Passage's Progress: 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.