Weekend Work in Poughkeepsie (Days 1-3)

Friday (9/27) we untied our lines and were off the Catskill Marina dock at 7:15am.  It was a beautiful morning as we motored down the Hudson River with a little helping current for the first few hours.  The Hudson is an estuary which means the tides both ebb (water goes out to the ocean) and flow or flood (comes in from the ocean).  In fact, before the 16th century, the local Indians called the Hudson Mahicantuck which means, "the river that flows both ways."

You can think of the tides like a wave coming up the river.  When traveling north, you can catch the wave for quite a while because your boat is traveling in the same direction as the wave.  On the Hudson, the wave travels at about 12 miles per hour.  When boating south, you go over the wave in a few hours depending on how fast you go.  For our slow sailboat heading south, the helping ebb only lasts about 3-4 hours.  Then we have 3-4 hours of the tidal current against us.  If we start on the ebb, we can usually catch an ebb-flood-ebb cycle during a long day and make maybe 60 miles.  Today we wouldn't be going that far.  Shadows Marina in Poughkeepsie was only 33 nautical miles away.

It was a beautiful day on the river.  Temps climbed from the 50s to mid-70s and we pealed off layers of clothing.  It was nice to get back to "cruising mode" with setting the boat on autopilot then sit back and read a book or cruise the Internet.  Just make sure to look up often to see that we are on the right course.  Our autopilot only keeps the boat on a straight compass course.  It doesn't turn when the channel changes and I wouldn't want it to.  I need to look up and make sure there isn't a kayak in front of us or a tug-and-barge coming up our butt.



River traffic was normal with a few tugs pushing or pulling barges.  I like seeing the tug and barges with matching colors like this one.

The day was uneventful and we enjoyed the calm water and warm weather.  No wind for sailing but that happens often on the river.  We tied up at Shadow's Marina around 2:30pm right across the dock from Marika.  It would be a short commute to work for the next few days - just walk about 20 feet down the dock.

I left Shadows with Marika and 4 crew-members at 3pm.  We needed to travel only a couple miles to the dock at Marist college for boarding at 3:30pm.  The dock at Marist college is only about 30 feet wide which makes it tricky for a 100 foot, 330,000 pound, 3-story ship.  But, I've dock here almost 100 times over the past 5 years so pretty much have it down.

Here is Marika docked at the Ice House last Tuesday - another venue for us in Poughkeepsie.  Here we had a dock that fit the boat.

This weekend is "Family Weekend" at Marist.  Families come to visit the college and pay a set amount per person for the whole weekend.  They can then sign up for different events including a Hudson River cruise on Marika or Spirit of the Hudson (the other boat at Hudson Cruises).  We ran (4) 45-minute cruises on Friday evening and had the boat back to Shadows around 8pm. A short walk over to Second Wind and I was relaxing on the sofa 15 minutes later.

Saturday morning I was up early and had Marika underway around 8:30am.  Our cruises today were 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.  I should mention that Laura helped out on Marika Saturday as a crew-member because we were short people.  I told the normal crew to give her some direction.  They replied, "We're not telling the Captain's wife what to do!"  It eventually all worked out and I was glad to have her aboard.

The Spirit of Hudson would pick up passengers on the 1/2 hour between our trips.  It all went well except for a south wind that picked up in the afternoon.  When at the Marist college dock, the boat is facing north.  We can't dock on the other side facing south because the dock is cocked a bit (not quite perpendicular to the river) which would put our props on the rocks. Docking with a south wind makes it more difficult because the wind is pushing the 3-story stern of the boat north.  No major problems and we had a full boat (140 passengers) for most of the trips.

Back to Shadows around 6pm and Laura made sauteed Grouper with rice pilaf and steamed broccoli.  It was awesome.  Thanks Lee and Linda for the Grouper!

Sunday we did it all over again with cruises at 9, 10, 11, 12, 1 and 2.  The winds had changed to the north and were not a problem in the morning.  In the late morning, the winds changed just enough to the west that they were blowing us onto the dock.  Not a problem for docking but a big problem for leaving because I couldn't spring off this dock.  It has railings which prevent boats from bringing in the bow or stern.  I typically waited a few seconds (minutes?) for the wind to die between gusts then I used the bow-thruster and rudders to get the boat away quickly. 

This worked fine until our last cruise.  We docked and the passengers un-boarded safely.  Then we unloaded all the trash and prepared to bring the boat back it's normal dock in Hudson.  The wind was now steady from the NW at 20 with gusts to 25.  I tried leaving a few times but the wind just blew us back onto the dock.  Finally, after about 15 minutes and several tries, we were able to leave the dock when the winds died a little and make the run 35 miles to Hudson.

One of Hudson Cruises owners Noor (and his wife Cheryl) picked me up at Hudson Docks and drove me back to Shadows in Poughkeepsie.  They wanted to take us out for dinner / drinks to thank me for 5 years of running Marika.  This might have been the last time I was Captain on any cruises.  Not sure what we are doing next summer.  Laura met us at Shadows Restaurant and we had ordered a few items including the Grand Shellfish Platter - two tiers of oysters, mussels, clams, shrimp and lobster.  It was very good and I ate much more than I should have.

Laura and I were back to the boat around 10pm and we were finally done!  We could now start our Winter cruising!