Great Kills Yacht Club

We get up at 6:00am and are out by 7:30 to Head down the Hudson for Staten Island to Great Kills Yacht Club. We stayed there in the Spring, returning on our last trip to the Bahamas. The locks on the Erie and Champlain canal were delayed, opening, because of high water. A lot of boats ahead of us were waiting 1 to 2 weeks for the locks to open, so we decided to chill in the New York area. We had 3 days of rain and thunderstorms, before we could leave to head north, then.

 

The New Tapenzee Bridge

We are back to another cold and dreary day. It gets a little rough as we get to lower Manhattan, but water traffic is not two bad. Lots of tourist boats heading to the Statue of Liberty, but a very dismal looking day, not worth taking to many pictures. When we get past Governors Island we cut through the anchorage area off the channel adjacent to Brooklyn. Not a lot of oil barrages anchored. There is one ship of interest, a British ship, HMS Queen Elizabeth, an aircraft carrier, anchored out for a visit. 

 

HMS Queen Elizabeth

We pop out the head sail and sail out of the harbor under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to Great Kills on Staten Island. We call for dockage directions and club member John Calascibetta, Great Kills Yacht club host guides us in and takes our dock lines. “Blown Away Too” follows us in ½ hour later. Diane was not at all happy about transiting the “Busy” New York Harbor, the first time for them. Since we have done this many times we did not think much about it. But for a first time passage I can understand. It can be hard to distinguish anchored vs moving ships with the current.

We all head up to the Great Kills Yacht club bar. Beer on tap, $2.50, hard to beat. The club is busy with an event going on this evening, but we find ourselves very welcomed by the members and the bartender. We head back to the boat for dinner.

Shattemuc Yacht CLub

 

We decide to stay one more day since it will be some time next week before we have an opportunity to get a good weather window to comfortably sail off the coast of New Jersey. After breakfast we walk over to the Westerly Marina next door that has a little more protection from waves and wakes off the Hudson due to a protective bulkhead. We find that they have very nice new bathrooms, with washer and dryer. We talk with the Marina manager, Dennis and he says come back and do laundry if we would like too. Linda takes the morning shift and Diane takes the afternoon shift.

 

Lots of security, police having a meeting.

 

I spend my morning checking that I have properly wired and terminated the Raymarine data bus that now connects all our instruments. Our autopilot has developed a habit of randomly disconnecting and doing a “Unexpected Software Reset”. It does beep, but if we don’t hear it right away or aren’t standing directly behind the wheel we find the boat going into a very sharp left turn. Everything looks OK. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I call the Raymarine tech line about our autopilot and another issue I have previously complained about. Our North American Lighthouse charts are missing the Champlain Canal and the Erie Canal. I thought I would wait until we transited the canal to complain further. Our primary navigation is with Aqua Maps on our iPads. I have to insist on getting bummed up to a manager when the first tech is dumber that me and is talking baloney. I get Timothy Germano, who mentions that he thought he had heard a similar complaint. He and his buddies check it out on their systems and “low and behold” there electronic charts, Lighthouse Charts, from Raymarine are missing the Erie and Champlain canal, oops. Nice to get an acknowledgment instead of the usual “never heard that problem before”, “did you try to reboot”. He also gives me some worthwhile suggestions on solving my autopilot problem and his email address.

 

In the afternoon, I pack up the new mast and deck light to return to Defender Marine. It is about a mile walk up hill to the town of Ossining to the Post Office. From there I walk another mile to a fabulous ethic market. Both sides of the river here have significant Hispanic populations. I would of bought more, but being on foot, put a limit on my purchases. I scored one of my favorites, Plantain chips, which I usually can only find in the Miami area. These are from Costa Rica, much better than stateside Goya stuff.

 

Nice fish market in the basement

When I get back we go to dinner at the “Boat House” next to the marina, with Alain and Diane for my Birthday dinner.

 

Diane & Alain

Sunset on the Hudson

Schattmuc Yacht Club

 

The Guggenheim

Today is the last weather window for sailing off the coast of New Jersey for awhile. Since that ship has sailed, for us we have some time to kill. We get the train in to NYC around 8:30. My goal was to go to the Guggenheim Museum. Have been by it many times, but have never been in it. You take and elevator to the top floor and walk back down a spiral ramp to the ground floor viewing exhibits. When we get there we find, that, that part of the museum is closed until next month. 

 

 

 

 

Teddy and I, Day at the Museum

 

 

So we decide to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When we arrive there, we find that it is closed on Wednesdays! Next down my list is the Natural History museum, by the time we get there we don’t really have enough time to do it justice. As a holder over from Covid you are supposed to book your tickets on line before you enter. It does not look that busy so we go in and have no problem buying a ticket in person.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interestingly, there a kiosks all around NYC to get free Covid testing.

