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On Tuesday, July 5th, the long-awaited computer chip for our GPS chartplotter finally arrived, allowing us to move on and enter the Trent-Severn Waterway.This 240 mile long inland passage between Trenton and Port Severn, Ontario, provides a route for …

On Friday morning, June 24th, the weather was not exactly ideal for crossing Lake Ontario, but it was far better than what was being forecast for the next couple of days, so we went for it.  After considering various possible routes across the lak…

Sunday morning, June 12th, it was chilly and threatening rain, but we were anxious to be on our way through the first several locks of the Erie Canal, so at 7:35 a.m. we untied the dock lines and headed for Lock #2. This time, Ken secured a line a…

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.

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.

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

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.

Cape May, NJ, was a great place to hole up over Memorial Day weekend and stay off the very busy waterways.  We ended up splitting our time between two nice marinas, South Jersey Marina and Utsch’s Marina (pronounced like “Dutch” without the “D”), located next to each other just an easy bicycle ride to the beach and historic district.

Cape May is famous for its wonderful collection of Victorian homes, some of which are bed and breakfast inns.

One street in the historic district has been turned into a walking mall with shops and restaurants.

But if one doesn’t feel like walking, there is always the horse drawn carriage option.

We rode our bikes to the beach, thinking we would take a walk along the water’s edge, but we were greeted with a sign telling us that we would have to pay to even set foot on the beach.

And just in case we didn’t get the message, each entry point was guarded, lest we should try to sneak by.

Oh, well, we decided to head back to the walking mall area and spend our money on lunch and beer instead.  Good choice.

On Tuesday, May 31st, we got up early so we could make an outside run to Atlantic City before the wind picked up.  Although we would have liked to do the inside passage through NJ, we were advised that this portion was too shallow to be a safe choice.  So, at 6:50 a.m. we left the marina behind, headed for the Cape May Inlet.

It was a little foggy when we cleared the inlet and entered the ocean, but that began to burn off as the sun peeked out from the clouds.  We followed the 30 ft. contour line on our chart, but stayed not far behind our friends, Steve and Jean, on their 41 ft. Symbol motor cruiser, “Sun Cat.”  Since this was our first off shore adventure, we were glad to have their support, since they had done this before.

As the wind picked up a bit, light chop developed.  Swells were a little more pronounced near each inlet we passed.  By 9:30 it was sunny, and we could just make out a hazy outline of the highrises of Atlantic City in the distance.

At this point we were cruising about two miles off shore.  Approaching the inlet at Atlantic City, the wind speed increased and the chop became more pronounced, so we were glad to get off the ocean and docked at our marina before it got worse.

When we saw “Old Barney” (Barnegat Lighthouse), we knew the excitement was about to begin.

As we approached the inlet, a whole lot of rocking and rolling was going on, sometimes even surfing the rollers.  Local knowledge is very important when negotiating Barnegat Inlet, and many boats have run aground and come to grief there.  But with the help of Captain Larry Viig, both Sun Cat and Docker’s Inn made it through safely.

Larry had also made arrangements for us to sit out some predicted very windy weather tied up to his friends’ dock in a protected canal off Barnegat Bay in the town of Brick, NJ.

What a treat this was, and what a beautiful setting. Our special thanks go out to Sharon and Larry Jones for their wonderful hospitality in sharing, not only their dock, but their lovely home as well.

Windy weather may not be great for cruising, but it’s just fine for sightseeing.  So we took advantage of it. For Ken and I, this was like old home week, since we had grown up and gotten married in this area, having left NJ back in 1970 to see the world. Now we had a chance to visit some of our favorite places, such as the boardwalk at Point Pleasant Beach.

First we walked down to the northern end of the boardwalk to take a look at Manasquan Inlet where we would be exiting the NJ ICW in a few days.

Then we had lunch at the Tiki Bar at Martell’s, a local institution. Sitting next to Ken is Captain Larry and his wife, Sue.  They cruised the Great Loop in 2007 with Jean and Steve (on the right). Larry and Sue now have a home in the area, and they graciously hosted us, supplying cars, a swimming pool , and great companionship throughout our stay.  Larry even did a little work in our engine room.  You can’t beat that!

Once again, we didn’t walk on the beach, because this is New Jersey, and you have to pay.  But we got to look at it.  That’s the beach I grew up with.  Pretty nice, huh?

After three terrific days, the wind calmed down and we moved on.  This time we were in the lead, first traversing the Point Pleasant Canal, which Ken and I both remember well from our youth as potentially trecherous, with very strong current with the change of tides. 

However, we timed it for slack tide and had no difficulty at all, even going under the two lift bridges, where currents can be especially tricky.

Then we emerged into the Manasquan River and cruised under the Route 35 bridge, heading for the next potentially tricky spot at a train bridge where only one vessel at a time can fit through the narrow opening. Since it was a Saturday, we thought there might be lots of boats possibly waiting for the bridge to open. Not so, no problem.

And then it was on to the Manasquan Inlet, and a smooth passage into the ocean for a run up the coast to Sandy Hook and beyond.

Since we had just spent three unscheduled days “off” so to speak, we decided to bypass Atlantic Highlands and proceed to New York Harbor. Our goal was to pass under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge,

continue on to the Statue of Liberty, with Sun Cat now back in the lead,

and anchor at Liberty Park for the night, and that’s exactly what we did.

Stay tuned for the rest of our New York story.  I can tell you this, it has been super!  But now it’s time for supper.