Happy Hallowe'en

Happy Hallowe’en!

We are not anchored but we are as far away from shore as we could get and still be on a dock! Unfortunately we are on the outside and the wake from the barges all night will keep us rocking!

We are in Poughkeepsie, at a marina called Shadows. It is only 4 years old and the guy who runs it with his wife, is also a barge pilot and has a cigarette boat that rivals anything you’ve seen so far. It is a cat and runs high speed tours up and down the river.

When we called he told us that the cost was $2.00/ ft but he had already winterized the washrooms so he only charge us a $1.00/ft. So no showers today but oh well, we’re not sweating anyway! And we have power for the heater!

So we went for dinner at the restaurant: two huge chicken breasts bruschetta and baked potato $10.00 each. There were two weddings going on there. Who would get married on Hallowe’en... well, Liz would have, but besides her?

The ride down the river was nothing unusual. We passed some great lighthouse and we are starting to see some of the mansions. We passed the Vanderbilt mansion and FDR’s place. There some pretty spectacular new houses but they don’t come close the majesty of the old places! There was no rain and the temperature seems to be staying steady. We plugged the heater in before we left for dinner and the boat is toasty right now.

 

Visitor map of Poughkeeppsie

A bit windblown

A water taxi! Shadow I

Vanderbilt estate

Another cool lighthouse

Culinary Institute of America in Poughkeeppsie

We expect that we will get to Haverstraw tomorrow then New York on Sunday, but we’ll see how it goes.

Enjoy the pics!

Thursday Oct 30

Thursday Oct.30

We spent the rainy morning finishing the servicing, hooking up the radio and lights and the last of the laundry.  We had showers and breakfast and got away by 11:00 am. It drizzled and the wind came up fiercely [because the guys behind us were getting ready to raise their mast]. We got out of their way and moved down river with the tide.

We are now in brackish water...half salt, half fresh. It has no effect on the new engine because the water cooling system circulates around the engine block, not through it. You probably don’t care that much, but we do. It saves the life of the engine!

We had sunny breaks all down the river, and wind behind us so we were able to put up the small jib and motor sail. I’ve gotten used to the engine. Not sure I’ll be able to sail with just the sails!  We decided that since the tide goes out in the morning and comes up river in the afternoon it makes more sense to take off early and stop early. 

 The Castle belonged to Robert Church, an artist  early 1900's. I guess artists were better paid back then!

So we are in Catskill, the county seat, and very small town a half mile away and super Wal-Mart is a $4.00 cab ride away, so we are going up there, and today we are buying a heater for the boat. That should absolutely ensure that we do not have snow or cold weather!!!

We are at the Riverside Marina. It’s a real working yard; not much in amenities, but showers, bathrooms and laundry. Too bad we did all that this morning.

At least 6 barges passed us traveling up and down the river today. They are really cool, like having a matching truck and trailer. They come from all over the eastern seaboard. And it doesn’t pay to get in their way.

The scenery on the river was wonderful and we are getting more colour, I am hoping that the further south we go, the less colour there is...all the leaves will still be green!

We went to Wal-Mart and got the heater, along with groceries. We called the cab to bring us back but there was another guy waiting for a cab too. The driver stopped at us and he ran over, so we shared it. He talked non-stop back to the boat about how wonderful and brave we were, to be on a sailboat;  did we stay out on the ocean, what did we do when we wanted to stop; he had a power boat but that’s not the same; he had an uncle who lived in Thunder Bay Canada but 30 years ago his twins sons were killed in a car accident, but he stayed there and loved it ; he played hockey and thought that the Canadian people were great, the health care was great and we never got a word in edgewise. He’ll probably think we were rude but he only let us answer one of his questions.

So we had a later dinner than we wanted and we still have some work to do. But here are some pictures. We aren’t at the run of mansions yet, but the Hudson River has some absolutely fabulous lighthouses, and we will be taking more pictures of them.

Tomorrow night is Hallowe’en and I do NOT want to be on shore. These people take it very seriously [although if you think about their history...Quaker and Salem and burning witches...] and the further away from them we are, the better!!

I couldn’t post this last night. The ‘County Seat” didn’t have internet access! ?

 

Robert Church artist, residence on Church Hill

Wow, new facilities here

Lighthouse on the river

Barge & tug

another barge & tug

river hazard

abandoned factory- note tree in chimney

sunning themselves

Rainy Wed.Oct 29

Wednesday Oct 29

Not a good morning...rainy and foggy, and we had to lift the mast again. It was set on the step crooked and jammed we couldn’t straighten it without lifting it again. Of course, this is just another crisis, in my world view. I had visions of it snapping off and tumbling into the river; or getting tangled in the rigging of the mast hoist and dropping on the deck...you get the picture.