 

A walk in the park

 Skinny Sky Scrappers at the south end of Central Park

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We take the train back late in the afternoon and stop at a restaurant we liked on our last visits here, by the train station where we get off in Ossining. The prices have gone way up, we just have drinks and an appetizer. The place is not very busy, I wonder why.

Shattemuc Yacht Club

 

In the morning, walking back down the dock towards our boat I see someone hop off “Hooked on a Feeling”, whose outside radio is still playing a country western station. The flag on his bridge, which I had not previously noticed explained everything.

 

West Point

Bear Mountain Bridge, looking north

We have a mostly sunny day with varying winds, but the current is against us most of the day. We stop at Safe Harbor Haverstraw for fuel late in the afternoon before we cross over to the east side of the Hudson to Shattemuc Yacht Club. We stayed there last trip because of the train station next door for an easy trip to NYC, Grand Central Station. Alain and Diana come in here for the same reason. They are visiting friends in NYC the next day.

We arrive first at the Marina. We had previously made our reservations on line with “Dockwa” which I have never liked. I prefer to deal directly with the marina and have some prior communications with the dock master. Anyways, we get here, call on the radio and get no response. Fortunately, since we have been here before we know were to dock, but would of liked to have some help since the wind has picked up, but no one is around. We tie up and find the transient dock is covered with Seagull crap, oh joy! I plug in for power and find the power post is dead, SOB! They had problems back in June and I assumed they would of fixed it by now. Yes, the joy of “Dockwa”, the Marina avoids having to lie to you, directly, just by omission. The dock masters office is closed and no one is around. One very helpful club member comes out to explain that the whole transient dock does not have power and they are waiting for parts, apparently for every. This floating cement dock has incurred physical damage since our last visit, plus the lack of power. Since I thought Alain might need power, the club member, Dave, Linda and I help “Blow Away Too” to tie up in an empty member slip with power. We only would need power for heat. Tonight is relatively warm and we have new 12 Volt electric blankets so we have no need to move. Fortunately, Dave was around to give us the combinations and wifi passwords.

Poughkeepsie

Water Temperature 71 F

We are on our way at 8:45 for a relatively short day to Poughkeepsie to Shadows Marina, which is a new stop for us.

 

Heading down Catskill Creek

 

 

 

 

Small River Cruise ship on the Hudson at Catskill

 

 

 

Catskill Mountains from the Hudson

 It is right on the Hudson River and there have been some complaints about wakes, but this is a weekday and summer is over, so I am not too concerned. In the afternoon we have a series of showers before we get to Shadows. We tie up on the face dock with the help of their dock master, Keith. An hour later the face dock is full with 6 sailboats, many we have previously cross paths with. 

 

Shadows Marina Face Dock

We have Diana and Alain over for wine and cheese. Made dinner on the boat for a change. There is a cabin cruiser close to us, on our end of the dock, who has had his outside speakers playing country music since we got there, not real loud, but enough that it is getting rather annoying listening to it in the cockpit. I thought I saw the owner on his boat “Hooked on a Feeling” and I knock on the side, hoping to asking to turn off his outside speakers, but there is no response. Maybe I just imaged, I saw someone on the boat. I turn on the reverse cycle heat pump so we can not hear it in the boat. We are in bed shortly after “sailors midnight”.

 

Today's Travel

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Hop-o-Nose

 

Sept 25, Sunday, Day 9, Catskill

Finally a calm morning. I get the main sail on, reef lines and Dutchmen lines before the wind picks up. Then I make one more trip up the hill to Lowes for some parts. I am getting a lot of exercise, buying parts one at a time. Linda cleans the cockpit while I am getting my morning exercise. Shawn is having a customer appreciation day and has “closed” the restaurant and has a band for the afternoon and a buffet dinner. We go for a long afternoon walk and on the way back we get diner. It’s nice to be appreciated and our “free” diner is excellent. We have put freshwater in the tanks and pump-out the waste tank, we are ready to go, finally. We usually take our time at Hop-o-Nose, but at worse it takes three days to get out of here, not 5 days.

 

Cradle storage shed

 

Our cradle bundled, dated, re-dated and buried in the back

 

Hop-o-Nose

Water Temperature 72.1 F

Happy Birthday and Mast Day for Linda. Still windy but no 30 mph gusts. We get the mast up, but still too windy to deal with the sails.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By late afternoon the wind finally dies down and we get the head sail up. Linda get lots of birthday well wishes, texts, emails, calls, etc. We have her Birthday dinner at the Creekside of course and Alain and Diana join us.

Hop-o-Nose

Wake up to a very windy day. Gusts to 30 mph. Hop-o-Nose is going to try to raise some masts today.

