Thursday, May 8, 2014 To Riverview Marina on Catskill Creek

I woke up this morning after listening to the trains blowing their whistles all night long.  When I check the alarm, I shook Chuck and told him it was 7:05 am.  Yikes, we’re late with our departure.  We both jumped up, dressed, and when Chuck looked at the clock in the main salon it wasn't 7:05 but 6:05 am!  Oh well, I guess we’ll have an earlier start today.   We figured that it’s for the best.  We’re headed up the river to Riverview Marina which is on Catskill Creek, NY.  This is the marina where we’ll have our mast lowered and where we left our wooden crutches last fall. 

It was so cloudy all morning.  Rain is definitely in the air.  In fact, the sun never came out until mid afternoon.  On our trip today, there was so much debris floating everywhere!  I kept thinking of our friend Craig’s warning about traveling the Hudson this early in the spring.  He told us to watch out for whole trees coming downstream!  We only saw one tree and it had grounded in shallow water….good thing.  However, there were some pretty good size logs that we had to dodge.   They could do some major damage so, Chuck was on starboard patrol and I was watching the port side. Hopefully this isn’t any indication of what the Erie Canal might be like!

Today is not only the day of lots of debris but lots of barge and tugboat traffic.  We had 3 barges that snuck up from behind, going north, and 2 going south.  Of course, one of the barges overtook us in one of the narrowest stretches of the Hudson River that we’ve been on so far.  We were approaching the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge.  We moved as far to starboard as we dared without getting into some very shallow water…and the tugboat captain never slowed down!  We also saw a schooner which resembled a pirate ship and some people sculling.  

Esopus Meadows Lighthouse

Rondout Lighthouse

sails coming off

sails off and boom on braces

We made it to Riverview Marina by 11:30 am.  Our entire afternoon was spent tearing our boat down.  Both sails were dropped, folded, and bagged.  Our 6 lines were pulled out of their clutches and replaced with feeder lines.  The 3 wooden cradles were  found in the stack of  wood…yeah, they were still here!  I helped Chuck re-position the braces and it was like a puzzle!  The next job is to take the boom off the mast and position it on the braces.  When Chuck tried to remove the bolt on the boom, it wouldn't budge.  He worked for quite a while trying to get the darn thing to loosen up.  Finally Chuck got it to move, but it broke!  LOL  We went in search for Mike, the owner, and he had stainless bolts in his well stocked store.  I think we’re ready to have our mast lifted tomorrow…it always makes me so nervous! Hopefully it  doesn't rain and delay our plans.

We decided to treat ourselves to a light dinner at Port-a-Call.  It’s a short distance from the marina down on the point.  They had a great seafood menu and also sandwiches and salads.  I tried the shrimp salad sliders which sounded different…very good.  Once back to HHII, we both were very tired and complaining of backaches!  We can tell that we've lived the easy life for the past months…..