Report #4 Sept 1 –
Sept 6: On the Road Again - To NYC
September 1 we screwed up all our willpower and cast off
from the velvet embrace of Waterford, our friends still trying to reset our
anchor “what’s the hurry, just one more day…”
We are once more on the watery road on the Hudson, passing the last
lock, down 8 feet and now Kind of Magic has entered tidal waters. We don’t really know what that means just yet
but we will! We made 33 miles that day
and anchored just near sunset behind Middle Ground Flats island just north of
Athens. A great anchorage, only 1 other
cruiser in sight.
We made it to Hop-O-Nose marina on the Catskill Creek by mid
afternoon Sept 2 and began readying to make like the transformers and covert
from barge to sailboat. We reattached
the mast head instruments and light, stripped of the protective fenders of the
mast head (came in handy a couple of times as we bounced of the odd lock wall)
and removed all straps, bungee cords etc.
The final boat of the day was a 49’ who had made no preparations at
all. Sean, owner of the marina, and his
crews did everything for them, a bent pin held up the operation and our pair of
locktites resolved the problem. However,
there was no time left for us. Boo hoo,
we would just have to stay the night. We
opened pops and met some of the locals, including John and Bob, power boaters –
some of “them” are great guys. Bob,
owner of “Bob’s Boat” (handy name I think when trying to remember where you
live late at night!) told us his story of the past 5 years since the recession
and his determination & whatever-it-takes attitude has floated his boat
since.
Early the next morning we were
ready to go but that 49’ was having a bit of a lie-in. I moved us out into the Creek and started
wheeling around and back and forth and finally the mast slip was vacated. 20 minutes later we had the pole pointed the
right way, easiest lift I’ve ever done – just had to stay clear of Sean and his
crew! They waited for me to do the mast
connections (electrical, VHF and radar taped and Vulcan taped water tight and
to pack the duck seal around the wiring as they go through the mast step – we
are a deck stepped mast as opposed to keel-stepped.) I had some lubricating yacht grease the guys
put over the swaged ends of the stays so the turnbuckles would not corrode onto
the swaged ends – the stuff stunk and the guys agreed it was great stuff! Saltwater corrosion abounds. I have rebedded everything that goes into
metal, all bolts and screws attaching to the mast, to the spreaders,
shaft/coupling etc with non-drying grease, lock-tite, silicone, anti-seize etc
depending on the job. Hopefully these
efforts will allow me to take apart everything as and when I need to, otherwise
it’s cutters, sawzall and cutoff disks!
Back into our slip, and we got
the boat rigged: boom up, running
rigging in place, downhaul, boomvang, sails on, lazy jacks onto StakPak and
topping lifts out to the ends of the davits on the arch. Dean came over and lent me his tensioning
gauge which saved me at least an hour in tuning the rig. I’ve never used one before so he went over it
with me. Hans at HYC had also loaned me
his this past summer but by that time I was a couple of weeks from dropping the
mast so I did the cruiser thing – put it off.
Well, no time to waste now so the gauge was much appreciated. It also told me that I’ve been
under-tensioning the rig, but not by much.
Later, we would be glad of the proper tension we had. If you don’t overnight, they allow you still
a slip to do prep and post work which makes for a really nice spot to turn back
into a sailboat (or barge if going the other way.) We stayed the night, enjoyed the food (Sean
is also a trained chef), enjoyed the company, the showers, watered up, dieseled
up and left fully charged up, crew and house bank!
Archie Jiggles, a scurvy survivor from the Black Pearl we think, joined us earlier this summer after washing up on the beach at Hawkestone Y.C.. Sandy at the club rescued him and decided he'd fit in well with the crew on Kind of Magic! She named him and propped him up on the anchor (likely after reviving him with some rum!) He first was strapped to our mast and then took his honoured place as look-out on the port spreader. He now is at his post keeping a keen lookout for freighters, crabpots, coral heads and especially suitable happy hour venues. Our crew now numbers four (AJ, Otto, Edi and Blair.)
Archie Jiggles, a scurvy survivor from the Black Pearl we think, joined us earlier this summer after washing up on the beach at Hawkestone Y.C.. Sandy at the club rescued him and decided he'd fit in well with the crew on Kind of Magic! She named him and propped him up on the anchor (likely after reviving him with some rum!) He first was strapped to our mast and then took his honoured place as look-out on the port spreader. He now is at his post keeping a keen lookout for freighters, crabpots, coral heads and especially suitable happy hour venues. Our crew now numbers four (AJ, Otto, Edi and Blair.)
