Conclusion of the wonderful Hudson River

We are docked up at the Albany Yacht Club, nearing the end of the Hudson River journey. The Erie Canal is only a few miles north! Can't wait for the new adventure of going through locks on the canal, but I must say, I sure loved the Hudson River.

My last blog was the day we visited West Point Academy and ended at a marina in Marlborough. The next morning we went a short distance and tied to a guest mooring along the side of the river in Hyde Park. It was so beautiful there, with total green on the hills of both banks. We tied the dinghy to a small dock, walked across the railroad tracks, and were essentially on the Vanderbilt Estate. We walked through the "no admittance" gate and were soon up at the mansion and signed up for a tour. One of the photos shows a little lake/river in front of the mansion.

Despite its opulence, the guide said this was the least fancy of the 43 Vanderbilt mansions. There were lots of Vanderbilts, and they all loved building mansions in the late 1800s. The Vanderbilts who owned this one spent only a month or so every spring and every fall, and a weekend at Christmas time. The staff of 60 kept it at the ready the entire year.

A shuttle took us the 2.5 miles to FDR's home and presidential library. They were rich, let there be no doubt, but you could easily tell this was an actual lived-in home and practical and so much less opulent. He had to modify parts of the home after he became paralyzed in 1921, including an elevator shaft in which he pulled himself upstairs using a rope. He wanted to keep his upper body strong.

We took a taxi back to the water, and stayed the night there at the mooring. The next morning, I got to watch the sunrise over the water as I put the bike in the dinghy and went on a scenic ride, including an "abandoned" state park overlooking the river with dramatic views. When we were ready to depart, so many weeds and plants from upstream had accumulated on the mooring, we could not remove the rope to leave. I had to launch the kayak and go up there with a knife and cut away for 10 minutes until the rope finally could pass through. Going again, we soon passed two charming lighthouses. The first one, which is the photo, was the Esopus Meadows Lighthouse right out in the middle of the river, to mark a shallow spot (built in 1869). The next one was marking the Rundout River entrance to Kingston Harbor, built in 1871. We went in, tied up to a dock for $5, and visited the Hudson River Maritime Museum.

After a dockside lunch, we headed out to find an anchorage for the night. About an hour later, we were enjoying happy hour on the flybridge, beers in hand and chips
and salsa on the table! All to ourselves, again in so much beauty. Little did I know, the next night would top them all. Yes, on Saturday we cruised to Catskill, where the Rip Van Winkle Bridge is located. We got fuel and pumped out the holding tank, both for the first time since the day we arrived in Atlantic City. We used 130 gallons of diesel, which worked out to 2.6 gallons per hour, which I estimate means we got about 2.7 miles per gallon. We then walked around the quaint old town, which has at least 50 statuettes of cats, each with its own theme. See photo of one of them.

Again, we headed north late in the day to find an anchorage, and hit the jackpot near a town called Coxsackie. It was inside of two islands, which gave us not only incredible, idyllic scenery, but protection from the usual rocking and rolling from the boats and huge tanker ships traversing the river. See the photo of me sitting at the back of the boat. We took a fun dinghy ride all over the place, out across the main river, which was glassy, all around the coves where we were, and even landed and walked around on one of the islands. For the first time, lots of people were enjoying the river (Memorial Day weekend is the official start of the boating season here), with camping sites everywhere, jet skis all over, and fun all around.

The next morning, it was total calm and serene, so I took a long kayak ride, and lots of photos. It was surreal to be out there exploring the beauty of the morning, sun sifting through the trees and raising mist off the water surface.

I planned to stay another day and continue to relish the surroundings, but no sooner had we enjoyed our ham n cheese eggs than a HUGE wind came up and we started to drag the anchor. I let out more chain to make us secure, but the boat swung into three feet of water and the tide was lowering! I figured we'd better leave. When the boat swung back out into deeper water temporarily, we started up and left. We cruised into the strong headwind in tall swells, wondering what we would do next. It was too windy to dock anywhere. We soon passed a marina and it looked like calmer water and a slightly protected anchorage just past it, so we anchored there for the day and last night. We stayed on board a long time to ensure the anchor was holding, then took the dinghy in for an afternoon on their dockside restaurant to watch the masses having fun in the water and at the yacht club (where half-soused members can find hilarity and fun doing just about anything!!). After the wind calmed down and we returned to the boat, I put my bike in the dinghy and went back in for a lovely ride south to the historic 1663 town of Coxsackie. I could see where we'd been the night before.

Today we came the final 15 miles into Albany. The river continued to be beautiful, right up until we were about two miles from downtown. Then, it got industrially ugly. Luckily, though, it ended as soon as it started, and our view here is of the downtown skyline. I've never been to Albany, so we'll start our sightseeing tomorrow. Today we're enjoying the A/C in here on a hot and humid day. We should enter the Erie Canal in a few days, after which the boat will stay at a marina between Locks 6 and 7 while I fly to Seattle for Katie's graduation, and Bruce goes home for a week's break. Before I leave for Washington, Janet will get to visit for three days once her school year ends on June 7!

Change of plans. No Loop afterall.....

Today we cruised up the placid, beautiful, and empty Hudson River to West Point. We saw the flock of swans fly by in the photo. I'd never seen a flock of them flying like that before. When I first awoke, a swan was right next to the boat and sort of begged from me. We had a swan-human conversation about American Idol, and then he went off to find some donuts.

