August 27-29 -- Kingston to Catskill and Two Lay Days There -- 20 NM

Well the passage was our first with all good tide, making between seven  and eight knots instead of the five we had seen earlier. We did this by leaving Kingston at seven a.m. We woke at six (as usual for cruisers with hungry cats) and it was still raining when we left at seven. The rain cleared but it was a grey day. and we arrived in Catskill early in mid morning, well before expected. 
The current causes seaweed, well actually river lily pads, to clump up around the somewhat unique river buoys. Catskill was on our itinerary because that is where Dean and Susan dock s/v "Autumn Borne" each summer, after their winter cruises to Florida or the Bahamas.

They live aboard her year round and have no land base. But they do visit near Buffalo, where they used to live and work, for about a week each summer and their married daughter and granddaughter live in nearby Schenectady and watch their car for them during the winters. Dean is one of those saintly people who helps everyone even without being asked. I told him that I'm trying to restrict my "Dean calls" -- whenever something on ILENE does not work. He is an engineer who can talk me through restoration. A retired Vietnam vet who is brave and strong as well as knowledgeable. He is the kind of guy who  jumps onto other people's boats that are drifting to save them. We first met Dean and Susan while circling and waiting for the Ladies Island Bridge at Beaufort SC to open in the spring of 2012 and have met up several times since them. 

His universal helpfulness and friendliness is what made my blood boil when I heard what the powerboaters at the Hop-O-Nose Marina, seen in the next picture from ILENE, fifty yards across Catskill Creek, did to them.

Autumn Borne has had the same slip there each summer for the past thirteen years but they felt compelled to move across the Creek earlier this summer, to the Catskill Marina, where we stayed with them. He committed the unpardonable sin of supporting Joseph Biden on Facebook. As a result they ostracized Dean and Susan, placed them at coventry, shunned, refused to speak to and glared at them. They made this gentle man and his wife feel so uncomfortable that they had to emigrate across the Creek. It's disgusting, what cruelty the mindless Kool Aid drinkers will do in 2020.

What with rain we spent most of our time talking with our friends and eating with them, including my blueberry/mango buckwheat/sweet potato pancakes for breakfast. They took us with them to several local eateries in their car and shopping and we hung in the Marina's pool..

We also took a stroll into town to visit the local antique shops, book store, etc. and ended up acquiring the newest member of our small collection of bird statues, believed to be a sandpiper.

Any birders out there are invited to more accurately identify the newest member of our menagerie. 

Taking advantage of the first syllable of the town's  name, it annually auctions off for the community fund  a collection of one of a kind fiberglass cat statutes which are mounted in the streets before the auction.   

                                                                We had planned to spend only a day and a half (two nights) in Catskill, getting here on Thursday afternoon and leaving on Saturday morning to go five miles further north, under the last of the high bridges, the  Rip Van Winkle, to anchor at Athens New York and dink across to Hudson New York to meet our friend, Lianne, who lives in Great Barrington, and possibly her son Adam, his wife Anna and their sons Jude, 5, and Rowen, 2. We hoped to take them for a day sail on Saturday. But Saturday was forecast as a rainout so we stayed at the dock in Catskill Marina for the third night and Adam and family came for the day sail on Friday, from Catskill instead of from Athens on Saturday. It was a short cruise --  out into the Hudson and a mile downstream before it was time to head back up.

Jude is up on pirates so he had a vocabulary of nautical terms which we added to. He held the wheel for a while, as did Anna.  They had a good time but it was too short, only an hour and a half including the half mile each way slowly in the Creek, and the wind was not strong. We put up the main and small jib, but going upstream on the way back we needed the engine as we were making only one knot tacking back and forth in the channel against the tide. 

It turns out the rain held off until 7:30 on Saturday when we had a brief "frog drowner"so the change of the plan against Athens was not needed. Also, sadly, Lianne had to cancel her plans for diner with us.

There were several nice looking boats in this marina including canoe sterned, European looking "Tulla" next to us,

"Elenor,"a wooden gaff rigged sloop built in 1903 and restored recently after twenty years on the hard,

and Bill's "Second Wind", which frequently travels south with Autumn Borne.