Our mast deck light got clobbered at Champlain Marina when they took our mast down. I ordered a replacement from Defender Marine just before we left, from the same vendor. Turns out the new one is not very good, so I decide to fix the old one. Another quick trip up the hill to Lowes to get a replacement light bulb. I find an LED one that is exactly what I want.

A smaller boat next to us leaves to head to the lift at Hop-o-Nose to install his mast. I help Alain and Diana off the dock as they motor to the lift to install their new radar before putting their mast up after ours. An hour later we motor up the creek for our turn. Not too thrilled dealing with all this wind. By the time we are in position Sean decides to hold off since they had a lot of trouble with the mast on the smaller sailboat. That is the only mast going up today. Guess where we are having dinner tonight. Tonight’s special, Bake Stuff Haddock.

Hop-o-Hose

Wake up to another rainy day, no masts are being raised today. Work on a few projects. The rain finally stops in the afternoon and we go for a walk to Lowes and Walmart for a few items. We pick up Alain and Diana in our dinghy and we all head to Creekside for dinner. Another cold night dipping into the 40’s. We have the heat on.

Hop-o-Nose

Water Temp 73.8

We leave at 6:45am to catch Lock 2, a mile south that opens at 7:00 AM. The forecast was for possible fog in the morning, which delayed our start here the last time through. This morning is just cloudy. We follow the Montreal Cabin Cruiser for the remainder of the locks. We have a long day to get to Hop-o-Nose at Catskill Creek where we will put our mast back up. By 8:15 we pass Waterford and a Catalina 42, “Blown Away Too” just left the wall there and pulls in behind us. The last lock, Lock 0, is the Federal Lock at Troy, which lowers us to the Hudson at Troy. We have 5 boats in the Federal lock.

The sun comes out and we have a nice sunny day. With no wind the river surface is like glass, heading south to Troy only to be broken by the boats leaving the lock. Our first really nice day. Had a nice day running on autopilot on the wide river. The wind picks up later in the afternoon and we get to Hop-o-Nose around 4:15. They are full with transients, some waiting to put up their masts and others hanging out for a few days after their masts went up waiting for hurricane Fiona to move on off the coast to the Canadian Maritimes.

Hop-o-Nose is so full we have to tie up across the Creek at Catskill Marina which Shawn the owner of Hop-o-Nose now owns. “Blown Away Too” pulls in shortly after us and we help Diana and Alain tie up. We are way down the dock and have to use our dinghy to get to Hop-o-Nose for dinner at Creekside.

We meet up with Sean at the dock. He remembers me as the “Sock Guy”. I tape old socks on our turnbuckles to contain a parts that could come loose and from banging on the deck. Apparently, I am the only one who does that.

 Today's trip

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Mechanicville

 

Another overcast morning, but at least it is not raining. We leave Fort Edward. We had only briefly walked into town yesterday, before the torrential rains let loose. Didn’t get to any of the few eatery's to pay back for the very nicely maintained free wall at Fort Edwards. Our plans are to stop at Mechanicville another very nice free wall, pump-out, power and very nice showers and bathrooms.

 

The Overhead Gate to the canal to Lock 6

 

 

The adjacent waterfall to Lock 5, Engine don't fail me now !

At Lock 4, the operator walks over to us and warns us about the wind gusts, before he lowers us. Fortunately we were the only boat in the lock. As we started to go down the wind picked up and Linda could not hold on to the slimy hanging lock line. I dropped my line on the stern and ran forward to grab Linda’s more important line. Once we secured the front line, the back end of the boat was free to swing towards the opposite wall. Would of not been a big deal, except we had 10 feet of mast with our wind instruments extending beyond our stern. Just as I started motoring forward, I hear metal scrapping behind me, but I am too busy to look back. We move forward and get the boat under control with just the one lock line. We were real happy when the lock door opened and we escape the wind tunnel. The only damage was a slight hook to our previously straight lightning rod that extends above our mast instruments. I will have to come up with some BS story why the hook in our lightning rod improves it’s performance over a straight one, in case anyone notices. 

Cute little canal tug boat

I had considered stopping at Waterford another hour or so further, but checking out their live Web Cam I could see the wall there was full. We get to Mechanicville around 2:30 PM. We are the only boat there and after pumping out the holding tank we tie up on the other end of the wall and relax for the rest of the afternoon. We head to “Bubbles” a popular local restaurant with an interesting menu. A couple more boats arrive, two sailboats and one cabin cruiser from Montreal.