At West Point, we anchored carefully since the shallow part next to shore quickly dropped to over 100 ft. We walked up the long hill in 90-degree heat and walked around the lower campus - the dorms, the Parade, Trophy Hill (see photo of Bruce at Trophy Hill overlooking the Hudson to the north). We then hiked uphill to the chapel, and then went back to the boat. I was familiar with the campus since Annette and I had been there three yrs ago for the graduation - to watch Peter Zink achieve his rank!

We then slowly cruised on up the river to Marlboro, where we are tonight. We're almost to Hyde Park where we hope to tour tomorrow.

The title of this posting is really why I wanted to post just one day since my last. Due to the oil spill in the Gulf, I have made the difficult decision to abandon the Great Loop route. If I continue down to Mobile, AL and have to end there, I don't see it as favorable a route as the new one I am planning:

Turn back after Mackinac Island at the top of Lake Michigan, and go back to the Chesapeake Bay on a different route as much as possible. That means down to Detroit, on to Lake Erie, east to the Erie Canal, and back into Lake Ontario. At that point, I would have completed all of the Erie Canal, but in two halves. Once in Lake Ontario, I'll head east into the St. Lawrence Seaway to Montreal, and then down to Lake Champlain. If we (Rick and I) have time, we'll take the Rideau Canal from Lake Ontario to Ottawa, and down the Ottawa River to Montreal.

Once we get back to Albany, I'll repeat my course down the Hudson and New Jersey and back into the Chesapeake Bay. By then it would likely be the end of the boating season that far north - about early Nov. I would then need to leave the boat in dry dock until the spring boating season starts again in early April. From there I would like to see the lower Chesapeake Bay including Washington, D.C. After that I'm not sure whether I'd head south on the Intracoastal Waterway, or head north to the New England coast up to Maine and perhaps Nova Scotia. I'm leaning toward the latter.

Abandoning the Great Loop is monumental given my 15 years of dreaming about it and planning it, but the revised adventure is just as exciting to think about and will be incredible as well.

Long Island Sound! Hells' Gate! Hudson River North!

Bruce and I slept in steady beds for two nights! And with room to run around like wild horses if we had wished. We stayed with Eileen Madden and Paul Osmolskis in Pelham, NY, in the Long Island Sound. Eileen and I were in Nestle's Regulatory Affairs Dept. Paul is a champion sailor, with many winning trophies displayed in their home. I had sailed with them once about 14 yrs ago. They were able to swing a guest tie-up at their yacht club for us, and then invited us to stay with them! Wonderful! We took a day cruise up to Norwalk, CT yesterday and Paul was able to share volumes of local history and interests, like how Hart Island is where they bury the homeless who die in NYC. He even got me back safely after dark, avoiding all the rocky and other shallow hazards along the CT coast.

It was so much fun to see Norwalk and Greenwich and Larchmont, little coves with character, which I think of as New England. And being near the bottom of the Sound, you look right across to Long Island as if it's only a couple miles across. In Norwalk, we took the short walk into the old main street and had lunch at an 1889 pub. Two pitchers of a local ale later.....

Eileen and Paul BBQed steaks for us, Eileen made pancakes with fresh blackberries, we watched a movie, we did two loads of laundry -- all the comforts of home for a break. Their home is a gem, built in 1901.

Today we departed in bright sunshine and glassy seas, returning to the East River. We experienced something extraordinary that we hadn't last Saturday when we were going the other direction -- Hell's Gate. It's located in a narrow tidal strait just north of where the Harlem River diverts off. If the tides coming and going are "right", there are sudden huge swirling surging waves that can toss and turn boats - which they did to us! It was like we were suddenly in a rough ocean! I had to cut the engine to idle to survive the swells. About 30 seconds later, it was normal again, and we turned westward into the Harlem River. Last Saturday, the tides were such that we passed through Hell's Gate with no clue that it could deserve its reputation.

Then, the Harlem River was interesting. It cuts over to the Hudson, and is what makes Manhattan an island. It was a quiet and calm waterway. We saw only three other boats the entire 7 miles. We went under about 10 bridges, all tall enough so that I didn't need to call bridge operators. Yankee Stadium was right there, where we were last Thursday. Lots of city sights! The only bridge that was potentially a problem was the last one, a railroad swing bridge right at the Hudson. It had only a 5 ft clearance, so I wanted to know if it actually opened for pleasure boats, and if so, what was the schedule? I called the bridge operator over and over the entire way, with no answer, so I was afraid I might need to turn around and go completely around the base of Manhattan and up the Hudson from its start. Once I got within sight of the swing bridge, the operator finally answered and scolded me for calling him so often. He said he couldn't open it 20 minutes before I got there. I explained I hadn't been calling him to open it, only to inquire about his schedule. He did not respond. He told me to wait. I idled for 15 minutes, when it finally swung open and out we went into the swift moving Hudson River!!

Right away we were curious. There were five NYC Police boats idling across the width of the river there. What was going on? One seemed to be approaching me, but then he turned away. We'll never know what that was all about (did Trump's boat need a police escort?).

