Stats Day: 2
Nautical Miles Traveled Today: 75
Nautical Miles Traveled in Total:
101
# of Locks Navigated to Date: 0
We were on our way up the Hudson by 8:00 this morning - quite an achievement for us night owls that were up past 1:00 working on important things like blogs and such.
I must say that taking the boat lines off at Lincoln Harbor was a hair-raising experience. The floating docks there shake around so much it is like a perpetual earthquake in progress. It has literally been years since I was afraid of walking on any floating docks at marinas. I remember when I first started dating Clark if we walked around shaky docks, I would have a death grip on his arm for fear of going for an unplanned swim. I haven't felt that way in over 25 years, but I was very nervous working the lines today. Not only did the docks sway back-and-forth and up and down, but when they slammed into the poles holding the docks, they pitched me forward like someone shoved me in the back. I found leaning over the cleat at the edge of the dock to untie the lines to be a very scary situation, so I got down on all fours to have a lower center of gravity. Hey whatever works!
We've been up the Hudson a number of times, and I have few favorite sites along the way. My first point of interest was Jeffrey's Hook lighthouse at the George Washington Bridge. I guess I just like the name for some reason. Here's a picture of the lighthouse made famous by the 1942 children's book The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegarde Swift. Look closely or you might miss the lighthouse.
Further up river we passed by West Point Academy.
Still further upstream we came to Pollepel Island with Bannermans' Castle. If interested in castles like I am, you can read all about this one built to store military surplus at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollepel_Island
We had heard all sorts of forecasts for inclement weather for today, but other than some light misting and an overcast sky, the weather was fine for boat travel. We had a Plan A and Plan B for tonight's stay and decided to wait to see how things went to decide which plan to implement. As it turned out we took neither plan A or B and ended up much further up river than anticipated. We had the current with us for the entire trip which pushed our average speed from 7.6 nm/hr (about 8 mph) yesterday to over 9 nm / hr (10 mph) today. Going from 8 mph to 10 mph in a car is not noticeable - both are rather painful, but on a boat that 2 mph means something!
We arrived at another favorite spot of mine, Kingston, NY, at just after 4:00. We passed by our prior choices of destination much earlier in the afternoon and both of us poo-pooed the idea of stopping given the good conditions for continuing upstream. Having been on the boat for the whole day, I was anxious to get out and stretch my legs. We walked around Kingston on a mission to find ice cream. We had almost given up when I asked a local who smiled and pointed directly across the street from where we were standing. Captain Clark got a vanilla cone and I stole some licks. Creamy goodness!
The terrain in Kingston is hilly and the walk around town was good exercise. We stopped at the top of one hill we climbed to take a picture looking down on our boat at the municipal dock. Can you spot the orange kayak on our upper deck? Our other distinguishing feature is the blue Bimini top. The speck of orange is probably the best way to find our boat in the picture. Here's a hint, we're near the boat that's closest to the bridge.
Given our successful distance covered today, we need to redo our travel plans for the next 2 days. With some luck maybe I can get to the Troy Farmer's Market on Saturday.
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