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Fort Edwards

 

We are up at 6:30. The Catamaran left about 6:15 and two more boats leave shortly after. Looking north I see 3 more sailboats tied up. Were did they come from? My first thought was they could not get through Lock 11 and had to come back here after dark. Turns out that even though the locks closed at 5:00 these three boats tied up to the wall on the lake side of the locks and the lock keeper decided to lock them up after hours at 7:00 PM. Now there are nine southbound sailboats! Since a lot more Canadians head south via the Erie Canal, I am getting concerned we are going to see a lot more Canadian cousins this year.

 

Early morning at Whitehall

Each time we pass this building, I expect it to be a pile of rubble.

The forecast is for rain and thunder storms today, but anything coming from the west is many hours away and most of the current rain has past to our immediate north. We push off at 7:30 and follow a single Canadian sailboat, a family with a bunch of teenage boys. We share locks all morning and both of us pull into Fort Edward just ahead of the afternoon rain and later some very impressive thunder and lightning storms. 

 

Lock 7 at Fort Edwards

 Glad our Lightning rod is in the down position. We must of gotten 2-3 inches of rain. Two weeks ago they were talking about low water between some of the locks, hopefully we will not have a high water problems.

Rainy afternoon at Fort Edwards

Whitehall, NY

 

We leave by 8:00 AM and within ½ hour, pass 3 anchored Canadian boats with their mast down.

Then passing Chipmans Point Marina we see another Canadian sailboat about to have their mast taken down. Hmm, might have some company in the locks. Normally we have them to ourselves. Today is a little warmer and I have our clear vinyl connector in between the Dodger and Bimini to shield us from the south wind. Within a couple hours we are in the narrows of Lake Champlain and the wind and waves disappear.

We reach the first lock #12 at Whitehall around 1:00PM. We have to kill about 20 minutes or so as they are finishing a large water release from the adjacent dam to lower the water from the recent rains. If the water gets too high they can not operate the locks. That happened to us in June 2019, the locks opened a couple weeks late, due to high water.

Boats are only allowed on the east wall of this lock when being lifted. The water fill from the west wall side is quite turbulent. It takes a bit of effort to keep the boat from being pushed around into the wall. Being lowered in a lock is much more gentle. The next three lift locks are much more gentle going up. 

 

My Happy Hooker

The forecast is for rain this afternoon and evening so we decide to stay on the free wall at Whitehall. There is a large Catamaran already tied up and we pull up in front of it and the owner takes one of our lines. I don’t know if boaters are just helpful or protecting their own or a combination of both, but the adjacent boaters are always there to help. After lunch the boat we anchored with last night comes in and we help them tie up. This is their first trip south. After lunch we go for a walk and checkout the “New Whitehall Marina”. When we return there are 3 more Canadian sailboats on the wall, the ones we past this morning. Since the west wall is nearly full one boat ties up on the east side. 

The wall at Whitehall

 

We have stayed on this wall twice on our last three trips. There was only one other boat besides us and I think they were both US trawlers, now there are 8 sailboats. We head to dinner at Bustys BBQ and get ice cream at Stewards for desert, not a lot of dining choices in Whitehall.

 

 

On Our Way Again

 

We are leaving, only 2 days after our planned departure date. As it turns out, it has been too windy the last couple days to head south with our mast in its deck cradle.

Our house guests, Ken & Donna Nitchie are staying for another week or two visiting with old friends and enjoying the leaves turning before they head home to the Chesapeake, Hayes, Virginia, just across the York River from Yorktown. We first anchored in Sara’s Creek where they now live, years ago before they moved there. Now our recent visits to Sara’s Creek are even better, they have a dock!

After a number of late nights and early mornings, taking care of most everything we needed to do to sail off for the next 9-10 months, we are ready to leave. Ken & Donna drop us off at Champlain Marina where our boat is, after taking down the mast a few days ago. Cool morning with very little wind as forecast. We leave a 10:00AM, a record for us, our past best was noontime.

 

Heading to Rail Road cut

As we get out on the main Lake and head south the wind starts to pickup, but on the nose it is not a problem. We get in contact with a couple friends who live in North Shore and wave as we go by.

Early afternoon, near the Charlotte ferry crossing we cross tracks with Leonard & Lynnea Rosner sailing on their red hull, boat Antares. Always easy to pick out at a distance. They have been sailing to the Bahamas off and on for over 40 years and after returning last spring they said, that was their last trip south on Antares. We will miss seeing them, their trip south always coincided with our trips south. We would cross paths in the Bahamas and along the east coast.

 

Antares

We decide to anchor for the night just north of the Pulp Mill plant in Ticonderoga, NY. When we arrive there is one Canadian boat, mast down, anchored. We actually go to bed at “Sailor’s Midnight”, 9:00 PM. We are pretty tired and get a good nights sleep.

Here we go again !

 This is really our last trip on Manana to the Bahamas