Setting out in the early morning we benefitted from calm waters. There is so much boat traffic in New York harbour, that the boat wakes are the biggest source of waves. By leaving early we got outta Dodge before the traffic picked up and things got rocky. Leaving on a weekend also helped, as the commuter traffic was not super heavy. We had a nice ride up the Hudson, and even got a small boost from the flood tide. Today was a grey rainy day, and we passed in and out of rain as we went. Coming into the harbour at Half Moon Bay, we had to wait outside while the dock staff helped some paramedics get someone into an ambulance. With the winds dead calm docking was not an issue, but of course the rain picked up as we came in and we got wet getting tied up.
Last view of Manhattan on our way out of New York and heading up the Hudson river.
Big sculpture in Jersey City.
We passed by the Empire State building on our way out. We saw this when we were on our bus route.
Driving range beside a marina on the Hudson river in downtown Manhattan.
Mushroom-shaped pillars used to make a garden on the river. Pier 57 little island.
Paul on Pelican was staying at Half Moon and had rented a car. He invited us to go shopping with him. One thing we have learned on the loop is that when someone offers you a ride in their car, take it. So, we went grocery shopping with Paul and Maria of Dolly. As we cashed out, the rain started to pour down in buckets! Everyone in the store stopped on their way out until the rain eased off. There was a huge traffic jam of shopping carts just inside the entrance. After about 15 minutes or so, the downpour eased and we got loaded up, then went to a pharmacy. Of course the rain picked up again as we parked and walked into the store.
Advertising robot in the grocery store. This thing had an LCD screen displaying various adds and specials as it rolled around the store. Skynet on isle 5!
Normally when we are travelling, we try to avoid long travel days if we can help it. The stretch along New Jersey had involved some big hops, so we were looking forward to a relaxing cruise up the Hudson. Unfortunately, I screwed up some distance calculations, and we ended up with some longer hops. When we arrived back in the U.S. in April, Louise made reservations at Shady Harbour marina for dockage during their annual looper Bar-B-Que. As we have travelled North, we had our eyes on this date as we made plans for each hop. When we got to Delaware, we realized we were not going to make it to the Bar-B-Que, so Louise changed our reservation. To determine what new dates to choose, I had used a plan I had made for the Hudson transit. We were in a bit of a hurry, so I did not double-check the plan. Unfortunately, I had made some mis-calculations.
We passed West Point on our way up the Hudson.
When you are boating in narrow channels, you cannot measure distances in straight lines. Rivers and channels meander around, and so you need to take into account this back-and-forth when you calculate how long your travel trips will be. The software we use to calculate distances on navigation routes uses units of nautical miles. Our GPS is set up to give speed in kmph. You can see where this is going. Normally I calculate travel times using speed in nautical miles, but we were in a hurry to change our reservation, so I must have mixed up the units. To make a long story short, instead of 3 or 4 hour hops, our plan up the Hudson now involved 6 and 7 hour hops. We could have changed our reservation at Shady Harbour, but we decided to just bite the bullet and do the bigger jumps.
Three loopers travelling on sea-doos. The lady on the left started looping in Illinois, the lady on the right started in the Carolinas. The guy in the middle was on his second day of the loop.
The first big jump was a 7 hour trip, so we planned to leave at 5:30. There was fog on the river, but we could see for several km as the fog was not low-lying, so we decided to go for it. Turned out to be a good decision, as the misty conditions made for a very scenic passage.
We came out of the bay to find cloud-like fog along the river. Luckily, the fog as about 100 feet over the water, so we had clear visibility at water level, the fog shrouded the mountains on either side making for a very scenic passage.
Old-school yacht heading down the Hudson. This thing was 200 feet long, some long-lost millionaire from the 1930's built it and it is still being used.
We went through a stretch of the Hudson that was magnificent. There were steep, high hills on both banks covered in green forests. On each bank of the river there were train tracks. Freight trains on the left, and passenger commuter trains on the right. This area had lots of bridges, of all kinds, criss crossing the river and spanning valleys parallel to the river. There were houses and factories, all made of brick. To top it off, the fog was like a low lying cloud. We had good visibility at water level, but the tops of the hills were shrouded in mist. With a light rain, the trees and vegetation seemed to pop with a vibrant green. I got the very strong sensation that we were cruising down the middle of a giant model-railroad. This passage ranked as one of the best we have ever done in terms of scenery.
Here you can see the railroad roadbed running just above the surface of the water. These tracks were on both sides of the river running along beside the mountains.
There were two bridges side-by-side, one for cars the other for trains.