While our tide-aided speed at 1600 rpm on the East River had been 11 mph, we now slowed to 5 mph against the Hudson tide. But who cared in such beauty? The tall cliffs on the NJ side, the Palisades, were so beautiful (see photo, which also shows our CALM water!). It was so exciting for me to be cruising up this historic river. I did a school report on Henry Hudson when I was in the 4th grade (which I still have since my parents saved EVERYTHING), and since then I've been entranced with this river. It is SOOO wide, and got even wider at the Tappan Zee Bridge (see photo). My estimate is that it was 2 miles wide there. We had the river almost to ourselves, until we neared the end of our 8-hour non-stop trip. When we finally got to our anchor spot, it turned out to be directly across from a nuclear power plant (in Peekskill). Ugh! But we can just look at the pretty trees and hills on the near side, the west side, of the river here.

Tomorrow we hope to tour West Point, which is only about 14 miles north of here. The river narrows considerably here.

Breaking away in Central Park

It was a fun week in New York City! This morning, as we prepare to leave, we finally have calm water because it's a weekend and there are no ferries scooting around the Hudson River causing wakes that rock-n-roll us. So far, there also are no huge ships and barges going by. So, now that it's calm, we'll leave. hahaha One of the photos shows how exposed we are out in the river tied to our mooring. Pretty spot, huh?

As you can see from the photos, we did a variety of sightseeing this week. In the same afternoon, we took the D Train all the way to its endpoint at Coney Island (most southern part of Brooklyn) and saw their boardwalk, Nathan's Hot Dogs (since 1916!), the Cyclone roller coaster (see photo), and then hopped back on the D Train and traveled 1:35 to almost its northern terminus to see the new Yankee Stadium. Eventually, we learned that we weren't the only ones going to the stadium -- there was a game that night. So, we decided to take it in. We bought tickets from a scalper, and they were in the VERY top-most row (see photo from the stratosphere). But still they were good seats and I enjoyed watching the damn Yanks lose (to Tampa Bay).

My blog title today, breaking away in Central Park, was NOT meant to say I navigated my boat into the lake in Central Park. Yesterday I rode my bike there, and WOW, what a "race". It was so great to see at least 2000 people jogging, walking, skating, and cycling in the park so early in the morning, and many of the cyclists were serious and moving! My competitive nature caused me to ride the fastest and hardest I'd done in a long time, and now I have sore leg muscles! I rode three of the 6.5-mi loops around the park, and we were trying to see who was strongest (four I could not stay with. All the others I broke away from!). We went past the concert area where Good Morning America was broadcasting and the Jonas Bros were there, which I found out later when I returned to the boat and Bruce was watching it live. The two days before, I rode the bike path right along the Hudson River - the first day north to the end of Manhattan, and the next day south to Battery Park at the southern end.

Every time I rode the bike, and whenever we ever wanted to go anywhere, we had to climb in the dinghy and take it to a little dock at the marina. Luckily the bike fits in there nicely. The difficult part was landing the dinghy back at the boat when the river current was strong, which was most of the time. We could grab the swim step okay, but to hold on and pull the dinghy up against the swim step and attach it was HARD with the river pushing against us.

I loved being out on the Hudson, despite my gripes of the wakes rocking us. We got to see the Queen Mary II departing (see photo), a day after it arrived and docked a couple miles south of us. We've enjoyed the scenery at night too, with the lights from both sides of the river lighting up the skyscapes and reflecting off the water. Gigantic barges and ships went by, and this morning there are outrigger canoes and others in kayaks getting their exercise in the calmer water w/o the commercial boats churning everything up out there.

This week we did all the touristy things, like the Empire State Building, walking all the way to Brooklyn across the Brooklyn Bridge, Battery Park, Wall Street, Twin Towers Memorial Museum, Rockefeller Center, seeing West Side Story on Time Square, the Native Am Museum, walking some in Central Park.

This morning we'll cruise back down to the tip of Manhattan and up the East River, all the way out into the Long Island Sound. We're docking tonight at the boat club of my Nestle colleage Eileen Madden, and then staying with her and Paul tonight!! I wonder if we'll be able to sleep without the rocking. hahaha Tomorrow, Eileen and Paul will join us for the cruise up the Connecticut coast and back, and then on Monday morning we'll go back to NYC and take the Harlem River over here to the Hudson River, and head northward (the Harlem River is the northern boundary of Manhattan, which makes it an island).

This incredible adventure continues...see ya soon!

Lady Liberty greeted us!

To approach NY Harbor from the ocean, and round the Narrows to see Lady Liberty beckoning us, it was a highlight of my life. I kept thinking of how the immigrants must have felt when they saw her like that, with their hopes of a new life in this great country.

Can you see in the photos how calm the water was yesterday? It was glassy the entire way here, so lucky for us. And, the massive harbor was deserted except for the usual ferries and a few tugs. When we got up close to both the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge, I just put the boat in neutral to gaze and take pictures, with no worries about other boats in the vicinity.

We plan to cruise up the East River under all those bridges on Saturday, but since no one was around and it was so calm, I decided to just go ahead and see the first bridge, the 1883 marvel Brooklyn Bridge. We then went back in front of the Battery and cruised up the Hudson to our mooring at 79th St. As we passed all the tourists at Battery Park, it was a bit overwhelming to think that I was in my position versus when I have been there as a tourist looking out at the many boats doing what I was now doing. What a lucky stiff I am!