[Sidebar: There was a story I read in about Grade 5 of a man who found his wife in the root cellar crying because there was an axe in the ceiling and she imagined it falling onto the head of their little boy/girl coming in to get vegetables. The man pulled down the axe and then went off to see if there was anyone in the world more stupid than his wife ...not so worried about political correctness in those days. Point being...I identified strongly with that woman and still do, only now I am smart enough to pull the axe while I consider the scenarios.

AND I pointed out yesterday that the mast was crooked but what do I know...after all, I am just a girl!]

We got it fixed this morning by noon and we are going to spend another day here while we adjust the rigging, set the sails and do some maintenance. It’s going to rain a day and as long as we are closer to New York by Saturday we probably won’t get the snow on us.

I already did the laundry and we can have showers here and use the clubhouse. The people here are very friendly and as helpful as their insurance company will allow.

However, [back to the mast issue] this is not an easy mast to put up/take down. Next time we are going to HIRE people to help/do it or it is NOT coming down. That means of course, we leave it south and come home for visits without the boat and just stay with people. Clean out your spares rooms... you know who you are! No rush...not ‘til next summer.

A tug came up river this morning pushing a great barge of scrap metal this morning as a sailboat was coming down. We thought he was coming to the dock but he crossed right in front of the barge and the captain was hollering at him through the loudspeaker about what a stupid move that was, and he better “smarten up!”  We were on the dock watching and the sailboat just sped on past. Maybe too embarrassed to stop here! A HUGE ocean cargo ship the Medi Bangkok  D’Amico came up river this morning. We also had to wait for his wake to settle before we could finish hoisting the mast.

So I wasn’t going to say anything but I think I broke or dislocated my finger a week or so ago. It was one of those frantic into-the-lock-grab-the-line-stop-the-boat things where I couldn’t hold the hanging line and it got tangled around a fender line and our dock line and my fingers just happened to be the middle of all that. It was the middle finger on my right hand so I couldn’t use it for gesturing for awhile because it was sort of bent, twisted and bruised.  I have been slathering on the Aches and Pains ointment and the swelling has gone down a bit. I can bend it now but it still hurts. It’s the only part of my body that likes the cold! Not whining, jut sayin’...

Rick is out in the rain trying to hank on the sails so I guess I should help. I’m already soaking wet from standing under the mast hoist, and it’s not cold yet. It was supposed to stop at noon. I guess not here.

It was late in the day by the time we got everything put away. Tomorrow I will do the last of the laundry [all our wet clothes from today] and then we’ll take off. We are watching that big storm rolling around the east coast and we should be down in New York by the time its moved northeast out of the way.

Another sailboat stopped here to get his mast put up. It’s a 40 foot Catalina registered in Edmonton!! They crossed Lake Ontario from Kingston on the 24^th and said it was a great crossing. Sure.

So we’re going to climb into bed and get warm, It was so dull I only took 2 pictures today. Tomorrow we’ll take a pic of the boat back together.

Boat was soooo big...

I had to take two pictures

Oct 28 Tuesday

Tuesday Oct 28.

It’s a buy morning at this corner. We are right in front of [or behind depending on which way you are going] Lock 2. W already watched a huge beautiful trawler come out of the lock and a work barge going up the canal. There is a yacht in front of us called “Classified”. The dining room table is set with china and crystal, and it’s only morning!!  Haven’t seen anyone on it yet. Maybe it’s staged for sale!

There is a replica of the Onrust, a small Dutch boat originally built in 1610 to explore the rivers in the eastern states. It’s all wood and a lot of work!!! They have a mast they put up by hand that is the thickness of a telephone pole and it has keel boards that take three or four people to operate when they need to turn. Ugh.

We left the dock around noon. Rick had talked to the other boaters...we’ll let them sort themselves out. We got to the Troy City Dock and marina. There was no mast hoist and there was the Tiara “Solitude” and a great huge cruise ship sitting in the space. We couldn’t get to the fuel dock.  So we kept going.

The trip down the river was uneventful except for the humungous boats passing us. Albany was the only city on the route. But there was no place for us to stop.

We were going to bypass Castleton because it was the old place where we lost one of the shrouds 10 years ago and Rick had to swim for it.  But we stopped and it turned out great. Their mast hoist is remote controlled! And they still only charge $50.00! We got a break on the cost of gas thanks to our Boat US membership from Derek and Julie and we took the dock for the night. We had difficulty getting the mast set and we will have to shake it tomorrow to make it sit.  Luckily one of the members of the boat club hung out to show us how to use the hoist and take our money, so he helped.

We finished as the sun went down. We went to the restaurant across the tracks, being careful to make sure the insane trains weren’t coming. I don’t think they have a speed restriction. And this track is the passenger train from NY city.

So tomorrow we will finish setting up the sails, do some maintenance and laundry and be on our way. We’ll let you know where we end up.

Do they know there's construction going on?

The Waterford orse

Figurehead on Onrust

Missing a truck?

Back end of boat

Tug family

Cruise ship passing

Cargo ship

Historic Albany