Here you can see a freight train running beside us. The left bank ran freight trains only, the right bank was for commuter/passenger trains. Notice all the Amazon Prime containers?
Because it was raining there was very little boat traffic, and we only saw a few fishing boats along the way, even though it was a weekend. We were surprised to pass several police boats, but we assumed that they patrol a bit extra on the weekends. With the rain there was no traffic so the police were just cruising along.
iFloat on the docks at the Hudson Maritime museum. Bill was double-checking the lines before we went for dinner.
The sun came out just as we approached Kingston harbour. We tied up to a dock at the Hudson River Maritime Museum. As part of dockage, we got free admission to the museum. During the day a few more looper boats pulled in, and we ended up going to dinner with the crews of Boot Up, (Becky and Wes), Cowbuoy's Life (Catherine and Greg - fellow Canadians from Nova Scotia), and Up North (Jay and partner - we didn't have their boater card to double check her name). We stayed quite a long time in the restaurant swapping looper stories.
Dinner with CowBouy's Life, Boot Up and Up North.
Having made it this far up the Hudson, we were now back in fresh water. The rain was nice for us as it washed most of the salt off the boat, but ironically, when it stops raining we will have to hose off the boat anyways as there are places that the rain cannot get at unless it is really windy. Now that we are in fresh water we want to get rid of the last traces of salt, which will involve a bilge cleaning. Normally our bilge is dry, but it does collect water when it rains. Of course this water is fresh, but there are small amounts of salt water that get in the bilge when I check or clean the strainers. iFloat will now be in fresh water for a long time, so now is a good time to get rid of as many salt traces as possible.
River in Kingston was flat-calm in the morning. We got waked by a bunch of ducks that went by us a little too fast.
Well, we got another rain rinse after dinner as a thunder storm rolled through and gave the boat a bit of a wash down. This continued overnight, as storm after storm rolled through. In the morning, we woke up to a soft drizzle which continued through the morning, occasionally becoming full-on rain. By the time we made it to Shady Harbour marina, the exposed areas of the boat had been thoroughly sprayed down with rain.
The journey was a bit of an obstacle course as the rains washed a lot of debris into the river. There were branches, sticks, logs and lots of floating weeds flowing down the river. It was pretty easy to dodge the big stuff, but we had to zig-zag a lot to stay out of the way of the smaller stuff. Small branches won't damage us, but larger pieces can ding the hull. More serious was the water logged stuff. Things that appear small on the surface could in fact be the tip of a deadhead which could damage the prop. To add to the fun, this was a long travel day and by the time we got to our destination I was toast.
An entire tree was part of the debris. We saw several of these bad boys on the trip.
Louise recorded our track on the Nebo app. The portions that are red are areas we had to slow down to navigate through all the junk. By going slow we limit damage if we do hit something.
Some kind of industrial ruin on the riverbank.
Shady Harbour was chock-full of looper boats. This place is a looper sponsor that hosts a special barbeque event every spring for loopers. Good marketing on their part, as they attract lots of boats during a time in the season when local traffic is low. We went for docktails before supper and met with a lot of other looper boats we had not met before. It turned out that many of the boats here were empty, as the owners decided to fly home while the Erie canal was being repaired. We were invited by a couple on another Canadian boat to go over to watch the Stanley Cup final, but I fell asleep right after supper. Just as well as Edmonton got hammered.
Was drizzling rain at the looper gathering. The shipping container has been retro-fitted into an ice cream stand and bar.
Someone had taken bits of drift wood and sculpted various fish that were stuck all over the shipping container / ice cream stand / bar.
The rain continued all night long and into the next day. I spent the morning changing fuel filters and checking various engine fluids. Louise spent some time making spaghetti sauce. At the previous day's docktails, one of the loopers suggested we hold a pot-luck dinner today, so Louise decided to make a big batch of spaghetti. By mid-afternoon the rain stopped and it became nice and sunny. We got a visit from Paul of Pelican. They had just arrived and came over to see us. Unfortunately, I was on a conference call with the university, so once the call was finished I went over to Pelican to visit with them.
There were about 30 people at the pot-luck dinner. Most of the people here had started their loop this spring and were working their way up the coast, so most of the people we had not met before. During dinner a heavy rainstorm passed through, but it did not last long and we were under a big tent so did not get soaked. The sun broke out right after the rain and we had a really bright rainbow beside the marina. For the first time ever, we saw a rainbow that passed in front of the trees on the far river bank. We had never seen a rainbow that passed in front of things like that.
