No more tides, no more salt water, and no more sailing for a while.

We spent the last few days motoring up the Hudson River.  The lower Hudson around West Point is a really pretty place to boat.  Lots of trees, smallish mountains on either side of the river, and lots of grand homes and impressive buildings.

Bear Mountain Bridge, lower Hudson.

Here's where we anchored when the thunderstorm came through.

Only a couple of adventures to report.  First, a couple of nights ago we anchored near shore away from the main channel.  We were fairly close to shore to be in shallow enough water for good holding.  Normally the tides force the boat parallel to shore so you can anchor pretty close.  Right after we had gone to bed a huge thunderstorm blew through.  I saw winds of 36 knots, but to tell the truth I really wasn't watching the wind speed.  The initial wind was blowing our boat towards shore, but it was raining so hard we couldn't see shore to tell if we were dragging towards it.  And then the tides were pushing the boat and making confused seas so again we weren't sure if we might be dragging.  We eventually started the engine and motored slowly upwind, hoping to keep the anchor from dragging.  The problem with that technique is that you might actually break the anchor free by motoring over it.  Luckily the storm didn't last too long, and we didn't break the anchor free.  Soon the winds were back in the single digits and we got almost a full nights sleep.  In the morning the anchor was so well set that we did have to motor over it to break it free, so I guess we needn't have worried.

Yesterday we arrived at Castleton on Hudson, home of the Castleton Boat Club.  This is predominately a power boat club, but they have a wonderful hoist arrangement that they rent to all the sailboaters who are taking their masts down to do the Erie Canal, or who are putting their masts back up after doing the canal.  We have taken our mast down there once, and raised it once, both times with friends along to help with the job.  For the non-sailors I should offer a bit of explanation.  Our mast is just under 60 feet long, with about 6 feet of it below deck resting on the keel.  To lower our mast it must first be raised the 6 feet to get the butt above the cabin top.  I should mention that a fully rigged mast weighs in the neighborhood of 250 pounds - just a rough guess.  I should also mention that when we raise or lower our mast back home we always have at least 4 people to help, but more often 6.

Our second adventure began when the dock master at Castleton told us club members are not allowed to help transients work on their boats - lowering masts.  Even the offer of free beer couldn't get us any help, so Sue and I had to get our mast down unassisted.  Fortunately I can now tell you that 2 people can indeed lower a fairly tall mast.  The main problem we encountered was the speed of their electric winch/hoist.  It was glacially slow so it seemed to take forever as the mast became more and more horizontal and I had to keep if from swinging around or slamming into anything.  I can now also say that it takes 2 people much longer to de-rig and lower a keel stepped mast than it takes 6 people to raise and rig the same mast.

This afternoon we arrived in Waterford, the eastern start of the Erie Canal.  This weekend happens to be the annual steamboat meet here.  All the cruising boats were kicked off the docks this morning to make room for the steamboats, but later this afternoon they let us tie us since we are leaving in the morning.  These are all 16 to 25 foot steamboats that people have trailered in from several states - Mississippi, Delaware, Maryland, New York, South Carolina, Connecticut...   They are pretty interesting to look at, but we're glad wood isn't our main fuel source.  Saturday night there will be a fireworks, which we won't be around to see.

The little handle on the far rail is for steering.

Paddlewheel steamer.

It's a boat, so there are projects!

Waiting for the tide

Right now we are waiting for the tide to go all the way out and then come back in for an hour or so to give us an assist against the current of the Hudson River.  We had planned to visit the American Museum of Natural History for about 3 hours while we were waiting.  Since the museum didn't open until 10:00 we decided to walk through Central Park for a while.  Central Park is so large, about 850 acres, we ended up getting lost.  By the time we got back to the museum it was 10:30 which wouldn't have been too bad except there was at least half an hour wait to buy tickets.  I had planned to give you a report on dinosaurs.  Since we didn't see any dinosaurs, and since we did see lots of cars
, I guess you're stuck hearing about cars.

I'm glad that's not my motorcycle!

Several companies make similar bumper protectors.

These cars are not waiting to turn - they're all double parked.
And not just on this one particular street.

Front bumper spacing.

Rear bumper spacing of the same car.  This was a little unusual, but
certainly not the only cars I saw parked so close together.

