Monday, May 16 (Day 44)
Sunny and cool (50s) in the morning but warming to 70s in the afternoon. Winds W @ 10-15. Water temp 60
51.5 nautical miles today (1,492.5 total trip miles)
"Sometimes the tides help and sometimes they hurt." When we left the Reedy Island anchorage 3 days ago, the 7am ebb current was perfect for our day running down Delaware Bay. Today, the timing through NYC was off a bit.
The flood tide in NYC started at 2:30pm and that is about 3 hours of sailing / motoring from our mooring in Atlantic Highlands. We know of two anchorages in Haverstraw Bay only 30 miles north of there so it shouldn't be a problem getting a later start today and still making one of those anchorages before dark.
We slept in and relaxed in the morning before pulling the mooring lines at 10:30am. Remember on our trip up the NJ coast when I thought the boat wasn't running as fast as normal? After I pulled the two mooring lines and got back on the helm, when I put the engine in forward gear and pushed up the engine throttle a little, nothing seemed to happen. I quickly said to Laura, "Get ready to anchor!". I tried shifting to neutral then back to forward then really goosing the engine. The boat started moving forward and I was very relieved. It still didn't seem quite right (slower?) but we were able to motor to the fuel dock and no problems docking and undocking there. I needed to look at this again when we're away from all these other boats.
Diesel fuel at Atlantic Highlands is usually $1 to $2 a gallon cheaper than Catskill area so we wanted to fill our diesel tank at the marina before heading north to New York City and our summer dock. We carry 150 gallons of diesel which gives us about a 600-700 mile range. We could fill the tank here, motor to Catskill, take the boat out a few times this summer, and motor back to here in the Fall on only about 60 gallons. That's our plan anyway.
No problems at the Atlantic Highlands fuel dock and we took 76 gallons (our usage from Great Bridge south of Norfolk). Posted price was $3.85 / gallon but we got a 10 cent discount somehow. By 11am we were motoring out of the marina and heading north again.
As we motored up the lower NY bay, the winds settled in on the port beam so we rolled out the mainsail and jib. Winds were only in the 8-10 range so I kept the engine running at lower RPM.
I also went downstairs and looked at the transmission. I wanted to make sure it was engaging all the way when I moved the shift lever at the helm. It did seem to be working right. Still need to look into this farther ....
Laura took this picture while we were sailing toward the city. You can see the Verrazano Bridge on the left and NY skyline on the right.
We were able to sail under the bridge and into NY harbor. We did reef both sails (make them smaller) because of the gusty winds near the bridge.
NY harbor is usually crazy with boats but for some reason today was worse. I tried taking a picture of my chartplotter but the iPhone doesn't like it for some reason. My chartplotter was covered with AIS (ship Automated Information System) lines from every direction. Luckily, I only needed to worry about the 5 or 6 that were heading right at us. Yikes!
As we worked our way to a close-up of the Statue of Liberty, the sightseeing boats were everywhere along with 10-15 Jet-skis zooming around. It's the first time we've seen that in NY harbor.
We got the picture and tried to stay away from all the other boats around. It wasn't easy. You can even see one of the sightseeing boats underneath the statue.
Once passed lower Manhattan, things calmed down a little except for a 60-70' motoryacht that zoomed up the harbor, bow up in the air, at just the right speed to throw a 5' wake to everyone. Even with the 2 big sails up he rolled us more than during the 2 days we spend on the ocean. "Hey! What's the hurry?!?"
It turned out we were a little early for the flood current but the two sails and helping winds kept our speed around 6 knots. An hour later we were running quickly north up the Hudson at 7-8 knots with the incoming tide pushing us home.
10 miles from Manhattan is the George Washington Bridge. I always look forward to this because 99% of the ferries are south of the bridge. Open water ahead!
Now we had a nice, calm motor-sail another 20 miles to Haverstraw Bay.
There are two anchorages we like in Haverstraw Bay. One is by Halfmoon Bay marina - we call it Halfmoon Bay - and the other is in a very protect Haverstraw Cove. Halfmoon Bay is protected from south and east winds / seas and easy in and out. Halfmoon cove offers 360 degree protection but a little tricky getting in.
Windfinder.com showed SW winds tonight and tomorrow morning which would be good for Haverstraw bay. That was my plan until we got near there and the winds were out of the north. They were blowing the waves right onto that bay.
Instead we went another 3 miles farther and pulled into Haverstraw Cove. On the way there Laura brings up some homemade cheesy-bread and marinara sauce. Yum!
Tide was up 3 feet so getting in through the shallow channel was very easy. Once in, there was a sailboat and powerboat already anchored. No problem, I'll go to the north end which was empty.
When I first turned upwind to anchor, it seemed we could back up a little and be a little farther from the powerboat. I backed up the boat (high RPM reverse) and we nicely anchored at 7:20pm. It was beautiful in here as usual.
Laura saw somewhere on-line that today was national pizza day. Guess what she made for dinner? Yep. Shrimp and broccoli alfredo pizza.
We spent a quiet night on the boat and hit the sack early. I was exhausted from dodging all the boats in NY harbor.
