5. Along the Hudson

One of the many old lighthouses on the Hudson River

We left Waterford bright and early on the 29th of September. Happy birthday Irene! We didn’t forget, just couldn’t get to a pay phone. These are few and far in between as everyone in the States seems to have a cell phone. We went to the Price Chopper Dock to load up on groceries. Imagine the business from boaters if they put a dock in! We went through Lock #1 which is at Troy, New York and officially on the Hudson River. Now we have to watch out for tides! This will be a new experience. Lock#1 was the worst lock for us as they don’t have ropes just a big pipe to put your line around. We couldn’t do that as the lock was crowded and we were between pipes. We had to put a rope around the railings and let line out as we descended. It was pretty tricky especially as my line was just long enough! I had a few anxious moments when I thought it would be too short. Some of the locks were 33-34 feet high. Fortunately this was about 18 ft. Sulis caught up to us in the lock but we never saw Falcon’s Nest.

I had not been able to find a copy of Skipper Bob’s "Anchorages along the Intercoastal". Skipper Bob died this summer and his books have been in great demand as no one is sure if his wife and daughter will continue the tradition. I located one in Coeyman’s Marina which we would pass along the Hudson as we were going south and this was their Last copy. They promised to hold it for me. I was our scrubbing the fenders on the deck and not paying attention to what where we were and we passed it before I remembered to tell Roman. We decided it was important enough to backtrack for.

Unfortunately it was low tide. The water rises and falls an average of 4.6 feet every 6 hours. Coeyman’s turned out to be a power boater’s marina and you guessed it. We went aground not once but twice! Fortunately Roman is whiz and got us off both times. We did pay the Boater’s U.S. tow insurance package but we hope not to have to use it.

We decided to drop anchor at Stockport Middle Ground which is a little bay off the Hudson. (Of course we were using Skipper Bob’s) We did a great job. We had practised hand signals so we would not be screeching at each other! It is hard to hear one another over the engine! I remember one cove we were anchored at in the Thousand Islands and a boat came in late at night. Everyone in the cove could hear the couple trying to communicate except for the couple involved! If you look at the picture you will see our mast supported along the deck.


Roman is having great fun trying to figure out all the Raymarine possibilities. He splurged on a huge C120 unit. It is quite interesting to see our journey all plotted our in colour. I get a real thrill out of using it! Every new thing has a glitch and ours seems to be the inability to set our clock to the correct time. I know it seems like a simple thing but we follow the instructions and it seems to be fine and then we go to check the tides and everything is 4 hours off. Roman has worked on it for several days but to no avail so we have sent an e-mail to Raymarine, Now we have to wait until we get internet access again!

Stepping our mast

We were going to have our mast stepped at Hop-a-Nos. However several boaters we met along the way sang the praises of Riverview Marina. It was much cheaper not only for the stepping but also to stay there. We arrived there on Sunday, the 30th in the afternoon and our mast went up on Monday October 1. Everything went smoothly! Roman spent the rest of the day connecting everything and by then we figured out the tide was against us anyway and he was tired so we stayed another night at the marina. First place since we left home that the showers have been really hot!

Here we are cruising along the Hudson with the mast up. It is wonderful to get the mast off the deck and to be ready to sail again. The river is very crowded and so far we havenot had the opportunity to raise the sails at all. I finished the book The Kite Runner and thought it was by far one of the best books I have read in a very long time. Now I am browsing A Consultation with the Back Doctor by Dr. Hamilton Hall. Very interesting views presented and some very different from his original ideas. It only proves that we all live and learn! It was great to learn that I am doing all the things I should for my back except for the daily exercising which is sporadic.

We have heard that the Canadian Dollar is higher than the U. S. YEAH!
We are going to need every little bit of help that we can get as the marina prices are about $3:00/ft. and higher around New York City which we should reach on Thursday. At the 79th Street basin apparently you can stay at a mooring ball for $30/ night. That’s where we are headed.

Meeting with C-Drifters

Last night we stayed at Mariner’s Restaurant on
the Hudson. If you buy a meal you get to stay at their docks free for the night. Their Clam Chowder was excellent! At the dock we again met Ray and Irene, an wonderful English couple who sold everything and bought this beautiful 44 ft. Toshiba boat, C-Drifters. It is all hand-crafted teak on the inside and even the decks are teak! It is very roomy and luxurious! We had dinner with them last night and joked that their boat was like a penthouse suite in a hotel and ours like the budget basement room in comparison. They spent 2 years looking for a boat. They had very specific requirements as this was going to be their home. Last year they travelled over 20,000 miles in the U.S. looking at boats. They found their dream boat in Chicago, of all places. They have sailed it from Chicago
through the Great Lakes and the New York Canal
system and are on their way south as well.