We enjoyed the scenery from the Hudson as we headed up here past historic docks, the Intrepid aircraft carrier, a big screened-in driving range out over the river, the high rises, the Empire State Building, the Palisades on the New Jersey side of the river, and the majesty of NYC! Bruce has never been here before, so he stayed on the back in his chair with the binoculars.

We tied up to our mooring at about 1 pm. After lunch we took the dinghy in to the dock, walked a few blocks up to Broadway, and took the subway to Times Square. It didn't take long for the Grey Line tour guy to find us and give us his sales talk, and boom!, we were on the tour bus the rest of the afternoon. I'd been to all the places before, but it was new to Bruce, who was overwhelmed with the numbers of people, the traffic, the entire scene.

The river was no longer placid when we returned to the boat after dinner. Big swells were rocking us all over, and we could tell it had been worse while we were gone because so many items had fallen over inside here. Sure enough, it was an approaching storm, which we have endured to the present moment. We're exposed in the mooring to the waves and wakes and rough water, since we're not inside the marina.

Since we were meeting with a friend of Bruce's for lunch, and it was raining off and on, we decided to do three loads of laundry at the marina to pass the morning. The complicated part was having to transport everything by dinghy, especially when it got to raining really hard and the dinghy filled with water (well, not filled, but you know what I mean). We kept having to bail out the water before we could transport the clean clothes in it, and had to make sure the clean dry clothes didn't get rained on. Ahhhh, my adventure! At this very moment, it's REALLY POURING and huge swells are flopping us up and down and side to side! My only dry pants left to wear are my PJs.

We should be able to resume touring around tomorrow, and I hope to ride my bike along the Hudson where there is a fabulous trail for many miles. I've watched hundreds of cyclists going by and I'm jealous.

On Sunday we sailed 50 miles from Atlantic City to Manasquan. It was our first day out on the open ocean! No sweat. Compared with the dicey shallow navigating in the intracoastal waterway, it was completely easy in the ocean using auto pilot. We simply paralleled the coast about 1.5 miles out. The only thing of interest was where we anchored and ate. We dropped TWO anchors at the end of a channel in front of a railroad bridge, just past a fishing boat fleet. The tides were so strong, I needed a stern anchor to prevent us from swinging the other direction and possibly into the bridge. So, I pulled out the new anchor from the storage compartment below the back deck, along with the chain and rope I've had for about 20 yrs, and put them in the dinghy. I then drifted back about 60 ft and dropped the anchor, and motored back letting out the chain and rope. We then tied to the stern cleat, and it worked like a charm. When the tide changed, it was like a strong river pushing against the stern and that anchor line was as tight as you could imagine, but it held us in place!

We dinghied into shore to visit a restaurant that was only 50 yds from the boat. Luckily for me, the bar had the Tour of California bike race on TV and I got to watch Mark Cavendish win the sprint yet again, in downtown Sacramento.

The next morning (yesterday) I used the dinghy to retrieve the stern anchor, and we were off by 7 am for our final 40 miles into NYC. Interestingly, from 30 miles away we could see a single tall building in the direction of NYC, and assumed it must be the Empire State Building. Sure enough, it was, but the closer you got, the more there were other tall buildings and it did not stand out that much at all. Only from a distance!

Relaxin in MonopolyLand

Okay, how many of you knew that the street names for Monopoly were taken from streets in Atlantic City? On my bike ride last Thursday, I figured this out and then verified it. I had seen Ventnor, and of course the Boardwalk, but then as I was riding down Baltic and got to Mediterranean, I started paying attention, and sure enough, I rode past all the others (except I haven't seen St Charles Place or Park Place). Adding to that how in Philly we saw the Pennsyvania and Reading RRs, that just about completes it.

Anyway, we're having a fun and relaxing three days here, as we wait for tomorrow's good weather for our 50-mile ocean trek. The one picture shows what the view is out our front window of the tall casinos along the Boardwalk. We are still tied up to Craig's private dock, lucky stiffs that we are! It's so close to everything. Each morning, and for the first two evenings, we got to watch skullers - singles, doubles, fours, and eights. In the morning, it's folks of all ages doing it for exercise (or so it appears). The two afternoons were young men and women who were obviously part of competitive teams, going back and forth with the coaches yelling from their motorized boats. I love watching them speed by gracefully and totally in sync.

Another photo shows me on the widest part of the Boardwalk. It's pretty amazing how it is about 6 miles long and is made entirely of 3-inch by about 15-ft boards. It is at mimimum two of these sections (30 ft wide) and at most in the heavily traveled areas, five sections wide (75 ft wide). On a day like today, it is jammed with strollers and shoppers and vendors and bike riders like Bruce and I were. It's part Las Vegas, part county fair, and part Hollywood.

The final photo shows the famous Absecon Lighthouse, built in 1857. The inlet from the ocean (where we are leaving tomorrow) was called Graveyard Inlet because of all the shipwrecks, so they built the lighthouse. We toured it today and it was well worth it, even if we didn't climb the 248 steps to the top.

I've taken three bike rides! It's been kind of interesting to head out and see where we came last Wednesday. I also saw Lucy. Does anyone know Lucy? She's an historic landmark. A huge elephant!! It's been there since the late 1800s. I came across a posted sign that I've never seen before: Radar-enforced bicycle speed limit of 15 mph. Radar enforced!! The drivers here aren't too nice to bike riders. One today made a right turn right in front of me, and luckily I anticipated it and slammed on my brakes. I've been honked at, and passed too closely. It's no wonder I've focused on using the Boardwalk to get 3 miles south of town before venturing onto the streets.

