Waterford, NY

We had a hard time finding anyone in charge at Hop-O-Nose marina until this morning when we saw some guys standing the masts on several sailboats.  Sailboats pull their masts and lay them on the deck to go through the Erie Canal.  There is a 15' clearance on some bridges in the canal.  Then when they get here, they hire Hop-O-Nose to put them back up.

Here's our spot.

We walked into Cats Kill this morning to tour the town.  I had read that the town was full of dead cats.  I knew that would be something Pam would like to see.  She must have taken a hundert photos of all the cats, but I'll only bore you with a few.

Cat in the hat cat

 Coke Cat

 Batman and Robin cat  (Robin is on the tail)

 Fishing cat

Cool Cat

My favorite....Cat-scan Cat

 Timing is everything.............just as we turned to come down the other side of the street, we saw some workmen removing the cats.  Today was the last day for the cats to be displayed.  They are auctioning them tomorrow. They had already loaded up some--including the Tin Man cat.

Here's downtown Cats Kill

On NOrth up the Hudson.  More lighthouses.

Unlike the rivers in the midwest, where towboats push barges, here, tugboats tow barges.

Here's Albany, NY.

Not far out of Albany, we spotted two eagles.

We turned left here, and are now tied up at the Erie Canal welcome center.

They put the "troll" boats under the bridge.  That's another Rosborough behind us.

I think we're going to head back south tomorrow.  We're going to try to get back to our truck tomorrow, and put the boat on the trailer to tow it over to Seneca Lake.  We will launch there, and go up to the Erie Canal and go west from there.

Cats Kill

Not every day on the water is perfect.  Today for instance.  It started raining about 3 am, and as of 5 pm, hasn't stopped.

Visibility out the front window isn't so good. Pam kept breathing, fogging up the windows.  I politely asked her to stop, but she wouldn't  Then I politely asked her to sit on the back porch in the rain, but she wouldn't do that either.  Fortunately, my Android tablet navigation program did what I asked it to do, so I could see where we were.  

I thought I was keeping a sharp lookout, but several times other boats were quite close to us before I saw them.  A couple of times, I saw a bright light aiming right at us, and I took evasive maneuvers only to find it was the headlight of a train coming around a curve on the shore.

We motored NOrth a little more than 50 miles today, and because of the weather, couldn't really enjoy the scenery.

We sometimes carry a Honda generator along when we will be anchoring out a lot.  I set it on the swim platform on the transom of the boat, with the exhaust blowing away from the boat.  But just to be safe, I bought a carbon monoxide detector, and set it on the shelf opposite the head in the forward compartment (V-berth) where we sleep.  The carbon monoxide detector has never gone off.  I even held it directly in the exhaust of the generator, and it didn't sound the alarm.  So, I have had my doubts that it even works.  We didn't bring the generator on this trip, and I had forgotten the detector was there on the shelf. 

This morning, after the usual breakfast of oats and coffee, I went forward to the head to conduct the usual business one conducts in the head. (bathroom)  As usual, I closed the door to the forward compartment.  While I was sitting there, minding my own business, the most awful, loud screeching noise started coming from the shelf across from the head.  I couldn't jump right up to see what it was, and even though we've been married a VERY long time, I didn't really want Pam to come in to check on it either.  You've probably guessed that it was the carbon monoxide detector finally working.  I can't imagine what set it off, but after finishing up with my business, and removing the detector's battery, I checked the label closely to make sure I had really purchased a carbon monoxide detector, and not a methane detector.  

I had hoped to stay at the Cats Kill marina tonight, but I discovered it was washed away last year when Hurricane Irene came through.  So we're across the Cats Kill Creek at Hop-O-Nose marina.

                       

Cold Spring

I know what you're thinking.........."Tom, those clothes don't need a tag on the outside for people to know.  They've got Walmart written all over them."

The night view from our slip in Liberty Landing Marina was pretty cool.

