterford, and there are no marinas. So we hang back. We are paid up until Sunday on the mooring ball at Castleton on the Hudson, but then we will be on the hook next to the mooring field until they let us up the river. No use paying for a ball when there are no services attached to it. The good news is that we had word yesterday that the locks were opening on the 3rd of May, a little late, but better than three weeks delayed.

So where were we. That's right, exhausted from a long 66 hour passage in the pleasant North Atlantic. (Just like child berth, the memory of the pain goes away quickly, and you only remember the good stuff). We woke to a beautiful day in Nyack NJ. Again we were accused of bring the warm weather with us. Guilty as charged, please just throw money. Still not feeling up to our usual selves, we decided to take the day off and wander around, until we found out that the laundromat was open, and then the lure of fresh bedding drew us out. So after walking through the streets of the local artisan fair, where we picked up some Christmas presents, don't ask, we headed back to the boat to get our two big bags of dirty stuff.

We hadn't seen this many people in one place in a while. It was a little weird, but the day was beautiful, and the vendors not too too pushy.

Monday the weather deteriorated, but one of the club members took me to get our propane tank filled while Serena helped his wife with the bottom paint on their boat. We hung out at the club house most of the day using their wifi, having showers, and visiting with the locals. Nice relaxed day. The bad weather went to worse; the winds blew strong, up over 40 knots from the south, putting large, sharp, nasty, waves through the mooring field. We were trapped on the boat for two days while it rolled and bucked, and tried to make us ill. Then finally late on Wednesday we got a little reprieve, and were able to dinghy in to the club, have showers, use the internet, fill up our drinking water jugs, and just sit somewhere that wasn't moving for a change. We also said our good byes to our host, who had graciously allowed us to use his mooring ball, for free. We would have stayed longer, but we already felt like we were taking advantage of their generosity, so we packed up and headed out on Thursday morning, into freezing temperatures. But at least the winds were light, and the sun was shining.

The spring brings a different kind of beauty than you get in the fall. These little waterfalls showed up sporadically along the river. 

West Point, once again, always awe...

And trains, the Hudson river has lots of trains. Twin tracks on each side of the river I think, and they are the busiest I have ever seen.

The first day we traveled only 28 nautical miles up to Pollepel Island. We stopped here on our way down. A nice little anchorage tucked in behind the island. It was however, rather quiet without our friends from C'sta Time and Serenada. We noticed that there was scaffold set up all around the castle, so it must be a restoration project on the go. It is sad that all the extravagance of yesteryear tends to get destroyed by fire, on in this case by an explosion, and a fire. 

The following day was a long 50 nautical mile drive up the Hudson river. We pulled off the river and dropped the hook across from Catskill Creek just after sunset. There was some strong north winds being called for on Saturday, and we wanted to make sure we didn't have too far to go. Plus, Sunday was promising to be a great "mast taking down day", warm, with no winds. After 10 hrs in the cockpit though, the temperatures barely above freezing were starting to get us. I am still trying to figure out what the big rush was to get back here, oh, right, house....

Debris, man, is the Hudson full of debris. You can't take your eyes off the water. Logs, firewood, trees, garbage; anything you can think of, it floated by us. We even saw three car tires, one of which I made an evasive maneuver to avoid, just in case the car was still attached to it. You never know. We considered travelling Friday night, to get up to Castleton on the Hudson before the nasty north winds moved in, but with this much stuff in the water, it would be too dangerous.

Yes, we are early. Almost all the clubs on the Hudson are still shut down. This should be a sign.

More pretty streams. This one has a bunch of trees still waiting to be dislodged so that they can join their brethren in the river.

Serena took about 200 pictures of logs, and debris. 

Oh, did I mention trains.....

And tugs. Sometimes, lots of tugs.

This was our biggest tree. Roots and all, probably about 60 to 80 feet long. Serena had a hard time getting the whole thing into the frame to take the picture. Imagine plowing into this puppy at 20 knots. Not that Vita is ever going to see 20 knots, but if she were a power boat, this would be a very treacherous obstacle.

And barrels. Enough to make a nice dock.

And ships, the Hudson river has no shortage of these either.

Or tugs and ships. We had to get out of the channel for these two, plus two other tugs, one before and one after. There was a nasty current, and with the waves from these things, it was all I could do to hold Vita straight. We kind of crab walked up the edge of the channel trying to stay out of their way.

But we made it to Castleton on the Hudson. 21 nautical miles took 7 1/2 hours. Compare that to the day previous, and its very sobering. The Hudson river can be a real bear in the spring. The water is tidal, so you get flow in both directions, but the incoming flow has to fight the current, so it isn't as strong as the outgoing flow which is aided by the current. It amounts to a really slow ride at times.

The Boat club welcomed us, the people have been great, and we joined them in their first party of the year; a Mexican night. All you can eat for $12 a head, very reasonable, and really cheap beer. We came pretty close to closing the place, and we had an awesome time. 

Sunday, being Easter, was really slow at the club. The sun was shining, and the winds were light out of the south. A better day to be taking down a mast, there is not. Luckily for us, Vita's mast is so simple to take down, that I am pretty sure I could do it myself with the remote control they have here. Having Serena here just made the job all that much simpler. Any more than two and the job gets too complicated.

Still debris floating by, all the time.

Take off the sails, the lines, undo everything, put the mast cradle pieces onto the boat and secure them. Taking down the mast takes only a few minutes, but the work up to that point takes hours. And, Serena wouldn't even let me have a beer until the mast was down.

Almost ready.

Serena working hard. Controlling that button on the remote is hard work.

Up, up, up.....

Down, down, down.

Our only injury for the day. The button left an indent in Serena's thumb. I consoled her while she wept on my shoulder. Boat bites.

Then I got a chance to do some of the hard work. Reeling the winch back up. I didn't get an indent. The button on the motor control box is bigger.

Now Vita is a power boat once again.

We've now been sitting on the boat for two days. We haven't even gone to shore. After tying up the mast, and doing a pump out, it was getting late. We headed back to the mooring ball, made supper, and had a celebration of sorts, for a job well done. That meant of course that neither of us was in any mood to doing anything the following day. 

Yesterday we started working on some of our outstanding chores. I fixed the alternator, which hadn't been working since some time in the Ocean. Turns out the wire that powers the regulator was broken at the connector. A fault in the manufacturers wiring harness. Serena cleaned, and I cleaned, and we organized, and sorted, and on and on. There is no end on a boat. If you want the space to be livable, you are constantly trying to keep it that way.

So now we sit. There is no where to go. And we wait. We might go to the store today for ice cream. Maybe do laundry tomorrow. And of course there is still a long list of things that could use our attention on the boat, maybe we'll look at those for the next day. Life can be so rough sometimes.

See everybody soon.

Vita back to one six.