Westbound on the Erie Canal

Sunday, May 12

After a full week of waiting in Cape May we left Thursday morning with
decent weather for going around New Jersey up to the Hudson River and
New York City. As far as ocean time goes it wasn't bad, 7' swells on the
beam most of the day and we made good time motorsailing and motoring.
We got to the Hudson earlier than expected, facing a strong adverse current
so at 2 AM we anchored at Sandy Hook for 4 hours, got some sleep and
continued all the way up to Poughkeepsie, for a total of 220 miles in 34
hours. We kept moving up the Hudson because we were riding the current
perfectly, at 8.5 - 9 mph all day. It was sunny and warm for a change and
we were doing OK considering how little sleep we got.
Going by the Freedom Tower we saw them setting the radio tower at the
top. The Statue of Liberty is sill awesome for us as we go by and we also
went by West Point that day. Lots of exciting sites.
Mariners on the Hudson is a restaurant at Highland Landing with a dock
we tied up to for free because we ate at the restaurant. It was a welcome
meal after the long trip.
Saturday we had another good ride up the River , catching the current
right and made it to Hop - O - Nose Marina in Catskill Creek. Sean, the
marina owner handles the marina, stepping masts in between his time
being the chef at the restaurant. He unstepped our mast using an old simple
boom, doing a great job and we were impressed how calm and unflappable
he was balancing all his duties. He was inundated with sailboats arriving
to have their masts taken down because the other marina that does it there
did not have their equipment functioning yet and there was a big group
of boats coming all at the same time due to getting held up at Cape May.
Sunday morning we left after getting our mast down and made it up here
to Watertown, the beginning of the Erie Canal.
We went to McGreiveys here to celebrate Mothers Day and had a great
meal.