August 25-26 -- Croton to Marlboro to Kingston -- 29 and 20 NM

First a notice: Since the publication of the most recent post the "page views" garnered by this blog reached to 200,000 mark. Divided by the 9 3/4 years since debut, this means it has averaged 2150 page views per month. This is not "going viral" but shows a steadiness that impresses me. I had wondered whether the 200,000 page view or the 700th posting would occur first. And the page views won the race with this the 699th post. This means that winter and summer I have posted about once every five days.

Anyway, two days northbound on the Hudson. We have sailed ILENE up the Bath River in Maine and the Potomac between Maryland and Virginia, the Savannah to Savannah Georgia, and the St. John's to Jacksonville Florida as well as briefly up two rivers that flow into Chesapeake Bay, the York (in the SW) and the Chester (in the NE). All were one day trips except to Washington DC, up the Potomac, which was two days. So far we have been three days up the mighty Hudson, with more to come. This river was originally thought to be the passage from the Atlantic to the riches of China, but those dreams were short lived.

I'm reminded of the history lessons I had long forgotten. The Hudson was the major means of transport of goods from the American wilderness to Europe. After canoes it was sail powered boats and I would have been daunted by trying to sail even a modern sloop like ILENE up this river, except she is equipped with an inboard engine and electronic charts. With the river channeling the wind, it was largely on our bow and while each day we tried to sail, first with the small jib and then with the main, these efforts proved fruitless. When the wind was not on our bow it came in brief strong puffs that upset the boat's stately progress up the river. The engine ran the whole time. 

The sailboats were supplanted as cargo vessels by Robert Fulton's steamboats and later by the railroads. But both modes continue to move large quantities of freight at low cost per ton per mile.

American Elm, about 650 feet long, appeared suddenly from around a bend, heading south. I looked up her name via AIS and called on channel 13 for a starboard to starboard pass, which was accepted cheerfully. The railroads were more constant. the eastern side of the river in lined with tracks on which speedy passenger trains run frequently.

On the west side are tracks used by lengthy freight trains, moving slowly but loudly.

We were particularly reminded of this on our mooring at the Marlboro YC in the sleepy little town of Marlboro. A very nice friendly club and only $25 for the mooring. But the road to the club crossed the railroad tracks, less than 100 yards from our mooring. Such "grade crossings" are dangerous for collisions between trains and cars. So the trains blow their whistles  long and loud on approaching. Our kittie crew did not like the noise at all and it interrupted our sleep.

One lesson learned so far is how little I know so far about playing the tides on the River. Both of the days described in this post we had adverse tide most of the way. It is the difference between 4.5 or 5 knots and 7 or 8. Obviously, the tide runs upstream, "floods", during the six hour periods between low tide and high tide. But the high tide occurs at different times at different places on the River. Also, a lot of the problems we experienced result from my recent illness: if we had started this cruise a week earlier, the flood tides would have occurred more during the times we like to move, let's say during the day between breakfast and dinner. On the 26th the tide turned foul at 8 a.m. and for at least six hours. We considered leaving at 6 a.m. to get two hours of fair tide under our belts, but elected to leave at eleven a.m., suffering from at least the last three hours of the foul tide.

We passed a lot of  beautiful rugged scenery, some elegant homes and a fair amount of heavy industry.

We passed a number of beautiful pleasure boats, a ketch broad reaching with the tide and 

Vibrance", 164 feet long on anchor where we had considered anchoring, in the river behind Esopus island.

We passed under West Point

and Hyde Park. Having visited FDR's summer residence at Campobello Island off Maine a few years ago, we wanted to at least see Hyde Park too. I recall shaded lawns running from the house down to the River from a visit, by land, in my youth. But we could not identify the house from the River -- maybe the trees grew larger.

We went under many bridges. Lene performed a confidence building exercise. She has stood night watches for up to five hours at sea. But that is with autopilot steering the course shown on the chart plotter and the only potential problems being other ships, which show up  infrequently out there -- and she knows to wake me if they do. On the 25th she had the helm for 50 minutes while I was below. And this on a curving river with lots of traffic to watch out for.

We passed Shadows on the Hudson Marina at Poughkeepsie, where we will be stopping on the return trip.