Leaving New York Harbor this morning was just as much fun as it was coming in.  Too many ferries going too fast and making too many course changes without warning.  I tried to hug the shore, but every now and then, a ferry would dart out from between piers--or cruise ships.

 

I had to go to within about 50 yards of this pier to read this sign.

We made it out of town, and after getting north of the GWB, we pretty much had the river to ourselves.

We saw this guy (and some others) dropping in on West Point as we passed by.

Pam's second cousin Nancy and her husband Farrell, live on the Hudson River in Fort Montgomery, NY.  As a matter of fact, they are the ones who gave Pam the idea of a Hudson River cruise.  So when we knew we were coming to the Hudson, Pam contacted them, and agreed to meet if our schedules allowed.  We looked for a place we could stop that would be reasonably close to their house, and thought we would try Cold Spring.  Pam called Nancy, and told them we would arrive about 4 today.

Nancy and Farrell were nice enough to drive over to meet us for dinner, and then offered to take us on a tour through West Point.  They both retired from West Point, and were the best tour guides we could have had.  Later, they took us back to their beautiful home overlooking the river, and fed us homemade concord grape pie. 

Here's the view from their deck.  (These shots were taken after dark--in case you don't recognize the moon.)

Tomorrow, we plan to go up to Cats kill.  (I've noticed that most New York maps have inadvertently left out the space between the s and k of that town's name.)

Ellis Island and SOL

We caught a ferry this morning to go out and tour Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.  Interesting enought, the ferry departed from the train station.

It was a cloudy day, and looked as if it might rain any minute.  There are a couple of fleets of J-24's here, and most of them are red.  (Those are the sailboats you can see in this photo.)

Ellis Island is where over 12,000,000 immigrants legally entered the U.S. between 1892 and 1954. It's a great tour.

Lots of interesting displays and stories.  It's still a work in progress to restore it.  It stood abandoned for 30 years.

Next we jumped back on a ferry over to the Statue of Liberty.  It is undergoing restoration, so we were unable to go inside the statue itself, but we could walk around the grounds.  Both Ellis Island and the SOL provide self guided audio tours that helped us understand what we were looking at.  For instance, I didn't know that the copper outside skin of the SOL is only 3/32" thick.  The same thickness as two pennies held together.

 

 

There are many 9/11 memorials around NYC.  Pieces of the WTC everywhere.  Understandably so.  This one is near our marina on the Jersey side of the river.  The names of those from New Jersey who were lost are inscribed inside the walls.  If you look between the walls toward NYC, the empty sky is where the twin towers were.

This is not a small marina we're staying in.  We walked west a while this afternoon to see where the permanent slips are for the small boats.  Our boat is on the transient slips. If you count 16 of the little white huts with blue roofs, that's the walkway out to our slip.

On beyond the end of the marina, we found this thing sitting in a boat yard.  (It has wheels, so I don't think it's a boat.)

I like New York State.  We cruised Lake Champlain, and found it to be beautiful.  The Hudson River is also very scenic.  And I honestly have to say that New York people are as friendly as any.  But I'm not a big-city kind of guy. Yesterday, while we were in Soho--an expensive shopping area, I was thinking to myself..............where do these people go to Walmart?  Then I thought "at least the shorts I'm wearing don't say Walmart on the outside."  But today, before we could get on the ferry, we had to go through an airport like security check.  Off with the shoes, off with the belt,  off with the hat etc etc.  I think they were just trying to find out how much of my stuff came from Walmart.


I was last in New York City 48 years ago, and it would be ok with me if it was 48 more until I return again.  My visit 48 years ago was on my senior trip.  Funny thing is, this trip, I get all the senior discounts.

We start NOrth tomorrow.

NYC Tourists

I brought our TV along this trip, and I attached my little antenna on the top of the boat.  Usually, I can get about a half dozen stations when we're close to a town.  I turned it on last night, and we could receive 78 stations.  Unfortunately, only about five of them were in a language I understand.

