From Lady Liberty to the Erie Canal

On Sunday morning, June 5th, we emerged from our peaceful overnight anchorage at Liberty Park and once again entered busy New York Harbor.

We almost had to pinch ourselves to be sure that we weren't dreaming, that we really were right there in New York Harbor, dodging ferry boats taking tourists to and from the Statue of Liberty.

Then it was time to bid farewell to the lovely lady and begin our journey up the Hudson River, but not before our friends on Sun Cat snapped a photo of us from their boat to prove we were there.

Then we turned our attention to the rest of our surroundings, including Ellis Island just beyond the Statue of Liberty, where Ken's maternal grandparents entered the US from Italy as young marrieds seeking a new life.

And, of course, we admired the famous New York skyline, as we remembered it from our youth and from times we had visited NYC by car many years ago.

As soon as we approached the George Washington Bridge, the scenery changed dramatically.

Instead of towering highrise buildings, we gazed at the magnificent towering Pallisades.

To give some perspective regarding the height of these cliffs (300-500 ft.), just look at how small a sailboat looks cruising on the Hudson next to them.

On we cruised, past Tarrytown, bringing to mind Washington Irving's "Legend of Sleepy Hollow," past Ossining, famous (or infamous?) as the site of Sing Sing prison, past Haverstraw, where Benedict Arnold schemed with the British to betray and surrender West Point, a plot that was luckily aborted. 

We stopped overnight at Patsy's Bay Marina in Stony Point, NY, which we wouldn't particularly recommend to other cruisers.  The entrance channel is so shallow that it can only be traversed from mid to high tide, even by relatively shallow draft boats such as ours, and the shallow depth at the boat slips causes boats to literally sit on the bottom at low tide. Consequently, we had to wait until the tide had risen enough (almost 1:00 p.m.) the following day before we could leave the marina and move on.

The scenery we then encountered along the way, however, was well worth the wait, with lush vegetation and beautiful mountains on either side of the river.

We passed under Bear Mountain Bridge, which was the world's largest suspension bridge at the time of its completion in 1924.  In addition to carrying highway traffic, it also serves as the Hudson River crossing of the famous Maine-to-Georgia Appalachian Trail.

One of the highlights of our cruising day was passing West Point Military Academy.  Although cruisers can no longer stop there (because of heightened security since 9/11), we enjoyed the impressive view, as did the passengers aboard Pete Seeger's sailing vessel, "Clearwater," whose mission to clean up the Hudson has been quite successful.

Our destination that day was Newburgh, NY, but we were looking forward to passing Pollepel Island (also known as Bannerman's Island) along the way. On this island in the early 1900's Frank Bannerman, a munitions dealer, built a replica of a medieval castle as a summer resort and storehouse. Although boats can't stop there anymore, we hoped to get a good view of the castle.  As we approached the island, we did see parts of it sticking up through the vegetation, but not much.

Stupid us, we didn't even think to look back after passing the island, or we would have had a view of the entire castle! We found this out too late, after arriving at Newburgh, where we stayed at the Front Street Marina, which turned out to be a good choice.  No shallow channels!  However, the down side was that we were exposed to the wakes of passing boats on the Hudson, and our friends sustained damage to their boat as we were preparing to leave the next morning.

We had hoped to be able to take a tour of George Washington's 1782-83 headquarters, Hasbrough House, which is located in Newburgh, but because of our late departure from Stony Point, we arrived too late. However, we did enjoy a nice dinner at Billy Joe's Ribworks, which was right at the foot of our dock. This was very convenient until the entertainment began at 10:00 p.m., lasting until midnight.  Fun for those at the restaurant, but not for those of us trying to sleep.

But we did enjoy walking around the riverfront park, soaking up the atmosphere.

Our next cruising day was a long, hot one, with temperatures in the 90's.  Since we were going in the same direction as the breeze, we didn't feel it at all.  I sat at the helm with a bowl of ice water into which I dipped a cloth to mop my brow and hang around my neck to keep cool. Nonetheless, the scenery we passed was still beautiful and interesting, including this lighthouse, the first of several we were to see on the upper Hudson River guarding shoals or entrances to harbors.

That day we stopped at Catskill Marina, which was nestled in a pretty park-like setting, a short distance up Catskill Creek.

They also had a swimming pool, which I vowed to plunge into no matter how cold it might be.  I was that hot.  Well, not only was the water cold, but the the surface was covered with white cottony seed pods which were flying around all over the place from the trees. So, Jean grabbed a pool cleaning net and scooped out as much as she could, and we went in anyway.  It was very refreshing when we finally inched our way in.

The next day we were on the move again, destination Coeymans, NY, where we planned to take on fuel and stop for a couple of days to plan the next phase of our journey. We followed behind Sun Cat on another very warm day, but once again, the scenery along the way made up for the heat.

This was a short cruising day, and by noontime we were approaching our marina at Coeymans Landing.

This was where we would say goodbye to our friends, Steve and Jean, who were planning to leave their boat, Sun Cat, at the marina for a week or more while they rented a car to go visit family before resuming their cruise. They had been great traveling companions, and we knew we would miss them.  But we also knew that we would meet other fellow Loopers along the way, and we would probabably see Steve and Jean again next winter back in Florida at the end of our Great Loop Cruise.

So, on Friday, June 10th, we headed out for the final leg of our Hudson River cruise, carefully navigating our way around this silt dike upon departure from the marina

As we approached Albany, New York's capital city, the scenery changed from rural to urban.

Then it was on to Troy where we prepared for the first of many locks we would be passing through in the days and weeks ahead.  First we had to wait for the lock to open, which gave Ken an opportunity to practice securing the boat to a wall, similar to what we would experience inside the lock.

When the lock doors opened, we moved inside, along with another boat which had been waiting with us.

There are various methods used in locks to secure boats to the wall while being raised or lowered to a different water level.  In the Troy Lock, Ken had to loop a line around a pipe and secure it to our boat.  Then he had to make sure it didn't get caught as the water level rose.

Since other boats had come in behind us, we also had to be careful to keep our boat in the same place, and not allow it to move around in the lock.



When we had risen to the top of the lock, the doors opened and we all moved out of the lock.

Success!

Just a short distance beyond the Troy Lock, we arrived at a crossroads where some cruisers continue on toward Lake Champlain via the Champlain Canal, while others like ourselves turn left at Waterford, choosing the Erie Canal route.

This year, due to flooding in Lake Cahmplain, that route is closed to cruisers until the water level drops, so the Erie Canal route is the only option right now.

At noon we arrived at the free dock in Waterford, NY, where cruisers can pause for a couple of days to plan their trip through the New York Canals. Although the floating docks with electic hookups were full, we did mamage to secure the last spot along the wall without electricity available.  Since we have a generator, that was not a problem.

During our stay at Waterford, we were able to walk to the next lock to see what would lie ahead for us.  Below, the boat on the right is tied up to the wall right in fron of Lock #2, waiting for it to open.

Here it is with the doors closed.

As we watched, water began flowing out, so we knew it would open soon.

When the water flow stopped, the gates opened.

Then, after a green light turned on, the boat proceeded to enter the lock.  If you look closely, you can see that this is a sailboat with its mast unstepped and lying down.  That's because there are fixed bridges along the canal as low as 20 ft.

After the lock doors closed, we walked up the steps to watch the whole operation from above and to talk to the lockmaster about the various methods employed in this lock and others for securing boats.  This made us feel more secure about the trip ahead of us on the Erie Canal.