I guess it wasn't ALL relaxation. We finished waxing the boat. We vacuumed. Washed windows. Oh, I'm getting tired....

Marshy New Jersey. Went aground...

The intercoastal waterway in New Jersey is a challenge! Especially at low tide. Just ask us...we went aground yesterday. Luckily, we were going slowly and the bottom was sandy, but we were stuck! Right in the middle of nowhere. Pushing and messing around did nothing to free us, so I called US Towing (I bought unlimited towing insurance for the year) and he arrived in 20 minutes and eventually pulled us off. He said it was not our fault, as the channel markers were not in the right places for that bend in the channel. The chart said 5 ft, but recent shoaling caused the depth to change, and we just happened to be a very low tide (the tides are six feet here). Not one boat came by us the entire time we waited. All day, only a few little fishing boats were on the waterway besides us. (In case you're interested, the amount I'd have paid for towing if I hadn't had insurance was 6 times the amount of my insurance cost for the entire year. It's a no-brainer!)

I must describe what the waterway is like here. Marshland. There are huge bodies of water that look like lakes, but they are very shallow and our navigating must be in narrow channels that have been dredged for boats. They post markers that you go between, spaced out from one to the next. Trouble is, sometimes it gets very shallow and between the markers it's not always deep enough. You need to follow the GPS chart plotter carefully, slowly.

The one photo shows what the marshland was abundant in - birds. Those snowy egrets were everywhere. Vast expanses of marshland and birds yesterday. Also, many many areas where homes have been built on pilings, right over the water. Some were old and had "character", others were new and stylish. This has been our view so far of NJ - bayou country! I expected to see alligators.

Yesterday was our first bridge opening! The photo shows the first one, but we had five before the day ended. You call ahead on the marine radio to the bridge operator and ask to pass under, and he says "okay". Then he lowers the barriers to stop the cars, and you imagine them swearing at you because they have to wait for just a single darned boat with people who are enjoying themselves at the many drivers' expense. It makes you feel pretty important that they have a person in there just for the purpose of making your boating life smooth. Four of the bridges were relatively small roads, but one was a major highway and by the time we passed under and the bridge was down again for the cars, the line up of traffic went on for miles! That's why at that spot they were building a permanent tall bridge to replace the drawbridge.

One of the five bridges, however, was dicey to get through. Only one half of it could open! We passed by with only a couple feet of clearance. And with the tide rishing through, you have to maintain control not to move to one side. Anyway, I obviously did make it, but Bruce and I were honestly scared I was not going to. Larger boats could not have used the intercoastal waterway here. Most boaters, we already knew, just go out into the ocean and bypass all the weaving around and worrying about going aground and hoping they will make it under the bridges. In fact, Bruce and I are planning to go out from Atlantic City here when the weather is okay, and do the same thing. That day may be Sunday, meaning we will have three days to explore Atlantic City.

But we are in a truly fortunate situation here! As we were about to pass under our sixth bridge (it already was raising when I called to say "no thank you, we are turning around"), a man yelled from his private dock that we could tie up there. We jumped at the chance because it was very windy, very cold, and getting dark. I even had my running lights on for the first time. He had seen us anchor just below here, and then raise the anchor when I realized it was too shallow, and so he knew we wanted to stop for the night. His own boat isn't on his dock yet for the season, so he offered it to us. What an incredibly nice and generous man!! People are so helpful. He proceeded over the next hour to tell us everything we could do here, we could stay here as long as we wanted, we could plug into his electrical, use his water hoses, have coffee inside his home, he'd drive us to the big casino hotels, and on and on. So, we are taking advantage of his hospitality and staying a few days. He admitted the waterways in NJ are lousy and also suggested we take the ocean route.

The day before yesterday was Cape May. What a pretty town! We cruised from our Maurice River anchorage across the lower Delaware Bay to a canal that cuts across into Cape May's harbor, avoiding having to go way around the southern tip of NJ to enter from the ocean. As has been common so far on our trip, we were the only boat in the canal. We anchored in cloudy, wet weather, and took the dinghy into a marina and walked around this vacation resort town for several hours.

The picture of me in front of an old Victorian home does not do justice to how incredible the homes are in Cape May. I would encourage you to Google Cape May so you can see some more examples of their Victorian homes, which they are famous for. I could have taken 150 photos if I'd wanted to (I took about 20 already!). Bruce and I took a break from our walking and bought a pound of fudge (four diff flavors). Yum!

It rained quite a bit that night, but we were cozy in our berths. The thing that was concerning was that the big fishing boats leaving the harbor caused wakes that really rocked and rolled us. We need to make sure everything on the boat is tidy and put away when we anchor out.

Well, now I'm off for a bike ride, and then Bruce and I will tour on the bikes. We saw the famous boardwalk last night on our walk into town, but today we will traverse it all like good tourists. See ya!

LONG day at the helm!

We traveled non-stop for 9 hours today! All the way from Philadelphia to a little inlet on the New Jersey shore called Maurice River (pronounced Morris). We planned for a long day, but went quite a bit farther because of the favorable conditions - namely, we had both the current and the wind behind us for most of the day. That meant our speed at the usual rpm was significantly faster. Still slow, mind you (11.5 mph at the best), but better than usual (about 8 mph in still wind and current).