The two bridges at Poughkeepsie reminded me of the pair between the Bronx and Queens at Hellsgate: One is for autos and the other, built earlier, was for railroads, though now the Poukeepsie railroad bridge is used by pedestrians.

At Kingston we took a dock at the Hudson River Maritime Museum -- a long wooden dock on the north side of Roundout Creek, directly across the Creek from to Peter Seeger's sloop, "Clearwater".

Sadly, due to Covid the museum is open only on weekends-- and we were here on Tuesday. But we watered the boat and strolled the very old city, took in a good art gallery and a fish dinner at one of the good restaurants in town.

This is my favorite photograph and sadly the camera could not do justice to the reality: Esophus Meadow Light warns boats off the "meadow" -- of seaweed on shallow water --  between it and the shore, with sweet hills behind it and majestic mountains further off. 

August 23 - 24 -- Start of the Delayed Hudson Jaunt - HYC to Croton Point Anchorage 47 NM

A good start -- transporting selves, cats and nineteen bags of stuff from home to the boat with a very efficient stop for provisioning. After stowing and resting, dinner at the Club was a pleasure with the wait staff in mid-season form and the restaurant (outdoors only) full, busy, friendly and giving off an "almost normal" vibe. 

But the cool evening breeze was replaced by two unpleasant events which deprived us of a good night's sleep. The first was that the breeze got shut off, making it hot. We had thought maybe we would need to break out the quilt but sadly, no. The other event was even worse. Someone, probably on Throggs Neck, presented a lovely program of male troubadours singing Latin ballads backed by full bands of brass and percussion. And they turned it loud and kept it going until after 3:30 a.m.! The loud sound filled Eastcheser Bay, probably disturbing the residents of City Island whose windows face the Bay, unless they turned on AC, shut their windows and tried to ignore it. I think the police should investigate by power boat next time to localize the culprit and then call in shore based police to summons them. 

In the morning the tides behaved predictably and for once I somehow managed to get them almost exactly right. By leaving at 6:00 a.m. (before official "sunrise" at 6:13 but after the sun had spread light over the horizon) we did the 16 miles to the Battery arriving at exactly 8:30 with favorable tide the whole way. Glassy water under the Whitestone Bridge with the skyline behind and you can make out the Hellsgate Bridge arch to the left.

-- averaging 6.4 knots with some slow parts while getting started and raising the main and with some parts as fast as 9.4 knots. 

Close pass by tug with barge under the Triboro Bridge.

The New York skyline from the east in the early morning light is a magnificent sight. Here is looking south at the upper East Side with the 59th St. Bridge to left.

Another barge between us and the UN.

Is this Krazy?

And next is NYU's Kimmel Pavilion where I was luxuriuosly inpatiented a few days ago, with Empire state building to the right. 

At the Battery, turning north up the Hudson River, our speed slowed to 3.7 knots as we fought the last two of the hours of adverse tide, gradually picking up speed so by 10:30 we were doing 6.5 and later as much as 7.4. 

We almost circumnavigated

Manhattan, except for its Harlem River part, from Spuyten Duyvil at its north tip down to about 100th Street. Those miles are spanned by seven low bridges. Though they, or most of them, can physically be opened --  thereby paralyzing the City -- this would not be done for us. So our clockwise almost circumnavigation was the only feasible route and we did pass under ten high bridges that connect the islands of New York to each other, and to the Bronx, which is the only part of New York city that is mostly the mainland of the US (except for City Island and Hart Island which are the insular parts of the Bronx). We could pass under the Arch of the Henry Hudson Bridge, except for the low railroad bridge in the foreground.

Lots of ferry boats going every which way. We zipped in front of the Staten island ferry as it was slowing to dock at the battery. The Hudson part of the passage was less photogenic, with the morning light making the landmarks appear in silhouette. Here are Grant's Tomb to the left and Riverside Church. 

ILENE has now visited waters where she has never been before, never having voyaged in the Hudson north of midtown Manhattan (with the replica of General Lafayete's flagship, Le Hermione, maybe in 2015. (I can find out when by checking the blog). My favorite Bridge has always been the George Washington, which gets two pictures, one with it dwarfing the little red lighthouse of storybook fame. I grew up about half a mile from it.

