Our Summer
Wow. It's been so long since I've written the blog I'm not sure where to start. We are currently on a mooring in Atlantic Highlands NJ waiting for a weather window to sail down the coast to Cape May - probably tomorrow.
Our summer was very nice at our normal slip in Catskill Marina. The marina has gone downhill a bit over the past few years and the pool didn't even open until mid-July after a major heatwave. The liner had to be replaced but they knew that last year. Guess it took a while to make it to the top of the list.
I had surgery in early July to have a lump removed on my arm. It seems like it took the rest of the summer for me to recover but, by September, I was walking 3 miles a day and doing aerobics again. Pretty much back to full strength now and I was able to get a couple weeks of swimming in the "new" marina pool.
Laura had a great time visiting her son and family in Houston then on to Nashville with her two daughters and grandchildren in August. Yes. I survived without her for a couple weeks.
Catskill is a pretty area and we enjoy the quiet of the marina during the week when we are almost the only folks around. Here is a picture I took of a nice sunset one night after storms came through.
I also joined the Hudson River Historic Boat Society to get a little sailing in and help a worthy cause. They dock right next to us so it was a short walk for the sail. They have restored and now sail the sloop Eleanor which is 105+ years old. HERE is a link to their website if you would like more information. I did get a nice sail with them on a sunny afternoon. Here is our Captain and First Mate as we made our way down-river. We did all get turns driving so I was happy.
Laura has had pain in her heels while walking and needed to so something about it. After seeing an Ortho Doc, she needs achillies tendon surgery on both of her heels and decided to have the first one done this fall so we scheduled it for September 17th. Her recovery includes non-weight-bearing for 6 weeks then a month or so in a cast followed by a couple weeks of physical therapy. Our plans were to have her surgery done then I would bring the boat south with help from friends - probably in November. Sometime after the holidays we would drive back to the boat and continue south for the winter. This plan changed when she didn't feel good for a couple days then tested positive for Covid. We think it came from a transient boater at the marina. Her doctor said they would wait a month for the surgery so we now had time to get the boat to warmer waters. She was feeling better after a few days and we had the boat stocked and ready to leave on Wednesday, September 14th. There was an excellent weather window for getting down the coast of NJ that following weekend.
Of course, living together on a 43' boat, I got Covid too and the day we were supposed to leave I never got out of bed. It affected me worse than her or she's just tougher then I am. It took us almost 2 weeks to start feeling almost normal. We even had help from anti-virals from our doctors.
We saw another good weather window for sailing down the coast so we again stocked up and finally left the marina on Sunday, September 25th. We were both still a little tired but back to about 90% of our full strength and stamina. We hoped to get stronger as the days go on. Motoring down the Hudson is typically long days for us but not hard or exhausting.
Our friends and neighbors Russ and Pam (Apres' Ski) joined us for cocktails Friday night and we had a cocktail with Dean and Sue (Autumn Bourne) Saturday evening under the tent. It was nice to spend a little time with friends after isolating from Covid for the past couple weeks. We finished each get together with the cruisers goodbye, "See ya soon!"
Sunday, September 25th - Day 1
Air temp 53, combination of rain and Sun - water temp 66 - winds S@10
I had finished the last of my "before we leave list" the previous evening - fill our fresh water tank and stow the hose. We were up around 6:30am for coffee and readying the boat for the day on the river. We had taken a short shake-down cruise a few days ago so we were pretty sure everything on the boat was working from sitting for 3+ months.
No problems as we backed out of the slip at 7:15am and headed down the Catskill Creek to the Hudson. We should be able to make good time with favorable tides at this hour.
The Hudson River is an estuary with tides from the ocean causing the water to flow both up and down (flood and ebb) on the river. You can think of the tide as a wave coming up the river from the ocean. If you are on the river in front of the wave, you get pushed north. If you are on the back of the wave, you get pushed south. Heading south in a slow sailboat, you will go through two of these waves on a full day. If you leave Catskill as the ebb starts, the boat will be helped down the river for about 4 hours then the tide will change against you for 4 hours. After that you will again be helped for several hours.