The only time the piloting was hard was late in the day when we had: 1) a strong tail wind that pushes the stern of the boat around and makes it difficult to keep on course; and 2) crab-crate floats scattered all over which I played dodge-ball with to keep from running over. These two factors oppose each other - that is, you try to dodge a crab float, but the boat is fighting you from the effects of the tailwind. So, I struggled constantly over the final two hours at the wheel. Then, when we finally arrived at the mile-long entrance to the river (a channel dredged to be deep enough), we turned 90 degrees and suddenly the huge swells were hitting us from the side and tossing us in all directions!! I had to tack across the narrow entrance channel just to keep the waves from not hitting us directly from the side ("abeam").

What a relief it was to finally enter this quiet, twisting, remote, non-commercial waterway! It is completely flat, with only marshland separating the S curves in the river. Isn't the picture cool? The tides are very strong, and change the river depth by 6 ft! Right at this moment, it is shifting and we are swinging on the anchor. We will end up 240 ft in the opposite direction.

The cool lighthouse in the picture was right out in the very middle of the wide Delaware Bay. Notice how it's on top of a big rock. Wow, right in the middle! It is called Ship John Shoal Lighthouse, named for the John, the ship that crashed here in 1796. They built the lighthouse a year later. Doesn't it look like it is the same one they built in 1797?

Tomorrow we will have a quick trip to a featured destination of our trip -- Cape May, at the southern tip of NJ. We should be all anchored up before the predicted afternoon rains. We will be touring this Victorian-home city during the afternoon with our raincoats on.

The other photo is from our second touring day in Philadelphia yesterday. The street I'm on is Elfreth's Alley, the oldest continuously inhabited street in America! Bruce and I happened on it on Friday night when we were sort of lost, and then read how it was a famous spot on the tourist agenda! So we returned for this photo. Each home is very narrow, and three stories. They were all built at different times, so each doorway, window, and other features were unique.

Yesterday we also visited additional "independence" toursit locales, but the highlight was City Tavern. It was where our forefathers went to relax over a few brews, and surely all the important decisions to shape our country were ironed out there!!!! They serve meals, but Bruce and I went into the "pub" part where only beverages were served, and we had our patriotic beers. They had four choices: Ben Franklin's recipe, Th. Jefferson's recipe, Alexander Hamilton's "Federalist's Ale", and a fourth. Bruce couldn't decide, so he ordered the sampler. I had the ale. Anything to support the shapers of our great country!

Celebrating our arrival in Philadelphia

Fireworks! Promptly at 10 pm last night, we were treated to a glorious show, watching from Breaking Away. We are tied up safely inside a marina, under the Ben Franklin Bridge (as you can see). Right across the Delaware River, which is Camden, NJ, they shot off 10 minutes' worth of celebration. They must have read my blog to know we'd be arriving in Philly!

It's a good thing we are tied up with five lines in this marina! The wind today has gotten up to 40 mph constant with gusts up to 60 mph. I'm also glad there's a huge yacht (Breaking Away is a midget in comparison) next to me to block the force of the wind. And to think it was calm this morning! I took a bike ride tour of the inner city this morning and loved seeing the sights before traffic (7 am to 8 am). Then I decided to wash down Breaking Away, which I had not done since traveling to Chestertown 8 days ago. We eventually left on foot to be tourists, and the wind was only slight. During the day it got HUGE, blowing everything like crazy. We saw sidewalk cafe table umbrellas flying down the street. We saw huge tree limbs dropping, trees tilted as if in a hurricane. Wow! When we got back to the boat, it was secure but is rockin n rollin. We should not have left some windows open - I had to clean up the sand that had blown in.

The touring was wonderful today in this beautiful city. The third picture is Bruce in front of Christ Church, at the beginning of the day before the trees were blowing sideways. We of course visited Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, historic chambers nearby, and then the "Rocky Steps". It's a little ways to the Phildelphia Museum of Art, up on a hill overlooking the city, so we got there by trolley. Sure enough, lots of people were running up the steps made famous by Silvester Stallone in Rocky, and jumping around at the top with their arms raised in victory. I finally decided to run up the steps too, but didn't celebrate at the top to honor son Brian's wishes he expressed this morning in our phone call. (The fountain there is supposed to shoot straight up and fall back down; in this wind, it was mostly blowing out of the fountain and forming a river down one side of the Rocky Steps!)

On the way back we went to the Macy's where they have the largest pipe organ in the world. The organist played today at noon and 5:30, and we caught the latter performance. Stunning sound!

Yesterday was a calm day as we cruised slowly for the 35 miles from Delaware City to Philly. The scenery was sure different than in the Chesapeake - mostly industrial. Huge factories and refineries. Only when we got close to Philly did we get to see homes on the eastern, New Jersey side of the river. Just earlier, we played "keep away" with barge traffic. It was interesting...we had barges pushed by tugs catching us from behind, coming at us, coming out from the sides, and then single tugs all over the place. This happened only for about a five-mile section before Philly, but I was looking every which way trying to decide where to steer to stay out of everyone's way. It's a bit daunting to look behind you at a huge ship or barge gaining on you and not knowing where to go to avoid all the traffic.

But we finally made it! We walked around the renovated downtown section last night, and there were so many hip folks crowding the streets having a festive Friday night. Full of energy! Philly is a super city.

