Hop-o-Nose, Catskills

This morning we leave early around 6:00 AM to catch the current flooding up the Hudson which should be in our favor for a good part of the day. It is cloudy and overcast with occasional sprinkles of rain.

Bear Mtn Bridge

 

Hudson narrows at Storm King

 Not sure if we will be able to make it to Hop-o-Nose Marina on Catskill Creek. The current will be turning against us later in the afternoon. We pass one of our favorite stops on the Hudson, Mariners Resturant, across the river from Poughkeepsie and are surprised to see that it is closed. We stopped here going and returning on our last trip. Free docking overnight with dinner. The real attraction here is the “Walk over the Hudson” a walkway on a former railroad bridge high over the Hudson River. Highly recommend it if you are near Poughkeepsie.

At one point I yell to Linda down below, telling her that the Tappenzee bridge is passing us. She immediately corrects me saying you mean we are passing the Tappenzee bridge, forgetting that we passed the old bridge yesterday. Huge beams for the new Tappenzee bridge are being fabricated just south of Albany and are barged down to the site of the new bridge currently under construction. These large special barges carry two of the huge blue beams at a time down to the new bridge site.

 

New Tappenzee bridge going south

It turns out we don't loose too much speed when the current turns against us so I call the marina to check on space and schedule taking down our mast the next day. I talk with Sean, the owner who does not remember our name. I tell him I'm the “sock guy” and then he knows exactly who we are. On one of our previous visits he named me the “Sock guy” because I put socks over all our disconnected turn buckles so we don't loose any hardware and/or ding the deck. Apparently I'm the only one that does this among his hundreds of mast raising/lowering customers each year.

We reach Hop-o-Nose around 6:30 PM, a 70 mile day. Once we get the boat squared away we head to the Creekside Restaurant at the Marina for dinner. Sean may run the marina, but his real cash cow is the Creekside Restaurant where he is the cook. We always look forward to eating there and this time of year it is always full.