Boating with Sunset Delight: TI: Half Moon Bay Marina to Silver Point Duck Cove Anchorage

Wednesday 7/18/2018

Depart: Croton-on-Hudson Half Moon Bay Marina 9:20

Arrive: Duck Cove Anchorage 6:20

Distance: 66 nm

Owing to the cold front that came through yesterday afternoon / evening, we woke to 65 degrees, low humidity, and a breeze. Struggling for the right balance in cloths, we chose shorts and jackets. When we pulled away from the protection of the marina, the breeze turned into gusts of wind rushing towards us at up to 30 knots. We definitely needed the jackets.

During our nine hours of travel on the river today, we passed a lot of familiar sights . Clark, my photographer, overwhelmed me with over 170 picture options for the blog update. Many of today’s pictures focused on bridge architecture, the Hudson River lighthouses, and the rocky and mountainous terrain.

Hidden Stony Point Lighthouse
in the trees

Indian Point
Nuclear Power Plant

When we passed Dunderberg Mountain, Clark told me that he hiked this area with our son Jeff in 1998 in preparation for a two-week trip to Philmont Boy Scout Reserve. The scouts participating in the trip had to build up stamina before the arduous hiking to come.

Dunderberg Mountain

In 1993, on our way home from our very first, multi-week boat trip, the transmission failed on our 28’ Luhrs boat in the vicinity of Bear Mountain. Neither Clark nor I can forget that bit of adventure, and we think about it whenever we pass through this area. The water depths here show around 110 feet. On our Luhrs, we only had 100 feet of anchor rode. When we dropped the anchor, it swung freely several feet above the bottom.

We drifted rapidly towards the rock-faced cliffs all the while hoping that the water would get shallower before we collided with a wall. As we drifted towards the rocks, Clark quickly tied a second line to the anchor line to add another 100 feet of rode. Fortunately, at some point, with the extra length, the anchor found something to grab, and our movement came to an abrupt halt.

With a 9-year old and a 5-year old aboard, we were more than a little anxious about our fate! Tall Mountains surrounded the spot where the transmission chose to fail. Our VHF radio proved useless to us as no one could hear our calls. In those days neither Clark nor I had a cell phone. However, his father did for his extensive travels and loaned it to us for our trip. Thankfully we got a cell signal and were able to call Sea Tow (or its equivalent) for help.

When the tow boat finally appeared, the pilot insisted that we would have to cut our anchor line and leave the anchor at the bottom of the Hudson River. He said that the current was way too strong for us to ever pull it in. Clark dug his heels in and insisted he would not leave it behind. He convinced the tow boat pilot to tie our boat “on the hip” and pull us forward to collect our line and anchor bit-by-bit.

In truth, the pilot just did not want to spend his time recovering our anchor. Clark is ever so convincing when he sets his mind to something. Eventually the pilot figured out it was easier (and faster) to give in than to argue. I learned that a long time ago!

The children, of course, had no idea that we had been in any peril. All they knew was that we had a new adventure involving a tow boat and that we got to stay at the Haverstraw Marina that night. Since it has a pool, they thought everything was wonderful. We ended up leaving the boat and going home by car. A couple of weeks later we came back and collected the repaired boat.

Bear Mountain Bridge coming up
(brings back lots of memories)

Anyone traveling the Hudson River quickly finds themselves hearing train whistles on a very frequent basis. Freight trains travel on the west side of the river and passenger trains on the east side. At one point I heard a train whistle, and because of the mountains / echo, I was convinced it was coming up the river behind us! I even turned around to check it was not actually there!

Freight Train on Hudson River
heading North

Engines for same train

Passenger Train on opposite side
(at same time)

Clark took numerous pictures of the Bear Mountain Bridge and surrounding area from every perspective imaginable. I selected only a few of them.

Appropriately named “Round” Mountain
near Bear Mountain Bridge

Bear Mountain Bridge
with Boat and Train in View

Passenger Train Tunnel
near Bear Mountain Bridge

Passing under Bear Mountain Bridge

As we approached the bridge, a helicopter appeared from around the next bend in the river flying close to the water. When it came to the bridge, it made a steep climb, crossed over the bridge, and dove down to a lower altitude once more. It looked like it was playing bridge leap frog!