Into Delaware!

This is day 3 of the journey, and this little town of Delaware City is quaint. One of the photos shows Breaking Away docked in the Delaware City Marina, where we'll stay this afternoon and tonight. This is the course of the original Chesapeake-Delaware canal from 1829! In 1927 they moved this eastern end of it a mile south. Another photo shows a section of the original narrow canal, where mules or horses pulled the barges along. This is right where the canal began from the Delaware River, which we are on but just out of the main channel (a mile wide here).

Another photo shows a huge freighter yesterday as we were approaching the canal, and it was leaving it headed into Chesapeake Bay. It was from Goteburg, Sweden. Notice how calm the water was!! It was totally glassy all the way to Georgetown. Amazing considering how windy and churned up the bay was the day before.

The picture of me is when we were in the canal, about to go under two of the six bridges. The canal was widened in this century to 450 ft, and made level between the two bodies of water so that there are no locks anymore. In the canal, it was calm water but we had a tail wind, allowing us to go 10 mph at 1600 rpm, vs 6 mph at the same rpm when we exited the canal and turned into the strong wind of the Delaware River.

I just finished a walking tour of this historic and OLD town. You can tell the citizens are proud, though, as almost every home and building are preserved and cutely done up. I took about 20 photos of homes because of their decor and unique architecture. So many of them were from the early to mid 1800s. The old hotel facing the entrance to the river/canal from the Delaware River had naked mannequins in the windows of the third floor, to jokingly recall the days when it lured sailors into the comforts of port.

When we arrived, we thought we were going to spend only a couple hours and then continue up the Delaware, getting closer to Philadelphia. Alas...the learnings of being dependent on the weather! I barely could dock Breaking Away, as I was facing a strong wind and the channel is extremely narrow. Bruce did a great job, but he's only one person! I leaped out the side door next to the lower helm to assist, but you have to hope for the best if the wind decides to gust. We pulled and tied and pulled, and finally got it secured. A landing like that prompts one to ask locals for advice, and before you knew it, we decided to stay here even though it was only 1:00 pm. But in hindsight, I'm glad because the walking tour was fabulous, and tonight's dinner promises to be worth the wait.


Earlier in the day we anchored in a little cove off the beginning of the canal, Cheaspeake City. We took the dinghy to a little dock, and walked to the C and D Canal Museum. Wow, it was really interesting! The building is exactly the pump house from where they had to pump water into the lock, and the HUGE pump/waterwheel are still there. The museum showed how the canal was built (2600 men digging and hauling dirt), changed over the years, and problems such as caving in of the muddy sides and ships crashing into the bridges. It originally had four locks, but now none. The canal reduces by 300 miles the distance a ship would need to travel to Baltimore, and they said that the canal saves 40 million gallons of fuel because of this shortcut.

Yesterday we left the little marina I had taken shelter in on our first afternoon, and as I mentioned, the bay was completely glassy. We got to leisurely sight-see the mansion estates along the water, all the way to Georgetown. Once there, we anchored in the river across from six different marinas. By then we couldn't wait to eat lunch, and it was one of those times when your goal eludes you. At the first dock where we landed the dinghy there was no restaurant, but she advised that the next one over did. We moved, tied up again, walked up the steps salivating, but alas, closed until 4 pm. So, back in the dinghy, up to the end marina closest to the bridge. Certainly the deli/pizzeria was open! We finally got there, and no, closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. In desperation, we asked the first person we saw where we could eat? Hmmmmm, maybe the Kitty Knight Inn across the bridge and up the hill over there is open. So, off we trudged, with the heat beginning to get to us. It looked promising as we got there since we saw people inside eating. "Sorry, no, that's a special group. We don't open for lunch until next week. About a half mile more there is a restaurant." We started off, but when it was an empty road as far as we could see, we just about slumped to the ground. Then Bruce uttered one of his favorite lines (those who know him will laugh cuz it's true), "Give me a fricken break!" And his "prayer" was answered!!! The waitress from the Kitty Knight came up and said she could make a lunch just for us!! I can only imagine how hopeless we appeared. Anyway, the pastrami Reuben sandwiches were great, and we read the history of the Inn. In the War of 1812, the British were burning everything in Georgetown but Kitty Knight would NOT leave the house, where she was caring for an invalid. Supposedly she declared, "If you burn this house, you will burn me too"...and the house (1755) was spared.

We got back to the boat and cruised up to the final anchorage in the North Chesapeake Bay, Bohemia River. It was calm as we dropped anchor all alone there, in a beautiful setting with forested green in one direction, and mansions/estates in other directions. It felt good to have a calm evening with nothing around but the generator, dinghy, TV, computer, cell phones, ipod...you know what I'm saying. hahaha

On our way...

The two photos are "see ya later" pictures. The one of Bruce shows us as we were leaving the marina for the last time, looking down on the dock where Breaking Away was for the past year. You can see how we were right next to condos. The other photo shows the Kent Narrows bridge, as we were leaving it behind us headed north.

The day started out totally calm, but the wind picked up as the day went on. We left at noon, after doing a few more errands in the morning - like stocking up on beer. The staff at the marina all shook my hand and wished us well, and off we went. We had to do something we had never done yet on a departure, and that was to untie and take along all eight of the tie lines attached to the dock. And,we needed to take the electrical cord and water hose. Wow, is that electrical cord ever heavy!! Sucker feels like it weighs 100 pounds. Both Bruce and I had to share carrying it.

