41°30′8″ N 74°0′15″ W

Aug 9 – Newburgh, NY

We left Newburgh at 7:00am this morning & are traveling about 55 miles north to a marina at Coxsackie, NY, which is about 20 miles south of Albany. It will take us between 9-10 hours to make this trip.

The weather today is much improved. Bright sunny skies & virtually no wind.

The water is much calmer today so the boat is running smoothly but we are still dealing with tidal influence. Hard to believe that the tides could be as powerful as they are this far inland but the falling tide combined with the river current has dropped our speed to just over 5 knots. That should change in a couple of hours when the tide starts to rise again.

We just met a tall ship on the river headed south. Pretty impressive site even when the sails are not up. Unfortunately we could not read the name on the transom.

Catch up to you later. Cheers!

Today we travelled from New York City to Newburgh, NY, which is about 50 miles north.

The sky was heavily overcast when we left the marina but fortunately the rain held off all day.

The was not much “traffic” on the river – mainly fast passenger ferries going back & forth from New Jersey to New York. Once those thinned out I convinced Catherine to take a turn at the helm.

She got the hang of it pretty quickly & before I knew it I had been demoted to deckhand – but that’s just fine with me!

Once we got about 15 miles north of NYC the landscape began to change quickly. The shoreline went from being heavily built up on a gentle slope to very steep cliffs in Palisades Park.

We passed under two new bridges that were under construction at Tappan Zee.

It was interesting to see them from a different perspective. One of the spans was completed & the other still had a little way to go before it could handle any traffic.

As we travelled further north the river began to get narrower but still remained deep – ranging from 25 feet to well over 100 feet in many places.

We went past the West Point military academy about an hour south of our destination for the day. It was a very impressive place.

The sky cleared up just as we arrived in Newburgh. A great end to a great day on the water.

Cheers!

We are still at Newport Yacht Club & Marina. We decided to take the day & be tourists but the weather did not cooperate. It was raining pretty steady through most of the day so we went to a nearby grocery store & picked up a big load of supplies for the next phase of our journey.

I tried to sneak some cans of Spam into the grocery cart but my moves were effectively blocked 🙁

After provisioning the boat we went over to the local mall & racked up some exercise while perusing several of the stores. Then we went back to the boat for dinner on board.

After dinner we walked along the seawall & took in the views of NYC & Manhattan. It was wet, but not miserable.

By the time it was dark the rain had pretty much stopped & we enjoyed seeing a full moon over the Manhattan skyline.

Cheers!

I’ve been delinquent in my blogging. Here’s an update for the past several days…. still at Newport Yacht Club & Marina in Jersey City (across the Hudson River from lower Manhattan).

Friday, August 4 – Day 35

Ed & I had a quiet day in the marina. I washed the boat & Ed explored the neighborhood. After that we went over to the shopping mall across the street from the marina. The place was huge, with 4 major department stores plus dozens of franchise stores & a huge food court. This place would easily rival some of the biggest malls in Toronto.

The mall had a multi-screen movie theatre so we went to see a matinee of the new movie “Dunkirk” & then Ed took me out for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory restaurant that was also in the mall. We each had a slice o the key lime cheesecake for dessert & it was awesome!

Ed was supposed to fly home Sunday morning but for some unknown reason Porter Airlines cancelled his flight on Sunday morning to Toronto & rescheduled him for Monday morning. That was unacceptable so we spent over an hour on hold with the airline until we finally got an agent & managed to get him on a flight the next morning (Saturday) but that was not to be. Read on….

Saturday, August 5, Day 36

We got up at 3:30am so Ed could take an Uber to Newark airport for a flight home departing at 6:50am. I checked my email as soon as I got up & saw an email from Porter Airlines informing Ed that his flight had been cancelled & rescheduled to Monday morning. This was no good so we ultimately gave up on Porter & booked a flight for Sunday afternoon on Westjet from LaGuardia Airport. What a mess!

We finally went back to bed around 5:00am & slept until 10:00am.

We had a light lunch & then I walked over to a nearby grocery store & got some groceries for supper & breakfast the next morning. Ed did his laundry & chilled on the boat.

The marina Dockmaster asked us to move a few feet down the dock to accommodate another boat so we relocated without starting the engine. Our boat was still the “lead dog” in the pack! We may be the smallest but we were still in front of the rest! Note the size symmetry.

We BBQ’d steaks for supper & turned in early in anticipation of flights coming & going as scheduled the next day.

Sunday, August 6, Day 37

I decided to do laundry early in the morning before Catherine arrived. Oh, the cruising life is so exciting & exotic!

I finished up the laundry just before noon & then it was time for Ed to take an Uber to LaGuardia for his flight home. An hour later I was in an Uber to Newark Airport to meet Catherine.

She arrived at 5:00 & we took another Uber back to the marina. It has been over a month since I last saw her so it was a great reunion.

The weather was great for her arrival & the boat passed it’s initial inspection.

Even the moon was coming out full for Catherine’s arrival.

Cheers!

40°43′34″ N 74°2′4″ W

Aug 3 – Newport Yacht Club – Jersey City

The next segment of our journey to the marina in New York City was relatively short – only 20 nm (about 3 hours travel time). We decided not to cast off until 10:30 in the morning because the next marina did not want us to arrive before 1:00pm.

I was a bit intimidated by the prospect of entering New York Harbor in the middle of the day, but Ed suggested “we cruise in like we owned the place” & I agreed that was a good strategy.

As we got closer to the Statue of Liberty we started encountering a lot of passenger ferries, tourist sightseeing boats & tugboats pushing barges. It was a bit hectic but the harbor is huge so there was lots of room for everyone.

Ed looked after the helm & I kept watch on our sides & behind us.

It was very exciting to sail past the Statue of Liberty.

There were also several boats (really) sailing in the harbor – now that takes some nerve….

We arrived at our marina at about 1:00pm. Unfortunately the marina was a total disaster! One quarter of the docks were missing, one quarter were sunken & the rest were rotting!

On top of all that, the marina had no breakwater so the docks (& the boats tied to them) were rocking back & forth like crazy. The motion of our boat was worse than what we had endured during the wind & rainstorm a few days before in Chesapeake Beach, MD!

I tried to contact the marina manager but all I got was her voicemail. I finally managed to reach the booking agency for the marina & convinced them to refund my credit card payment for 4 days of dock fees.

Bye, bye bad marina. I have stayed at a lot of marinas over the past month & this one was the absolute worst. I certainly did not want a horrible place like this to be Catherine’s introduction to our “new” boat.

Thankfully I managed to secure a dock at another nearby marina so we headed back down the Hudson River towards the Statue of Liberty.

The new marina we are at is in an awesome location with lots of restaurants & shopping across the street.

The screenshot below shows our location.

Our nearest neighbor is pretty cool too!

It had been a long & trying day & we had nothing to eat since our light breakfast 8 hours before so we dressed up as best we could & headed to a nearby pub/restaurant.

This place had cold beer & great food. The pub had a bit of an Irish theme & a sign on the wall in the bar caught my eye…

After supper we headed back to the boat for a well deserved rest & to hit the showers.

The skyline of New York City on the other side of the Hudson is pretty impressive at night too!

Tomorrow (August 4) we will explore Jersey City & reprovision the boat as the fridge & the pantry are looking pretty bare.

Cheers!