The Hudson River

Originally posted at www.svsweetescape.com

Sweet Escape had her first taste of salt water on Monday.

Monday morning we left the free dock at Mariners on the Hudson at Highlands, New York.  Mariners is a “dock and dine”.  We had stopped there on the way south and had a nice dinner with the crew of Vindand preceded by drinks aboard the catamaran.  The dock at Mariners left a little to be desired in the cleanliness department as lots of geese and seagulls apparently call it home when no boats are there - and of course do what they do.

Heading south along the Hudson River was something of an eye opening experience for both of us.  We had not realized just how beautiful the scenery was here.  The Hudson meanders through some very rugged and mountainous terrain.  Some of which could best be described as fjord like.  

Upon leaving the dock at about 8:30 AM we found ourselves riding the outgoing tide.  We normally motor at 6.5 knots but that morning we were exceeding 9 knots, taking advantage of the 2.5 - 3 knot current.  The downside to this is that by 11:00 AM the tide had changed and we then were being opposed by that same current.  Oh well, guess we should have gotten up earlier.

Late morning we motored south past the hallowed halls of West Point and could not help but to think of the graduates of this esteemed institution founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1802 that went on to figure prominently in the history of our nation.  On the north roof of the field house is painted the words “Beat Air Force” and on the south roof it says “Sink Navy”.

The weather has been very cool in the morning here providing ongoing incentive to keep moving south.  Both of us have been bundled in layers with jackets, hats and gloves.  The winds have been out of the south and on Monday morning they were especially brisk, blowing directly upriver and directly in our faces.

We were headed for New York Harbor.  Initially we had intended to anchor in Haverstraw Bay near Tarrytown but changed our minds when it appeared that the weather was going to be bad with thunderstorms and high winds on Tuesday.  Instead, we booked a slip at the beautiful Liberty Landing Marina for what would turn out to be two nights.

Just north of the Tappen Zee Bridge we began seeing a lot of floating debris, pilings and what appeared to be pieces of a pier that had given way.  We spent the remainder of the trip watching for and dodging these hazards that could do a lot of damage to the boat if we hit one.

This became more difficult as we approached New York City.  Well north of the George Washington Bridge the winds kicked up with gusts near 30 knots creating three to four foot waves right on our bow.  This made the floaters tough to see as they would hide in the troughs of these large waves.  We did hit a small piece of debris that bounced off the side of the boat and didn’t do any damage.

As we approached the GW Bridge we noticed a newer Hunter 41 with a blue hull under full sail tacking back and forth across the river.  As we passed this boat, the operator hailed us on the VHF.  After we responded he informed us that his engine had quit, that he had an overtemp alarm and that he was single handing the boat.  He inquired whether or not we had someone who could “hop on” his boat to go below and clean out his engine sea strainer.  Really?  Raft two 40 foot plus sailboats up in three to four foot waves and 25 knot winds and then effect a personnel transfer?  I think not.  We respectfully declined as there were many other ways that he could deal with the problem without putting his own our our boat in jeopardy.

The skyline of New York is a thrilling sight no matter how you see it but it is really special to see it from the deck of your own boat, a boat that had carried us over 1200 miles of lakes, rivers and canals and that we had piloted here ourselves.  But hey, snap out of it - back to reality.  We’re headed south into one of the busiest harbors in the world with commercial traffic all around in poor conditions.  Just to give you an idea of how busy it was, our AIS alarm went off to tell us it had maxed out at 40 targets.

Further increasing the anxiety level is the knowledge that we would have to dock in these wind conditions in a large and very tight marina where we had never been before.  Whoever said we would be bored after retirement had apparently never been in this situation.

So what happened?  Did we get in?  Did we do any damage in the process?  For the answer to these and many other questions, loyal readers will have to tune in to the next installment of the Journey of the good ship Sweet Escape.