Up the Hudson

Well this is it, we are all the way up the Hudson river to Castleton-on Hudson, NY. Where the mast will come down. It was a long and enjoyable trip. We have put some photos in and will write more later about our trip. So please look at photos for now.

We cast off from the previous owners deck Near Stamford, CT., at 5:00 am on Monday April 23 to be with a high tide, which was the only way to leave his little bay. We motored on a very calm day toward New York City. We couldn't believe it we were on our way. The sun came up behind up as a ball of fire and feed the day with such warmth that NYC had a record high this day of 70 something. We arrived at City Island 2 hours early and thought about doing the east river on this day, but after a quick look at the Eldridge book of tides we knew we couldn't do it with out being stuck in the middle of New York Harbor at dusk and now where to go.

We motored around City island looking at different places that we might moor for the night, and then the wind picked up. I thought it would be a good idea to do some sailing for two reasons:

1-Arline had never been on the boat with the sails up. She had worked her tail off in making the boat look great and added her little touches of home to the boat (teddy bears), she really needed to feel what the boat was going to be like under sail.

2-The previous owner Rick was with us and could show us some pointers about any question we might have on the boat.

So we sailed at the entrance to the Throgsneck Bridge and sailed up into Manhasette Bay where we found nobody. We sailed around a bit and had all the sails out, it was a thing of beauty. The boat is everything we taught it would be. We set anchor, took a nap, did some small chores to the boat, had dinner and crashed.

We weighed anchor to be under way by 8:30 to be with an ebbing tide though the East River and Hell Gate. Again it was nice and sunny, yet just a bit cool from the water. we made the Throgsneck Bridge, Hell gate; which was a piece of cake. We could see where the Harlem river and the East river come together and could feel it on the rudder and wheel but it was very minimal because we timed it just right. We went by the UN Building. Under the Brooklyn Bridge and there was the Statue of Liberty. WOW. We had been planning this for about 6 months and how do you stop the time to let it all last just a bite longer. We noticed the wind had picked up and the water was as brown as a Fridays' mudslide drink. We turned North and we were on the Hudson. The city of Manhattan was very impressive. Rick makes frequent business trips to the city and pointed out all the sites the whole way. We couldn't help ourselves from searching for where the WTC and towers should have been and found some feelings that are just way too hard to put into words. As we made our way north the wind came on our port beam and was just screaming for motor sailing. We pulled the Genny out and our hull speed jumped up to just over 7 knots over ground. Oh this is funny, in the East river the impeller that drives our speed indicator must have picked up some debris as it stopped working. I hope it's only a bag or something, there was LOTS of crap in the river and we were always on the look out for more crap. So we only had our GPS chart plotter for SOG (Speed Over Ground). We were motor sailing along nicely, healed over to about 15 degrees,...and then the motor stopped. Oh Crap! After a little thinking I realized the engine had been sucking air since the pick up tube in the tank was on the up hill side while healed like we were. So we pulled some sail in to flatten us, ran down stairs to turn "The Filter Boss" on to bleed the system and the engine fired right up. Arline was very impressed as was I. "The Filter Boss" was a new member of our Family. Thanks KTI Systems. Check them out at http://www.ktisystems.com/ .

Well we made it up to the Tappenze Bridge and pulled into the Half Moon Bay Yacth Club and went for my first docking with our new boat. No problems, the big rudder on the back makes the boat very easy to handle. Pam came for dinner, and Rick and Pam left the boat,.....to us. (Thanks for all your help guys)

The next morning we met some guys in a steel 37 ft custom pilot house boat "My Thyme"? We left about 8:30 and went for my first "with the new boat" backing out of a dock. Arline and I talked about everything that could go wrong, and what we would do. Well I hope I get a crowd watching someday when it goes as perfect as this did. So We where on the river all by ourselves. So we motored all day past West Point, World End, narrow spot were it looks like the river ends, but goes around a corner. We met and where passed by a few barges and tugs. So cool, we were out there and taking shifts, loving it. We had Rogers Point and took on fuel. We asked the guys ar the bar if they had WiFi,... "What the hell kind of fuel is that?" No it's computer connection,..." Oh you know Paul had his computer thing in here and does something with it, is that what he's doing,...FiWi,. cool we are with it." Thanks for every thing guys.

We got under way at 6 am on thursday and again motored all day taking shifts and made Castelton-On Hudson by 3:30. We checked in and did things around the boat, and talked with other people waiting for the canal to open.

Our good friend Schlyer, owner of The Sail Boat Shop in Skaneateles NY came up Saturaday afternoon to help us unstep the mast and build a craddle for the mast. Well Saturday was clean up day at the Castleton Yacht Club. Everybody was raking, cleaning, painting and putting docks in. We were some of the first transiants for the season. We moved Kasidah into position to pick the mast and I swear there was about 30 people starting to gather at the club house. Just watching and waiting. Well 2 minutes into the pick and they all disappeared. Schlyer had the perfect balance point on the mast Arline had the up and down on the crane working. Perfect as perfect could be. After dinner we had drinks at the bar with some of the clud members and they said they get some really good shows there with mast disasters. Well we are now just waiting for the NY Canal to open. More Later, thanks for stopping by and sharing interest in our story.

Jon