The looper pot-luck dinner was well attended. We met with lots of boats we were seeing for the first time, some we had followed on Nebo, and some we had not seen since last fall.
During dinner a black cloud rolled in and it poured rain for about a half hour. Then, just as quick, the rain stopped and the sun came out. We were treated to a super-intense rainbow that passed in front of the trees on the opposite bank.
Another view of the fore-ground rainbow. Have never seen this effect before, rainbows always seem to go behind things.
One of the big topics of conversation was the repairs to the Erie canal. During their opening week, they had experienced unusually high water which had damaged a retaining wall and dam. As a result, they had to close two locks on the canal, effectively cutting us off from lake Ontario. We had the option to get home via lake Champlain, but did not want to go that way as we had done the route previously and wanted to see the Erie instead. Most of the loopers here must take the Erie as you need a fairly low air-draft to clear the bridges in the Champlain canal. The canal was repaired last week, but they were still filling the basin and monitoring the repair to make sure it held. Each day we get an update which says things are going OK, but until the two locks get their repairs completed we cannot transit the canal. Since lots of loopers and snowbirds use the Erie to travel North in the spring, the stretch between Albany and the closed section is pretty backed-up with boat traffic. Therefore, we are going to hang around in this area of the Hudson until the Erie opens, plus a day or two to let the backlog flush out. This is a good area to hold up, the river is narrow enough to limit the fetch, there are facilities nearby, and there are also some protected anchorages in the area.
Huge jumping spider in the marina office. Louise was going to take it outside, but the staff told her that the spider lived in the office and ate all the flies. Super-cool to see them keeping a pet spider, especially since it had free run in the office. We do something similar on our boat. Any spiders we find we immediately get rid of, but we never move jumping spiders. Jumping spiders are always welcome on iFloat.
The weather improved the next day as the sun came out and the day heated up. The marina moved us to a different slip, as the one we were in was for the haul-out, and they were hauling a couple of boats for various things. In the early afternoon who should pull in but Thyme Away. We had not seen them since we did the crossing with them. The pool opened up and was quickly filled with loopers. We spent some time on the pool patio, and Louise got her swimming fix. Was really nice to visit with everyone including Mike and Pam of Thyme Away.
Group photo of loopers at the pool. Crews of Hers IV, Thyme Away, Sugar Kain, Pelican, and Andiamo.
Mike decided to get some sleep pool-side. He caught a man-cold and was feeling miserable. Poor baby!
We went back to the boat and had dinner, then got invited to dinner in the marina restaurant. Louise went over and had drinks and visited with a group of loopers having their dinner. The restaurant did not get a good review. Some people's meals were cold, and the food was pretty average.
Restaurant goers from Shady Harbour. Doug and Margie of Her's IV, Angela and Tony of Just A Dream and Ted and Beth of Wastin' Away.
Shady harbour was chock-full of looper boats, and they had more boats arriving, so we had to move on. We got up and had a leisurely coffee and breakfast, then untied the lines and travelled 3 km up the river to Coeyman's landing. We knew this marina, and that it was best to arrive at high tide, so we got underway while there was still a couple of feet of extra water under us. Our arrival on the dock was a kind of false wake crossing. This was the marina where we purchased iFloat a couple of years ago. Two years ago, Bill left with Paul and Clint to bring her home to Ottawa, so in a way, the boat and Bill have crossed a wake here. Our official wake crossing with all of us will of course be in Kingston. Hopefully in a couple of weeks.
The shore power was not working very well at Coeyman's, so they had to shuffle some boats around so that everyone could plug in. Space was kind of tight between the linear docks.
Hudson the swan hangs around the harbour. They have rigged a basket on a pulley that people use to feed him.
One thing we remembered about Coeyman's landing was the restaurant. When we were buying our boat, we spent a few weekends here closing the deal. During that time, we ended up eating here every day because the food was so good. So, Louise organized a dinner with all the looper boats in the harbour. We had a great time with the crews of Pelican, Her's IV, Just a Dream and Wastin' Away. We were not disappointed, the food was great, and the company even better.
Dinner with Paul and Jill of Pelican, Louise and Bill of iFloat, Doug and Margie of Her's IV, Ted and Beth of Wastin' Away, and Angela and Tony of Just A Dream.
But the cheery on the cake was the email that Louise received just before dinner. The repairs on the Erie canal were complete, and the canal would fully open tomorrow! We will wait here tomorrow as there is a big backlog ahead of us, but plan to move ahead to stage for the Erie the day after.
Boat name of the day: O-Sea-D