Also, tidal flood current starts here tomorrow at 5am. Gonna be an early start again for our last day of the trip.
Tuesday, May 17th (Day 45) - END OF TRIP!
50s this morning (we turned on the heat) but warming to 80 later in the afternoon. Winds S at 10-20 (some gusts near 30). Water temp 58.
66 nautical miles today (1,569 total trip miles)
I had the alarm set for 6am but woke up at 5 and never got back to sleep. Don't you hate that? We pulled the anchor at 6:30am under a clear, calm sky. It was a pretty day as we motored back out of the cove into Haverstraw Bay and turned north.
Oh. I almost forgot to mention this.... Remember my thinking the boat hasn't been running as fast as she should? Today when I pulled the anchor and started motoring out of the cove, I was just running low (1,200) RPM to warm up the engine. I happened to look down at our GPS speed and we were doing over 4 knots. Hmmm. Is it fixed? I wonder if our backing up last night (at fairly high speed) before anchoring got something loose from the rudder or propeller. The boat seemed to be back to normal speed the rest of the day. Yea! I love it when things fix themselves!
I've sailed many places around the world and still think the Hudson River is one of the most beautiful waterways I've seen. I love twisting and turning around the mountains and thinking of the American history of this waterway.
This picture is typical of the travel north on the Hudson with mountains on both sides. Where does the river go?
I figured we would have help from the tidal currents almost all the way to Kingston - only 20 miles from Catskill. Plus, we had mostly south winds that would also help push us north.
Not too many cruisers were heading north yet and I think we only were passed by 2 powerboats. North of Newburgh, there were many small fishing boats trolling lines back and forth for Striped Bass that come up the river in the Spring to feed on spawning herring. Here was a fisherman with a big one on the line.
I didn't take pictures of the many bridges, sights and town along the water because I've posted so many of them in past blogs. But I did enjoy the ride and just took it all in on our last travel day.
I had heard from the marina owner that the docks were very full of boats heading north that were waiting for the Erie and Champlain Canal locks to open this Friday. Our marina is one of the few with a crane and crew for taking down and putting up sailboat masts for the trip up the canals. I took this picture of the marina on our way in. There are about 15 sailboats at the docks that have already had their masts taken down. This is just one part of the marina. Many other boats are filling up the docks not in the picture.
We pulled into our normal, summer slip at 4:30pm and tied up quickly to end a very nice trip north from Marathon. Laura had prepared Chicken Parmesan on the way up and my sister Denise and brother-in-law Tom brought our car down and joined us for dinner in the cockpit. It was great catching up on the family and we enjoyed a few hours with good friends.
After dinner, we had to go to Cone E Island for ice cream dessert. It's our favorite ice cream shop. They have both soft (for Laura) and homemade hard (for me) ice cream. It was just as good as I remembered.
Here is Second Wind kind of shoe-horned into her slip. There is usually a smaller sailboat next to us for the summer but we had to work with what we had for now. Yes. It was a little tight getting into that slip.
I have a huge list of boat projects for this summer but nothing major like the electronics upgrades I worked on the past few years. Just need to work several things that need fixing and normal maintenance on engine, outboard, generator, etc., before we set sail again.
First I need to clean off that waterway beard!
Cruising again
This trip north was a little hurried because of the timing for Laura's grandson's graduation. Maybe we should have left a week or two earlier? It was interesting for Laura and I to discuss our feelings about the last 6+ weeks because we both wished we had had more time to stop at favorite places for a few more days. I think we've gotten used to taking as much trip time as we wanted for several years after we stopped our charter business in 2015. When we were chartering, we always were in a hurry to get north and south because we had paid charters waiting. Now we were used to taking it slow and didn't like hurrying.
Also, as we get older, who knows how much longer we can keep cruising? It's a very physical thing and can be dangerous or deadly if you don't do many things correctly. We are both physically and mentally healthy right now but have both gone through harder "health" times. It has given us a greater appreciation of being able to do the things we love because it's not going to last forever. This trip from Marathon to Catskill was a normal thing for many years. But, it's the first time in two years our health enabled us to travel that far in one shot.
We're going to keep doing this as long as we can. I really feel cruising is my "best destiny" and plan to keep enjoying the ups and downs until ....
Trip Stats
1,569 total trip miles (nautical)
Total days from Marathon to Catskill - 45 (44 nights)
Anchored - 17
Docked - 14
5 nights free in Oriental
4 nights free in Reedville
3 nights at RE Mayo ($17 / night)
1 night Thunderbolt Marina (Savannah)
1 night Myrtle Beach Yacht Club
Moorings - 13
Overnight at sea - 0 (first time in 17 years)
More???
If you've enjoyed our blog, it goes back 4 1/2 years of our travels on the U.S. East Coast and Bahamas. We did keep a detailed blog before that and I've used it to published 4 inexpensive (less than $5) books on Kindle if you would like to read about more of our travels from 2007 to 2018. You can find more information on our sailing books by clicking HERE.
Thanks for traveling along with us!
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