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.