Today's passage was rather uneventful, with mainsail up but helping very little on a hot sunny clear day. We arrived and anchored at 1:30 pm, 7.5 hours and 47 miles after we started, in a broad anchorage area just north of Croton Point, which juts out from the east bank of the Hudson and creates Haverstraw Bay, including the town of Croton on Hudson. It was there, many years ago, that Lene and I had the pleasure of occasionally breakfasting with Harlemites Selwyn and Evie Feinstein. Sadly Selwyn has passed away and Evie now lives out west. They were mentors to me and it is my pleasure to remember them. Anchored in the lee of the Point with 40 feet of chain in 9 feet of water, more at high tide, I did not even snub the chain, what with the light winds expected. 

Tomorrow I had planned to anchor behind Esopus Island at the Poughkeepsie Yacht Club, about 7.5 north of down town Poughkeepsie, but after the distance we did today, the mate asked for a stop somewhat nearer, that divided into more roughly equal parts the distance from here to Kingston. The Marlboro YC was selected. Its friendly Commodore, John, set aside one of its two guest moorings (only $25) and told us where to park the dink. Then we lowered the dink, took a cooling swim, a soak actually, in the almost fresh Hudson River water, and showered off using our new, non-broken Sandvik outdoor shower nozzle before dinner. I'm waiting til later to raise the dink when hopefully it will be cooler. We had thought to possibly join Rhoda and Lloyd ashore for dinner here tonight but their planned daytime activity took longer than expected and we wanted an "early to bed" night after our early start this morning so that rendezvous was adjourned.

Aug 3-19 -- Two Work Days Around a Hurricane, One Other Day and Two Lovely Day Sails.

ILENE was spared by Hurricane Isaaias; it damaged several boats in the Harlem mooring field and nearby. Hidden Hand lost its 135 headsail which was caught by the wind, unfurled and shredded. She also almost lost her anchor which was held in place only by a safety loop of Dynema after the pin in the special swiveling anchor shackle gave way. Several Harlem boats stayed on their moorings but the moorings dragged, some more than 100 feet north when the winds were from the south! One of these was Thai Hot, otherwise unscathed. Another boat was hit by another  boat which break it off its mooring and then be blown north and under the bridge from the Bronx to City island which broke off her mast. So ILENE was lucky. A jar of dried marjoram leaves fell out of the spice rack and rolled around on the counter atop the refrigerator and freezer which caused its top to come off and its contents to make a pretty little mess to be vacuumed up. One auxiliary jib sheet worked loose and was whipped around into a crazy quilt pattern; I simply straightened out and retied it. Considering what could have happened nothing happened. 

The two work days were to install safety chafing gear on the new bridle where it passes through the chock, and tying extra lines around the main in its stack pack on the boom and around the head sails. I put a few extra turns of the genoa sheets around the genoa by reattaching the genoa furling line so that it was more tightly wrapped and put a piece of shortstuff around the furled small jib, above the tack. And I secured lines inside the cockpit sole rather than leave them mounted on the rails and removed the American flag and its staff. The thing I did not do, but will do next time, and with the increasing frequency and severity of big storms caused by global warming there will be a next time, is to remove the dink from the boat and mount it tied down securely atop the Club's dock. So just lucky.

The "other" day was a dinner we brought to Bennett's house to share with them because Harriet recently broke her leg.

The two day sails on ILENE:

First with David of Hidden Hand for about three hours of good wind. David is strong and a knowledgeable  sailor: he had no difficulty learning ILENE's somewhat complicated headsail arrangements. He wanted to use both of my headsails which we did in the course of the passage. He was interested in my secondary small jib sheets (barberhaulers), thinking he might need them when he puts on his new larger genoa. I don't think they will be needed or useful for him and suggested he not go to such trouble until he has tried sailing without them. He is naturally cheerful but was sadly a bit demoralized by the damage done by the hurricane to his boat; he had done so much work this season to improve her and was seeing light at the end of the tunnel when the new problems were created. The one problem we had during the sail was that I had forgotten the line I'd tied around ILENE's furled small jib above the tack to protect it. I was reminded when, after furling the genoa and unfurling the jib it got stuck at the ring of cordage. Unfortunately the attempt to unfurl it caused that ring to ride even higher up the partially furled sail. He suggested the boat hook and after refurling I was standing on the foredeck with the hook fully extended over my head, hooking it on one side and then the other of the loop, each time lowering it an inch until I could grab and untie it, all while he steered us on a  close reach up Hart Island Sound 