The population of Manhattan is between 1.3 and 1.7 million people.  Every day more than that number come onto the island.  New York City has around 25,000 restaurants, not counting fast food chains.  Around 200 Starbucks...  But only two gas stations on Manhattan!  30,000 policemen, 11,000 firemen...
The Empire State Building gets between 2000 and 3000 visitors an hour - adults paying $20 to $22.

Weekend in New York City, or riding the bus and seeing a parade.

                                              
We weren't really expecting too much in New York City at this point in our trip, but we both really enjoyed it.  If the marina where we are was a bit better we might actually stay a bit longer.  It's over a hundred bucks a night - which isn't the end of the world - with one bathroom and one shower.  That would even be OK, but the boat wakes from all the shipping on the Hudson is terrible.  If you've seen pictures of  "Galloping Gertie" - the bridge which used to span the Tacoma Narrows before it collapsed - then you 've seen what our dock looks like.  Our boat moved so much at first that our shore power cord pulled out, and it's hard to keep our fenders in place!  Cabinet doors have popped open and the cats are spooked.

The subways were fun after we got the hang of it.  We decided to take the double deck bus tours which take a couple of hours each.  We were able to see lots of buildings and neighborhoods.  The architectural detailing on the older buildings is really wonderful.  Sunday was the annual Gay Pride Parade which runs down 5th Avenue.  We spent a couple of hours watching that between bus tours.  Just two days before Governor Cuomo signed the bill legalizing same sex marriage, so this year's parade was quite a special event.  The crowds were huge and it really screwed up the traffic, but we were walking so who cares.  Actually traffic was still gridlocked several hours later when we were on the city night tour.  There was also a big fireworks display that we watched from the cockpit of our boat.

We are now waiting for the tide to change so we get an assist against the current in the Hudson River.

Tiffany stained glass windows.

Gridlock after the parade on 5th Avenue.

Building detail - caryatids.
Actually caryatids are draped figures, so maybe I should call these "caryatits".

Just in case you want to park your Ferarri long term, check the exotic surcharge.

More wonderful building detailing.

The Dakota - a beetle used to live here.

Guggenheim Art Museum.

Just some of the crowd watching the annual Gay Pride Parade
held once a year.

Crowd in The Village at the end of the parade route.

I think there used to be a cattle farm around here.

Times Square with just a few of the electric signs on buildings in the background.

New York Public Library.

Detail of Flat Iron Building.

If you are ever offered a bridge to buy in Brooklyn...

From the parade, what can I say?

The Flaggots - I kid you not.

No big apples yet.

WWII carrier Intrepid.

Retired Concorde.

Anything for a buck.

A real one man band.

3 guys and a girl.

Times Square.

Flat Iron Building.

Chrysler Building.

Just a few of the people who waited 2 hours for a view from the top.

Jumper's view.

Slight change of plans...fog delay

Sailing conditions yesterday rounding the point into Sandy Hook.

Our view this morning, a little more than a quarter mile away.
Visibility now is even less.

When we woke up this morning we couldn't see most of the shore lines surrounding the bay where we are anchored.  We can't see the aircraft carrier across the bay which was quite visible last night.  After thinking about it a bit we decided to postpone our visit to New York City.  We didn't really want to navigate the 20 miles through the busy harbor in such poor visibility.  And if we had gotten to the city we were reluctant to spend over a hundred dollars a night knowing we wouldn't be able to see much if we went sightseeing.  I doubt we could have seen the Hudson River from the Empire State Building.  Stay tuned for improving weather.

If the stats listed for this blog are accurate there have been over 6000 pageviews from the United States, and almost 100 pageviews from 9 other countries.  I would love to hear from any of you in different countries who are checking on the blog occasionally.  I would be curious to hear how you came across the blog, and any comments you might have.  Of course we would also love to hear from any of you in the US who are checking in on us.

Still in New Jersey, barely...and other weather lies

For the last week or so the winds have been forecast out of the south, which sounds perfect to us since we're heading north.  Today's forecast was SW at 10 to 15 knots, increasing to 15 to 20.  That sounded perfect since we needed to go between 75 to 85 nautical miles, depending on where we ended up.  We were up by 5:00 and under way by 5:15.  Since the wind was directly astern it was a little to light to sail.  We put up the main sail and got between a half and a full knot of assist.  Eventually our ETA stabilized around 5:00 p.m. which was pretty encouraging for for such a long days distance.  It was very hazy and even though we were only 2 to 3 miles off shore we couldn't see land most of the time.  There were several large fishing boats in our path that we didn't see until we were about a mile from them.