“Leap Frog” Helicopter following the river

The next point of interest for today became West Point Academy as we caught glimpses of it in the distance.

Approaching West Point Academy

Rough Terrain near West Point

West Point Academy

I laughed when Clark told me we approached “World’s End” until he showed me the words written on the chart. World’s End starts at Gee’s Point and ends around Constitution Island.

Gees Point
World's End - Begin

Constitution Island
World's End - Finish

I am so glad we survived "World's End"!

We passed a lot of rockface and cliffs through this section of the river. It has truly rough terrain.

Rockface

Magazine Point

Magazine Point
different perspective

Not wondering why this is called
"The Cliffs"

The “Cliffs”
at Cornwall on Hudson

And maybe I don't want to know how
Breakneck Ridge
got its name

One of the strange novelties on the river is Pollepel Island and Bannerman’s Castle. Bannerman built a castle on the island as a munitions / military supply warehouse. The castle has deteriorated over the years since it was built, but a group of volunteers have worked to restore much of the island. The castle is in too bad a condition to tour, but the grounds can now be explored.

Pollepel Island

Remains of Bannerman’s Castle

When we set out in 1993 to see if we would enjoy family travel on our 28’ Luhrs, we stopped at the Newburgh Yacht Club for one-night’s stay. There, Clark met a boater familiar with the Hudson River. He asked him, “So, is there anything to see north of the Troy Lock?” The man’s answer that we should go straight on up to Lake Champlain (and the fact that we followed his advice) started our boat travel addiction!

Newburgh, NY

Newburgh Yacht Club
(where our love of cruising began)

Newburgh-Beacon Bridge

Near Poughkeepsie, we passed under the FDR Mid-Hudson Bridge as well as a “rusty” railroad bridge nearby.

FDR aka Mid-Hudson Bridge

Rusty Railroad Bridge
near Poughkeepsie, NY

Rusty Railroad Bridge (again)

Rusty Railroad Bridge (one more time)
Obviously Clark liked this bridge!

Culinary Institute of America

After leaving the Poughkeepsie area, we came into the part of the Hudson that has lighthouses with house-like appearances. The first of these, Esopus Meadows Lighthouse, was built in 1871 to warn mariners of the nearby mud flats.

Esopus Meadows Lighthouse and
Rip Van Winkle Tour Boat from Kingston, NY

Esopus Meadows Lighthouse

Next came the Kingston / Rondout Creek Lighthouse. The original wooden lighthouse was built here in 1838 and replaced in 1867. In 1915, the structure was replaced again, and then a lit lighthouse occupied this spot on the river.

Kingston / Rondout Lighthouse

Kingston / Rondout Lighthouse
on Hudson River

Kingston – Rhinecliff Bridge

The Saugerties Lighthouse, built in 1869, is now a bed and breakfast establishment at the entrance to Esopus Creek.

Saugerties Lighthouse / Bed and Breakfast

Clark decided to anchor out tonight. We turned at the Saugerties Lighthouse and cruised a short distance down Esopus Creek to check out a potential spot for the night.

Esopus Creek

Coast Guard Station on Esopus Creek

The area marked as an anchorage on Active Captain felt too tight even for our older, shorter boat. We decided we needed to find a different locale for the night. On our way back to the Hudson River to check out our next choice, we passed a motorized floating dock.

Motorized Floating Dock

A short distance upriver we explored another anchorage area. Once again we opted to look elsewhere. This one left us unprotected from the strong north winds and gave us very little room to swing when the tide changed. I said to Clark, “Maybe we’ll be like Goldilocks, and the third time will be just right!”

We saw on the chart that a few miles up the river we had three possibilities located next to each other at Duck Cove. We went there. We tried one and found that we might be sitting on the bottom of the river by the time the tide was out.

Fortunately, our fourth attempt at finding an anchorage proved successful in that it had protection from the north wind, plenty of room to swing on anchor, and sufficient depths to support our 4’ draft with enough room to spare for low tide. We ended up at Dock Cove – Silver Point. We entered the anchorage by Green 107 and dropped our anchor abeam of Green 109.