The next day Lene and our friends, Christine and Heather joined me for four hours in southerlies. This photo is on the launch so the bright smiles are masked. We used only the main and small jib but made good speeds, first, deep into first Manhassett Bay, then Little Neck Bay and to the shadow of the Throggs Neck Bridge before transiting the King's Point Channel and heading for home. Once on the mooring we shared food and drinks. The two young ladies have sailed with us for about ten years, including spending several days and nights aboard with us in Miami in 2015.

And if you are wondering why there was so little sailing in such a long period of time, it is because  unfortunately I was in hospital for four days with an obstruction  in the alimentary canal followed two days (so far) at home waiting for a severe spasm in my arthritic neck to subside. I was able to avoid the  need to cancel the Hudson River Cruise during the hospital stay, but the neck did it in. And I spent yesterday calling nine marinas and five families to tell them it was off. But if my neck loosens up we can restart it because the plan is written down. One spot on the return was to anchor off Athens, NY, near where a marina used to be, and dink over across the Hudson River which is narrow there to meet Lianne and possibly her son and grandsons in Hudson NY. Unlike the LongIsland cruise which was almost all anchorages, the river requires marinas.

Well, I have been lucky so far to have my maladies hit me at times when they did not interfere with the watery life I love. Getting old gives you senior discounts but one pays the price with more and more "preexisting conditions."

July 31 - Aug 2 -- Old Saybrook to Charles Island to Norwalk to The Harlem -- Three Passages of 35, 23 and 24 NM

This is the final chapter of ILENE's 2020 Between the Forks cruise, the last three day-passages (heading west in the Sound) and two nights (anchored by islands) before our safe arrival back at the Harlem. How's that for killing, rather than building suspense. Cruiser, nearing the end of his second cruise with us says "What suspense?"

The first two of the three days, after a wet morning due to night rain, we motored all the way, with the mainsail up and got a bit of help from the wind the last four miles. A rather uneventful passage and I whipped some line ends and tried to create a backrest by sewing two square blue cushions together to hang over the lower lifeline and stick down between the helm seat and the stern gate.  I also reckoned that we had been using fuel from the aft tank since our sail with grandniece Sammie, so it was a good time to switch to the aft tank which we had filled at the start of this cruise -- before the forward tank had a chance to run out. 

Like Duck Island Roads, off Westbrook CT, which is only a few miles west from the mouth of the Connecticut River (so we did not stop there this year), Charles Island, off Milford CT, 30 miles further west, provides a good safe anchorage from southerlies behind a small island. Duck Island Roads was created by the building of seawalls leading north and west from the island while  Charles Island, a somewhat larger island, creates its safety with a natural "bar" extending NW from it to the mainland.  

We arrived at Charles and found both plenty of room (only 2-3 other boats) and an afternoon classic rock concert coming to us from Fort Trumbull Beach.  It died down early enough and after a peaceful night's sleep we awoke to find "The Gulf"( the area protected) quite crowded with many small and midsized power boats on anchors. And more were streaming in  around the island from the west when we hauled anchor at 10:40 and headed for Norwalk.   Again, little wind, but with the shorter distance, we tried to sail for an hour, near our destination, but making only 1.5 knots, gave up the effort. Last year, our final night of the RI cruise was spent behind Cockenoe Island, at the extreme eastern end of the Norwalk Islands, where we had not been before. This year our intended anchorage was behind Sheffield Island at the extreme western end of the little archipelago of barrier islands, close to home but new to us. On the chart I have marked the shallow water as a reminder of where not to go.

We dropped where the chart shows "11" feet of water at low tide, just to the right of the purple anchor image north of the western end of Sheffield Island. We were snubbed and set for the night, but the frequent wakes caused by power boats motoring up and down the channel (white strip running to the NE corner of the chart) to the port of Norwalk made for an unpleasant rolyness. After a few hours of this, with twilight approaching, the mate complained and so we took off for Zeigler's Cove, just 2.5 miles to the west (just off the edge of the chart) where we found the same mooring on which we stayed with Sammie in late June, and had a pleasant night. The predicted storm did not show up. 

