Originally posted at www.svsweetescape.com
We are pleased to report that Sweet Escape is once again a sailboat.
After 11 days motoring through the Erie Canal with our mast being carried on deck we went through the final series of locks on Tuesday afternoon before being spit out onto the Hudson River at Waterford. The New York Canal Corporation operates a large visitors center at the entrance to the canal. The visitors center provides free dockage for up to 48 hours with all the facilities and so we took them up on that deal and hung around for two days. We took this opportunity to clean the boat up a little as the locks with their green slimy walls and ropes had taken their toll.
After moving every day since we left Tonawanda and transiting 34 locks, we were both pretty tired and looking forward to a little rest and relaxation. It is interesting. While at Waterford we began to run into other cruisers heading south. We have met some really nice people and we expect to see them again as we all travel generally in the same direction.
Waterford provided a great opportunity to reprovision the boat as there was a large supermarket just a couple blocks from the dock and they allowed us to use one of their carts to transport the goods so we took outrageous advantage of that and spent $130.
We left Waterford at 6:00 AM on Thursday and headed south along the mighty Hudson River. We left that early to try to take advantage of an ebb tide that would last until 10:00 AM at which point the tide would reverse and we would be fighting the 1.5 knot current. Our destination was Catskill New York where we would have Sweet Escape’s mast stepped at Riverview Marine Services.
We arrived at Riverview at about 1:00 PM and docked directly under their crane. We were scheduled to have our mast done on Friday. Riverview Marine was destroyed at this time last year by hurricane Irene. They spent the winter months rebuilding their docks and seawall. We found the staff here to be great. They know what their doing and could not be more helpful. Truly nice people.
After getting the boat secured and organized, we walked the 2.5 miles to Walmart to do some shopping and then ate dinner at a really good Italian restaurant near Walmart before returning to the boat - yes, another 2.5 miles but after the Italian restaurant we should have walked five. Oink.
Later that night, we listened to the Green Bay Packer’s glorious win over the sad and confused Chicago Bears. We have a season subscription to NFL Game Day Audio which allows you to access the radio play by play of all games streamed over the Internet.
Friday was work day. We changed the oil in our generator while we waited for the yard to get our mast standing again. Once that happened we spent the rest of the day putting the boat back together. Standing and running rigging has to be reinstalled and all the wiring for the mast lighting and other systems such as the radar and TV antenna must be reconnected. We were up late last night (Friday) and finally finished earlier today.
This afternoon we walked to downtown Catskill and stopped at the Texas Wiener. The Texas Wiener is a little family run diner that specializes in sandwiches, most notably large “texas size” hot dogs. Passing on the wiener, both of us ordered cheeseburgers with lettuce and tomato. The proprietor, a congenial greek named Vic served us cheeseburgers with thick slices of deep red beefsteak tomato from his own garden. Delicious.
We will leave Catskill tomorrow morning and head south on the Hudson to Highland New York where we will meet up with Jon and Cherel from the sailing catamaran Vindand. There is a restaurant there called Mariners on the Hudson that allows you to stay overnight on their dock for free if you patronize the restaurant - otherwise known as a “dock & dine”. We’re going to give it a try.
We will add photos to our gallery from this period.
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