We left our anchorage early, and made our way to Liberty Landing Marina.  It is right across the river from Manhattan, so it's technically in New Jersey.  A very nice marina.  (Of course it costs twice as much as marinas I consider expensive.)

Pam wanted to tour New York City, so we rode a ferry across the river, and walked down to Battery Park to catch a "Hop-on, Hop-off" tour bus.  Between where the ferry landed, and Battery Park, we saw signs pointing to ground zero.  We managed to find our way there, but there was a very long line of people, and you needed to have some pre-approved pass that we didn't know about.  So on to Battery Park.  We decided to take both the Downtown tour and the Uptown tour.  We were supposed to be able to change from the Downtown bus to the Uptown bus at Times Square.  However......................the United Nations is in session today.  President Obama was speaking there, as well as the Iranian fellow everyone likes so well.  We heard on the VHF that the East River was closed to navigation because of the UN stuff, and today, we discovered that half the city streets were also closed.  Not a great day for a bus tour.  I don't know if the traffic was worse than normal, but our tour bus driver said he couldn't get to Times Square, so if we wanted to change buses, we should get off, and walk up 2 blocks and over 3 blocks to get to the other bus.

So, we started walking, and pretty soon we came to the Rockefeller Center.  Easy enough to recognize if you've ever seen the Today Show.  They had some concert stage set up outside, and we were looking at that, and I'm trying to get the map in my phone working, not really paying attention to our surroundings when some guy comes running up to us saying that we are "in screen" or some such nonsense.   I guess we walked right up to Alec Baldwin while they were filming 30 Rock.  So if you watch that show and see some yokel wearing an IU hat getting in the way, it's me.

We found Times Square, and ate lunch in an overpriced deli.

Then we finally found the Uptown bus.  These buses are about the only way to see New York City in one day.  We were fortunate to have great weather--they're double decker buses.

Here's a small sample of what we saw

Lots of interesting buildings.  This was one of my favs

Inside, looking up

If you're a Beatles fan..............The Dakota

 

Yoko still lives here.

 

We had dinner tonight at the Liberty House Restaurant adjacent to our marina.  I think today is the most expensive day I've ever spent boating.

New York City

Continuing south today.  Sunny and cool.
I think the bluffs here are called the "Palisades."

Didn't want to get too close to this place.  It's where they sent the gangsters "up the river"........................... to Sing-Sing prison.

Yet another light house on the Hudson

Looking out our front window you can start to see the outline of some buildings in the city ahead.  The river is fairly straight north of NYC, and we could see the Statue of Liberty from 18 miles upstream.

At first, I thought this sign spelled "Hooters"

Freedom passed us again today.

We've been a lot of places, but nowhere quite like New York Harbor.  Boats going every which way.  Fast moving ferries darting across the water, and changing directions for no apparent reason.  Reminded me of the PWC's at home on Morse Lake-only much bigger.  There were ocean going cargo ships, giant cruise liners, and tug boats towing barges.  In addition, the US Coast Guard had cutters and inflatables zooming around with guns at the ready. (I guess I don't know for sure that they were ready--but they did have guns.)  Our little boat was tossed about in the chop so much it was difficult to get photos of anything--we were just holding on.  But here's some of what we saw.

I had read about a little out of the way spot to anchor behind the Statue of Liberty, adjacent to Liberty State Park.  So that's where we are tonight. 
N 40 degrees 41.744 minutes   
W 74 degrees 03.79 minutes

Tomorrow, we might pay big bucks for a slip in Liberty Landing Marina, and hop on one of those ferries to go to the SOL, and Ellis Island.  We might even ride over to NYC.

It occurs to me that our North Channel cruise up in Canada was in an area that is very sparsely populated. This trip to NYC is just the opposite.  And as I always say (to the consternation of those who hear it frequently) "averages are made up of extremes."  So I guess I can say the population of the last two areas in which we cruised is average.