Hop-O-Nose is at the top end of
the Catskill (it’s a very short creek) with lots of water under. Sean charges $4 per foot and he and his 2
guys expertly do the job. There is no
rocking like on the Hudson and so, $160 for our mast & $36 for the
slip. Oh, I might mention Sean is
storing our mast supports (which I’ve covered with “Kind of Magic”) INDOORS at
no extra cost and assures us it will be there for several years minimum. Dean says his wood is there still after 7
years. That is worth the price almost by
itself. However, we had miles to do, so,
late afternoon we were off, waving goodbye to Sean and Dean as he worked on his
boat-job on dec. We’ll be happy to
recommend Hop-O-Nose and will be back, one day.
But now it’s off to Turtle Cove just a few miles south, an anchorage
tipped to us by Dean. We dropped anchor
and marvelled at the space we had since putting everything where it should
go. We also sighed relief at the trim of
Kind of Magic now that the mast was counter-balancing the keel and we were not
so much the weebil that wobbles but won’t fall down! We still wobble but mostly just after sun-downers
now.
The next day it was south as the
River flows, little traffic but some sizeable barges with the tugs. These things are like the transport trucks of
the water. 90-130’ tugs, 30’ wide strapped
to the back of 400’ barges that are 100’ wide and push them along. Most are silent but one, the Huron Service,
hailed us, seeing our AIS signature on his display. He asked permission to pass us to port. Hmmm, let me think. Sure Captain, anywhere you want to go and
thanks for letting me know so I can run, run away! He actually thanked me and wished us a good
day’s sail. Wish they all did that (let
us know where not to be!)
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| Louis XIV's summer house? |
We approached West Point and saw the cadets all over the place – it was later afternoon and they were a football practice, Frisbee, soccer, skulling in the river, jogging etc. We read “BEAT AIRFORCE” lettered out in banners on a roof so I guess a big game was coming. We are hoping to see Navy at Annapolis playing Army or Navy, but the tickets are hard to get (and expensive.) This part of the river is exquisite and we had room to let the sails fly and turn of the motor. Yeehaa! Finally after 53NM and 10 hours we slipped into Haverstraw Bay and made our way around the 25-30 sailboats out racing. Several of the boats came by to check us out after and greetings and waves were exchanged. We set in for the night and had bucket showers on deck. Yuck, the water tasted terrible, make sure you don’t get any in your mouth – OH, IT’S SALTWATER!!! Well now, Kind of Magic has been a saltwater boat since hitting tidal Hudson!! We called into Customs and Border Protection our location and intentions for NYC then it was sundowners, steaks on the BBQ and SLEEP.
We stayed the whole next day and
night in Haverstraw Bay and squared Magic away.
20 ratching straps rolled and stored, ropes coiled and set away, all the
tools sorted and packed away, shackles and blocks excess to the rigging put
away. S/S rings on the stays and
turnbuckles and taped, cotterpins checked and taped, Cunningham reef in place,
lazy jacks adjusted, running lights switched from deck to mast head, preventers
made and placed ready for running down wind.
Edi washed and scrubbed the decks, plunger and wringer out and laudry
done, and Magic was squared away Bristol fashion and ready for the Big Apple. We cleaned up not too badly either.
September 6 and we were off and
running, passing under the Tappen Zed Bridge (sorry, my Canadian accent Eh,
it’s Tappen Zee to the American cuzins) that we had been looking at from
Haverstraw Bay. We were approached by a
Sheriff’s boat who hailed us, asked us for our Cruising Licence No. and
confirmed that we were checking in as required.
2 minutes later, after they posed for a pic by Edi, we waved bye,
telling each other to have a great day and we past under the Bridge. I guess the Tappen Zee bridge is a security
check point for NYC.
Next up was the George Washington Bridge and with Otto at the helm, we took pics up at the bow (that’s it just behind us.) We saw Harlem’s church steeples and the skyscrapers started getting higher and higher as we got lower and lower. The river traffic picks up and up, fire boats, ferries, cruise liners, helicopters, etc and all of a sudden we were passing the mooring balls at the 79th Street Boat Basin doing 8.3 knots – that is some fierce ebb tide.
NEW YORK CITY!!!
82 locks, 238 litres diesel, 24 days
582.5 NM / 1183 kilometers
B&E - Fins Up! September 7, 2013
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