Wednesday, September 11th

Today is the start of our third week out.  I guess we can now consider ourselves  live-a-boards…..for 9 months anyhow!  The 66 miles from Riverview Marine at Catskill NY to Croton Point on the eastern shore has been one hot and hazy day.  There’s not much of a breeze today,  the Hudson River has had no more than 1 ft waves to actually looking like a millpond.  It seems to all depend on the landscape along the east and west bank.  South of Newburgh until we got to West Point both sides were tall cliffs and mountains

 

Passing West Point was pretty awesome. On the roof of one of their buildings it said “Beat Airforce.  According to Skipper Bob, since 9/11 boaters are no longer permitting to tie up at their docks.  So we slowly motoring by to take in the sights from the water.

I must say that the scenery was magnificent today!  Being a lighthouse lover, I was in my height of glory. We saw the Rondout Lighthouse at Kingston, the Esopus Meadows Lighthouse just south of Kingston, and the Stony Point Lighthouse off to the distance near Stony Point.....

Rondout Light

Esopus Light

We were able to see the Mills Mansion as well as an unidentifiable castle peeking out above the tree line.  The ruins of Bannerman’s Castle on Pollepel Island looked like a cool place to anchor and explore but the sign said that it was to be visited via a commercial tour only...and some men doing a dangerous job of working on one of the bridges we passed under.

 

 

 

    

Bannerman's Castle on a hazy day!



We weren't  quite sure where we wanted to spend the night.  However after 8.75 hours and 66 miles later, passing Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, and West Point,  we decided we better find a place to either dock, moor, or anchor before we ran out of daylight.  Since it was so warm out plus the winds were from the south, we decided to anchor at Haverstraw Bay, north of Croton Point which is on the eastern shore of the Hudson.  This is a good protection from the south winds.

 

The closer we got to the anchorage area, we noticed there were quite a few power boats anchored and enjoying the warm weather and hoping to catch the sunset...no sunset ....even the Half Moon Yacht Club  which is just north of us boasts that they have the best view of the sun setting.  People seem to be trying to get their last boating fix of the season.  There are many jet skis around, a paddle boarder, and even a sailboat race!  Chuck decided to do a Lionel and take his bath in the Hudson!  He said the water was right....yeah right.   I attempted to get in the river but it was too cold for me so I shower off the transom of the boat...using the hot/cold shower. 

 

By 6:30, most of the boats had left for the  night and we are the only boat at the anchorage....wrong.....10 or more jet skies came back in the dark to party on the beach. Apparently the rules of the water are different on the Hudson than on Lake Erie. (We always thought jet skis can't be out after dark because of having no lights!) We read in the Active Captain reviews that this spot does get very noisy until everyone leaves and then it is quiet.  They were oh so right. 

 

*** Jesse, Landon, Bubby, Levi, and Makayla:  just to let you know that there are also pirates on the Hudson River!!!!  They sailed right by us and didn't even try to attack us!