Next morning we studied the weather -- thunderstorms predicted in the afternoon -- and made a dash for home, dropping the bridle at 7:25. Full sails up before we rounded Long Neck Point and with light southerly winds, favorable tides an only 1500 rpms, we were making seven knots. The coffee that had been brewed before departure was good, as always, and the wind grew so the engine got a rest. The winds grew stronger and it was quite a fun sail, even after we replaced the genoa with the small jib. But the storm clouds were on our bow and the question was whether we could get to our mooring before they did. The New York City skyline loomed ahead in the distance under dark lowering clouds.

We held a single starboard tack all the way to Big Tom's R"2", and were on our home mooring at 10:40 am, with plenty of time to pack up our things and get home in the early afternoon.

                                                             ********

So what sort of a cruise was it, other than a lot shorter and nearer home than we are used to and a lot hotter. We made nine passages in nine days, staying in eight places, only two of them, Noyack and Sheffield Island, new to us. five of the eight nights we were on our anchor and the other three on moorings. We even paid for one of the moorings! 

The Covid pandemic has certainly adversely affected cruising, as it has all else in life. The water is still good and the sailing and just being "away". They still thrill me. But what I like to call "the pleasures of the shore" were harmed: (1) no theaters, movies, museums and historic places, (2) vastly inferior shore dining and (3) very little socializing. 

We will try again, in a different direction, later this month.

July 30 -- Orient YC to North Cove, Old Saybrook CT --18NM

In the morning the dinghy's engine decided to work again. I must have flooded it the night before. It is a fine balance between starving her of fuel and flooding her. So we got ashore for the breakfast sandwiches at The Country Store with seating on shady benches in the side yard, followed by outdoor showers.

The Orient YC is a low cost no-frills operation with no restaurant but runs an extensive youth sailing program. A noon departure for the Gut to arrive there at slack before flood at 1:45 made for a leisurely morning. On the way out of the Bay, as on the way in the day before, we passed "Baba's" (le ss than 200')another behemoth, like Odessa and Majestic, taking a free parking space on anchor. It is not like St. Bart, Sint Maarten, Miami or Newport, but the big boats like to hang out here.

But my math was wrong and we would have gotten to the Gut too early so we sailed along at three knots to kill a bit of time.  And from the Gut to R"2" off the east end of Long Sand Shoal and directly to the breakwaters of the Connecticut River was a straight shot close hauled, motor assisted, with main and small jib, assisted more and more by tide as well until we were making 8.3 knots.

Addendum: This is a page from a travel magazine advertising hotels on the North Fork; I used a Sharpie to mark it with our wake from Port Jefferson of to the west, until CT off to the north.

We got a call from the person who now has the phone number that the Cruising Guide said was assigned to the Old Saybrook Harbor Master. He gave us the correct name and number of the current Harbor Master and I was reminded to spring for a replacement to the 2010 Cruising Guide. We had once gotten stuck aground in North Cove but it was dredged before our most recent visit about 2-3 years ago. The new Harbor Master, whose name and number is now in the Guide, advised that they still have plenty of water for us since that dredging. This chart shows the course (in the white deep water) from the Sound and  breakwaters at the south end to the Cove itself, upper left, but shows the depth as only 3.5 feet as of 1999. Hence the need for current local knowledge. They now have a free guest mooring for up to 72 hours which is closest to the dinghy dock. A great place to stop.

We were in a hurry to take an Uber to the nearest propane refill place before it closed for the night, but realized that we could get by a lot less expensively on a couple more green bottles for the next few days and bought them at the same hardware store on Main Street that before refilled our tank. We will get it refilled using our car, in New Rochelle when we get back home. We also took in the local supermarket and dinner out. The issue was whether the rain, which had been threatening, would hold off long enough for us to get back to ILENE. It did. And we hauled up the dink and attached the new can of propane before retiring. North Cove used to be notorious for insects but not a big problem this year. The small rectangle of deep water in North Cove is well used by neat lines of moorings.