DOWN TO THE SEA ON THE HUDSON

The West Shore Marina in Marlboro, New York, had been recommended to us by a cruiser we had met in the canal. When we first tied up we were being bounced around quite a bit due to the river traffic and had to turn around with our bow pointing to the river in order to minimize the movement and noise. The owner was friendly and helpful but the facilities left a lot to be desired. The restrooms were clean but were attached to the side of a shed, sort of like an outhouse. There was only one shower and it was attached to the same shed between the two bathrooms. The town was about a mile away, up a very steep hill, so that was not a good option either. We had seen a yacht club on our way into the marina, but we had not seen it on the charts. We took a walk over to see if they would offer us reciprocity. If we haven't mentioned it before, we belong to the Kenai Fjords Yacht Club in Seward, Alaska. As you can imagine, this raises a lot of eyebrows when we go into a reciprocating club. Obviously, we are not from Seward Alaska. We had visited our friends, Terry and Sandy, in Ilikia Harbor by Wakiki Beach in Hawaii. They live on a boat in the marina for 6 months or more per year and have met a lot of people there. One of them was the Commodore of the Kenai Fjords Yacht Club and a fishing captain there. When we told Diane what our plans were, she suggested that we join her yacht club to allow us to get reciprical privaleges around the world. So, when we showed the people at the Marlboro, New York Yacht Club our membership cards, they were a little surprised, if not confused. We were welcomed and offered drinks and met some of the active members, including Adolph, who was also a Catalina owner. They drove us into town for dinner and we took them on a tour of our boat on the way back. The marina owner was a little suspicious and accused them of trying to recruit members from his marina. The yacht club has a beautiful club house with a full commercial kitchen, bar, banquet area, very nice showers and baths (all air conditioned, by the way)and an extremely well maintained and managed marina. I don't think much recruiting was required. Here are some more pictures of the Hudson as we travled South. This is a world famous cooking school.

One of many lighthouses along the river.

The Marlbor Yacht Club

This is the Pallisades

The George Washington Bridge

Of course, we can't forget West Point!

We wound up moving over to the yacht club the next day. Since there was some bad weather coming in, we decided to stay a day or two to finish doing our running rigging, tune the standing rigging and put the main sail on. We had a very nice stay and got all our work done with the help of many club members, including John in the Southern Cross. We left on Monday morning and headed South on the Hudson. As we were getting closer to New York City, we knew the options for dockage would be very expensive and we thought we should at least do a quick tour of the City before we moved on. We opted to make a short run to Haverstraw Bay and stopped at the Half Moon Marina on the East Shore of the Bay. The owner had posted a 15% discount on ActiveCaptain.com from his normal $2.65 per foot price. When we talked to him on the phone, he acted very confused and said that he had not offered that kind of discount. He was extremely helpful, however, and we wound up compromising to $2.50 per foot. One of the reasons we stopped was that he was within walking distance to a commuter train station that would allow us to go into New York and tour the city. He gave us a ride to the station and we spent the day touring New York. Below are some of the pictures Denise took. This is Grand Central Station

This is our first look at Times Square

The "BIG" City

The Ground Zero Memorial from a distance

Rockefeller Center

The remains of the Gold Ball from the World Trade Center

We got back to the boat after dark and we were up at 6 AM to get started for the next part of our trip. We were planning on going through the East River and into Long Island Sound, so we could visit Mystic, Conneticut and some other interesting places on the way. This required a trip through an infamous section called Hell Gate. We had read the day before that we needed to begin the passage at the Battery Entrance up to two hours after high tide. When we reviewed the instructions the next morning, we realized that was for the East to West passage, and we were going West to East. We needed to start our passage two hours after LOW tide. Since this was early in the morning, we decided to spend the night at the 79th Street Boat Basin, which is about an hour North of the East River Entrance. We grabbed a mooring and stayed on the boat relaxing and enjoying the New York Skyline. Tomorrow, the infamous Hell Gate! Just one view from our Anchorage.