We we headed north, intending to anchor for the night in a little inlet called Worton Creek, the weather forecasts sounded ominous. Thunderstorms headed our way at 35 mph. At that point, the wind had continued to pick up and the swells were hitting us directly abeam (from the side). While I felt the boat would handle the waters safely, we were definitely rocking side-to-side pretty significantly. With a forecast for worse conditions, I decided to stop at the nearest shelter. We'd been out only 2.5 hrs when I headed into Torchester Marina, and tied up for the afternoon/night.

Torchester's heyday was prior to 1962, when there had been a big hotel here and playground for families who came by ferry from Baltimore directly across the bay from here. Now, all that is here is the marina. No town. So, Bruce and I had little to do other than to look at other boats in the marina, some of which are huge luxury yachts. Actually, we did do a project I never got to back at our original marina: We pulled out all 300 feet of anchor chain and sprayed a fluorescent paint on the chain every 30 feet so that when we are anchoring, we have some idea of how much chain we are letting out. There's a formula for how much to let out depending on depth, but it doesn't do much good unless you know how much you are letting out. This painting project was SOOOOOO much easier than it would have been at Lippincott, because we docked at our berth here bow forward. We could just spill the anchor and chain out right onto the dock, and spread it out to our hearts' content. The project went on easily instead of being a huge pain.

Well, it's a beautiful morning here now, completely calm, and we're going to head out and go to Georgetown, the one in Maryland, up the Sassafras River. We'll walk around the town and then try to anchor out tonight near there.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!

Breaking Away is breaking away!! Today!

Yes, we have a beautiful day to depart. The Bon Voyage party last Sunday was wonderful to see so many friends. Don and Haf, Martin and family, Sue and Eric, Bob, Bob and family, Dave and Sandy (and Abbie, and Ed. And of course Bruce and Janet.

We did our big shopping trip yesterday, got more spare parts, prescription refills, this, that, the other thing. Donned the wet suit again to go look at the prop to see if anything was there to explain the vibration I felt last Friday. Putting it in reverse solved the vibration, but I wanted to check anyway. Sure enough, there was a rope wound around the shaft behind the prop. It took about 6 dives down to hold my breath and cut the line and unwind it. Glad I have a wetsuit!!

A big thank-you to the friends here at Lippincott Marine who have helped us so much to get ready and teach me things I need to know. Thank you to Ed Carroll, Richard Lippincott, Buddy, Paul, and Danny!!

Okay, I want to hurry along and get going. Tonight we plan to anchor out in one of the river coves north of here on the eastern side. See ya later! Breaking Away! (and I even took a bike ride this morning).

Hawthorne High Cougar Cruise!!

Another fabulous cruise to Chestertown, about 25 miles northeast of here. It is such a quaint historic town, I wanted to return with new partners, Bruce, Lee and Janet (who arrived Thursday night).

Isn't that a great photo of "the boys" as we cruised along the river?? Bruce took the helm for the entire return trip, learning how to program the Garmin and use the auto pilot. He likes it as much as I do.

Another photo shows us filling the fuel tanks for the first time, where the price was $0.53/gal less than it was in Baltimore. The surprise, however, was that it took only 115 gallons. I thought with a 300-gallon tank, and the guage showing 1/3 (and 1/8 when we were in Baltimore before the 30-gallon "insurance"), that we would take at least twice that quantity. So, I need to ask the gang here about that.

The final photo shows how the captain can relax while the first mate is piloting!

I titled this posting Hawthorne High Cougar Cruise because we four HHS grads played Beach Boys music the entire way home - for four hours! And of course they were HHS alumni too. The whole day was wonderful!! We left about 9:30 after the dinghy sales guy dropped by for some paperwork, and it was a slightly breezy, sunny, warm day. After we got the fuel, we ate at the dockside restaurant. We took a photo of Janet and she sent it to her teaching mates with some snooty line about too bad they had to work, and over the afternoon she got her equally snooty comeback replies.

We walked around the town with its Georgian and Victorian homes, its 1706 churches and courthouse, and its Custom House for the agriculture trade this port handled in the 18th century. We departed late - about 4:30, and relaxed for the return cruise past farms and occasional mansions, including the 4-story home modified from two silos sitting side by side. When we got back to the marina here, a strong wind was coming from the south, a new direction for me to maneuver in as I backed Breaking Away into its berth. I did it okay!

There was just enough sunlight to wash down the entire boat to get it clean for this weekend's Bon Voyage Open House (Open Boat). I BBQed salmon on the flybridge BBQ, and Lee and Bruce had veggie burgers. Great ending to the day.

Bruce and I should depart on Tuesday. We need Monday to buy all our dry goods to stock up on for a while. This will be our last time to shop using my car. From now on, we'll need to make do with stores at marinas, what we can carry on the bikes, or if we can borrow a car from a marina. We bought shelves for the "wine cellar" (a large space under the stairs that run down from the main salon area to the forward berths), and we will fill that area with shelf stable foods (so far, mostly beer and wine, but we now need to expand our repertoire). Tomorrow, though, I'm first looking forward to our visitors!! Everything has amazingly come together during the past month. We're ready to begin the adventure!