The tidal currents are 1 1/2 to 2 knots. We left at the start of the ebb so easily made it 65 miles to Haverstraw Bay (our destination for day one) before dark. If you left on the flood tide, it would add 2-4 hours to this trip.
It was mid-50s and cloudy when we left. We put up our back canvas to warm up the cockpit a little and keep the cold wind out. A little while later it rained on us for an hour or so then, later in the morning, the Sun finally came out. Winds were out of the south so we never were able to get any help from the sails. It was just a motor-down-the-Hudson day.
Laura is constantly on eagle-watch. She found two eagles sitting next to each other on a tree. By time we took a picture, one had flown away. Bummer. Laura had spotted 5 eagles in the first 3-4 hours of our trip. Seems like more of them around than before. That's a good thing!
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I like watching the trains along the river. The passenger trains from NYC to Albany (and stops in between) run on the eastern shore. The freight trains run on the western shore. I took this picture of a freight train just south of Newburgh going around Storm King Mountain. It was a long train and this section was petroleum cars.
In the last week, there were several Canadian boats at our docks having their masts put up (stepped) after traveling the NY Canals. One of the boats was interesting to us because they had the same name, Second Wind. We chatted with them one night (from a little distance because we were still trying to isolate from our Covid) and they left a day or two before us.
On our way down the river today, I saw them in front of us on our AIS (Automated Information System for boats). We followed them down the river all day and gradually got a little closer. By time we entered Haverstraw Bay around 5:30pm we were only about 1/2 mile behind them and David called me on the radio.
There is a nice anchorage just off Haverstraw Bay called Haverstraw Cove. It is a little tricky getting in because of a narrow channel with just enough water for us at low tide. Go figure, it was going to be low tide when we got there.
I told David I was experienced with getting into the cove and he asked if they could follow us. Sure, let's do it. We had no problems going in even though our depth sounder was down to 5.6 feet - we need 5.5 to keep floating. Yikes!
I let him have a nice open spot in the cove to anchor and we anchored near 3 smaller boats rafted up for a Sunday party. In the past, we'd seen small boats anchored in the cove for weekend parties and I assumed they'd be leaving soon. For some reason unknown to me, the smaller boats didn't like us anchoring near them and turned up the music then started blowing their horns. We just went downstairs, closed up and had a nice dinner. 1/2 hour later I looked out and they had left to zoom back to their home marinas. See ya!
There were storms during the night with wind and rain but we were nice and calm in this small cove. The crappy weather forecast was why we came in here.
Monday, September 26th - Day 2
Air temp 62, sunny - water temp 70 - winds SW@5-10 increasing during the day
We wanted to catch the afternoon ebb tide through New York City so we were up early again. We pulled our anchor at 7am and motored out of Haverstraw Cove on a calm morning. There was a cloud hanging over the hills in front of us as we motored out. I thought it looked cool.
Turns our Dave was up early too (on the other Second Wind) and sent me a few pictures of us heading out. This one shows how nice the morning was in the cove. Don't worry. I wasn't near that tug and barge. They were about 1/2 mile away.
Dave and Sandra were staying in Haverstraw Bay for a few days and wanted to take the train into NYC for sightseeing. They were going to one of the local yacht clubs to catch the train.
We had lots of dew on the windows and the clouds didn't burn off until a few hours later. Winds stayed out of the south so, once again, right on the nose.
Not much traffic on the river this morning and we motored past the Tappan Zee bridge about an hour later. I like the Sun hitting the cables in the morning.
A couple hours later we approached the George Washington Bridge. It's our first good view of the New York City skyline.
River traffic pick up shortly after the George Washington Bridge with lots of ferries and private yachts zooming around. This is why I always try to catch the helping tidal currents through the city. I don't want to be hanging around all those boats (and their wakes) for several hours.