Around 2:00 the Coast Guard issued a thunderstorm warning for the waters north of us.  Just about then our wind went really light and then shifted to the north.  The Coast Guard also issued a distress call about then for a boat at at unknown location with an unknown problem - mariners please be on the lookout!  Around 3:00 it started to rain, very hard at times, and then the wind started to build.  By 3:30 the wind was up to around 20 knots - out of the north!  Sue saw one gust to 28 knots.  Our boat speed started to drop as we motored into the wind and building waves, and soon our ETA was around 10:30 or 11:00 p.m.!  At that point we were still 12 to 14 miles from the point where we could turn off the Atlantic and head into New York Harbor.

New York Harbor has to be one of the busiest harbors we've sailed in or through, with cruise liners, tugs and barges, freighters, ferry boats, military shipping, as well as pleasure craft criss-crossing all the channels.  We had not been to the anchorage by Sandy Hook, NJ that we had now decided on, and were really reluctant to try to find it after dark.  When our boat speed motoring dropped to under 3 knots occasionally we decided we had to sail.  We had been a little reluctant to sail at first since the wind was right on the nose.  Starboard tack would take us into shore and shallow water, while port tack would take us out into the freighter channel.  Once we got the sails back up our speed really started to increase, and eventually the wind shifted around enough that we could make our course without having to tack.  It turned out to be a pretty nice sail, despite beating into 3 to 4 foot waves.  Our ETA dropped back to 7:00.  Right now we are the only boat here, anchored right by the Coast Guard station at Sandy Hook.

So other than motoring for 10 hours, no visibility, heavy rain, big waves on the nose, looking for an unknown boat who-knows-where, and wind direction and speed totally unexpected, we had a pretty nice sail back into New York Harbor.  Tomorrow the plan is to head up the Hudson River and get a mooring or a dock by 79th Street so we can explore the city.  It seems a bit early in the season to me, but I've heard something about big apples.  Should make a nice addition to our diet.

High rolling in Atlantic City

Yesterday we had a pretty easy trip from Cape May to Atlantic City.  Getting into the harbor was a bit of challenge as there was a dredge and its discharge pipe blocking the main channel.  We eventually figured where to go without running aground and were soon tied up at the big city marina complex where we stayed last fall with Eileen and Harold.  It's a good thing we weren't coming in after dark or with a strong following wind.

Coney Island, the big amusement park north of Cape May.
I'm sure you've heard of it.

The channel is to the right of the dredge!

Sue's Aunt Ruth, Uncle Jerre and cousin Vickie drove down from Philadelphia to visit and take us out to eat.  Sue hadn't seen her cousin in 40 years, and I had never met Vickie so we all had a really nice time visiting.  It turns out Vickie's husband John has done lots of offshore sailing and racing.  We ate at a really nice restaurant, The Chart House, overlooking the harbor.  All the tables have a window view, with the second row of tables being raised up to look over the tables closer to the window.  We could see our boat from our table.  There were 5 or 6 men in suits who kept coming up to the table to see if everything was OK or if we needed anything.  Since the first guy asked me how everything was just after they brought the menus and water I was a little curious.  By the time the 3rd, 4th and 5th guy stopped by the table I had it figured out.  They had realized I was off a boat, and not their typical social-type client, and were just checking their silverware.

Aunt Ruth, Sue, Uncle Jerre, Cousin Vickie

The "stars" are actually sea gulls.

I doubled my money in Atlantic City, being at a casino and all.  I took all the bills out of my wallet and asked each and every George there if they wanted to stay in Atlantic City.  All 4 of them said "No" so I carefully folded them over and stuck them back in my wallet. 

Some of the "painted ladies" in Cape May, NJ.



I thought we were in Cape May, but clearly the sign says otherwise.



This morning we are on our way to Sandy Hook, just south of New York City.  It will be a 75 to 85 mile day, depending on where we end up, so we got up at 5:00 and were under way by 5:15.  I sure will be glad when this vacation is over so I can start sleeping in again.

And a PS regarding the visit with my relatives that never happened in Virginia Beach.  Apparently the expected out-of-towners from Texas called at the last minute saying they weren't coming!

New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean again

Sunday morning we passed through the Annapolis area heading up the Chesapeake.  We ended up in the Sassafras River, just south of the start of the C & D Canal which connects the north end of Chesapeake Bay with the north end of Delaware Bay.  Delaware Bay has quite a tidal current, which can either give you quite an assist or slow you down  to a crawl.  We checked out our cruising guide and tried to time our transit of the canal and the bay to maximize our speed getting to Cape May.  That meant leaving our anchorage around 11:30 Monday morning - pretty late since we're used to getting up at 5:30 or 6:00 these days.  For once the cruising guide seemed to work and we made pretty good time across the canal and into Delaware Bay.  We got into Delaware Bay around 4:00 and then continued on down the bay another 20 miles to the Cohansey River.  We had never anchored there before but it was a decent anchorage, despite the hundreds of horseflies, and got us a lot closer to Cape May, NJ. 

This morning we were under way by 6:00 and arrived in Cape May around 12:30.  We talked with people on two other boats who tried quite a different strategy.  They stopped for the night at a marina in the middle of the C&D Canal, and then left this morning at 2:30 a.m.!!!  (And I thought getting up at 5:30 was early.)  They arrived in Cape May about the same time we did.  The winds were pretty light so we had to motor but we did manage to gain about a knot of speed from our headsail and a couple of knots of speed from the tide for most of our trip down the bay.  When we did this same section of the trip after we bought the boat and were bringing it back to the Great Lakes we ended up doing most of Delaware Bay after dark with a head wind and big waves.  At times we were making only 2 or 3 knots and found out exactly how bad the forward hatch leaked.  That trip we got into Cape May around 2:00 in the morning.

We tied up at a marina here and they welcomed us with a goodie bag that included handmade soap, biscoti, and a bottle of locally made blueberry wine.  We walked into town to find a grocery store.  There are lots and lots of really nice old houses in Cape May, many dating from the 1800s.  There is also a nice 3 block pedestrian mall with all kinds of touristy shops.  Lots and lots of boats, and a big Coast Guard station.

This afternoon after our sightseeing walk into town Sue scrubbed the boat.  She was able to get lots of the bug residue cleaned off.  Then we feasted on grilled chicken and corn-on-the-cob from the grocery store.  Tomorrow we plan to head up to Atlantic City.

Closing the circle...

We spent last night in Galesville, MD.  A very few of you might remember that we bought our boat in Galesville almost 3 years ago.  Our return last night completes a circle of buying the boat, returning it to Lake Erie, and now returning to Galesville after going south through Florida and the Bahamas.  The main reason I wanted to return was to see if our friend Spike was still there.  Spike is a mechanic who did some work on our boat after we bought it, and was a source of informational help on our delivery back to Lake Erie.  Spike was still around and we had a nice visit, catching up on what we had both been doing for the last couple of years.

 

 

Our friend Spike.  I told him he needs to relax a bit.  I also wanted him to mount
the AC unit in our boat.

 

We are at the very top of the Chesapeake now.  Tomorrow should see us out in Delaware Bay on our way back out to the Atlantic.

 

From the "Odds & Ends" department:

 

A couple of mornings ago we noticed what looked to be scores of small plastic bags in the water when we were picking up the anchor.  A closer look showed them to be jelly fish.  Just another reason why we won't be swimming in the Chesapeake!

 

Sue pointed out that we will be able to go swimming once we get back to Lake Erie.  And I think if it gets hot enough I see no reason we can't swim in the Erie Canal.

 

For the first time in months the exhaust water from the diesel looks like it came out of the tap, and not like tea (brown).

 

We are in a distinct minority now of distance cruising boats.  You can tell the distance cruisers by the extra fuel and water containers on deck, and the tannin moustaches.  The "weekenders" are all shiny and clean - both the boats and the people.  One of the other cruising boats the last 2 nights was a boat we first met in the Bahamas several months - small world.

 

A couple of days ago we passed the Patuxent River Naval Air Station where the navy (you didn't think I was going to say Air Force) tests some of their new planes.  I would show you some pictures but their stealth technology is so good they don't show up on film.

 

Summer weekends on the Chesapeake are a real zoo.  Sailboats all over the place, and some of the rudest power boaters we've seen in a while.

 

A small section of the fish stakes.  The first time we came through here it was
getting dark with rain and waves.  Luckily we saw them and figured a way around.

This is the Potomac River.  Right behind the sailboat, about a hundred miles upstream
 you can just see the top of the Washington Monument.