I had timed it great today and our speed picked up over the next couple hours. We typically motor at 6 knots. At one point we had 3 knots of helping current. Laura took this picture of our new instruments. The second one is Speed Over Ground (SOG). 9 knots. Hold onto something!
I motored us over near the Statue of Liberty where we always try to get a few pictures each trip. This time I got a selfie of us on the bow with Lady Liberty in the background. Winds were 20 knots so it was a tricky picture. Otto is driving the boat. Otto-pilot....
Only a mile or so away from us was a large aircraft carrier I hadn't seen before. I knew it wasn't a U.S. carrier because it had a "ski jump" on the front. It turned out to be the British HMS Queen Elizabeth that was visiting NYC as the venue for the Atlantic Future Forum. HERE is a link to the BBC article with some better pics than this. But my picture has better clouds...
We were able to roll out a little jib to help a bit through NY harbor but the winds stayed close to the bow so never had a chance to turn off the engine. Laura took this neat picture of the Varrazzano-Narrows Bridge under our sail.
Our motor-sail across the lower harbor was uneventful and we arrived in Atlantic Highlands just after 3:30pm. Plenty of time to visit the fuel dock and fill up for our trip down the coast later in the week. We hadn't fueled since Georgetown, MD on our way north last Spring. The boat took 91 gallons (we hold 150) and the price was $4.98 / gallon. Much better than the $6.80 / gallon we paid last Spring but still hurtful at $452. Oh well.... It's only money.
In the past, the anchorage at Atlantic Highlands has been pretty full with boats and I was concerned about being stuck way out in the anchorage and exposed to all the ferry wakes. Instead, I decided to try and reserve a mooring here and used the DockWa app to request a reservation earlier this morning for two nights. A short while later I received a confirmation of the reservation and a credit card invoice for $120. Geez. I thought they were expensive before at $50 / night. Now they've raised the price to $60. But, it was definitely worth it to me as we motored into the harbor and counted 22 anchored boats waiting for weather to head south. We would have been very exposed out there but now we are comfortable on a quiet mooring.
I grilled country-ribs for dinner and we had a quiet evening below listening to the wind howl. We hit the sack early and I was asleep by 9:30pm after two long days to get there. Tomorrow we can just relax.
Tuesday, September 27th - Day 3
Air temp 64, sunny, not a cloud in the sky - water temp 67 - winds SW-W@10-15
It was a calm night and cool enough to sleep well. We slept in a bit then relaxed in the morning. I put together the pictures you see above and it took me a couple hours to write this.
We'll decide later if we want to go into town for a walk-a-bout. The water-taxi is free for boats on the moorings so we wouldn't even have to drop the dinghy and put the outboard on. Maybe we'll just hang.
Plans are to head out at O-Dark-30 tomorrow morning - maybe around 5am - for the trip down the NJ coast. We're going to try for Cape May by tomorrow night (about 110 nautical miles) and should have nice winds for sailing all the way down. The winds are supposed to stay W to NW on Thursday which would not be nice for going up Delaware Bay. Instead we will probably stay at anchor in Cape May until Friday morning when the winds clock to the NE and E. Saturday and Sunday look good (so far) for sailing down Chesapeake Bay so maybe we can make Reedville, VA and our friends Walter and Mary's by Sunday or Monday. That would be great.
Long range plans are to leave the boat somewhere and rent a car to drive back to Albany for Laura's surgery on October 14th. We need to be there by the 10th for pre-op stuff. My best scenario would be to leave the boat at Atlantic Yacht Basin just south of Norfolk. It's very protected there and I might have them haul the boat and paint her while we are gone. We'll see how far we get.
Then we would drive back to the boat after the holidays (assuming Laura is feeling good) and continue the sail south to warmer Winter waters. I'll keep you updated.
Hope all is well with you and yours....
