10-24,25,26 Norfolk, VA

The boat is in Norfolk, VA with Kyle.  Jim and I both flew home until next week, the official end of hurricane season (per my boat insurance company).  We can not leave the coast or go further South until Nov. 2.  I will probably have one or two more posts before we head for St. Thomas.  This is our time to rest and relax before the longest leg of our trip, about 1500 miles.

10-21, 10-22, and 10-23-10, Norfolk, VA

Saturday, October 23, 2010

We left the Weehawken Lincoln Marina at about 8:30 AM on the 21st (Thursday) and sailed past Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.  The winds were predicted to be out of the WNW at 10 to 25 knots.  That is a little on the high side, but a perfect wind direction.  The predictions were right on the money. We made it to Norfolk and into our slip by 7:30 AM on Saturday, the 23rd.  The weather was great on the off shore trip.

Lady Liberty standing on our boom holding onto the side stay

She decide to sump ship

The barges in New York Harbor

On the Atlantic at last

Sunset on the shoreline

One of the two birds that we provided a resting perch for

Jim hard at work cleaning the boat

                              
     A navy ship across the creek from us

10-20-10, Weehawken, NJ

A view of the city from the Marina

Time Square

Today we took a bus to New York City.  We visited Times Square, Central Park, and other points of interest.  Tomorrow we will leave for Virginia.

A chocolate lovers paradise.

                        Kyle providing the Central Park slack-line entertainment

                                                  Central Park

 

10-19-10, Weehawken, NJ (across the river from NYCity)

We made it almost to the end of the Hudson River today.  We docked at Lincoln Harbor Yacht Club across the river from New York City.  We had to motor all day since the wind was light and on our nose.  The scenery today was awesome.  The river was 150 feet deep in several places.  There are a lot of huge cliffs along the river.  There is a current in the Hudson River that was between 0.3-2.0 knots against us when the tide was ebbing and the same amount increasing our speed over ground when it was flowing.  The evening skyline of NY City from our marina is quite a sight. 

                                                        West Point

Some of the cliffs

A tug we passed that was pushing 11 barges.

The view from our boat in the Marina

10-18-10, Newburgh, NY

We left Catskill at about 7:30AM with our mast up and there was no wind.  We motored most of the way to Newburgh, NY.  We had the sails up for a short time.  There were a lot of huge houses we saw along the way.  When we pulled into the Marina in Newburgh, we were the only boat in the Marina.  They had to turn the water back on for us.  After we got the boat tied off and before we left the boat, a rat was eating sea gull crap off the dock next to us.  We probably should have left at that time, but stayed.  Tomorrow we will determine if we made a mistake or not. 

                               As we started the day on the Hudson.

A light house on the river

More fall colors

One of the huge houses on the river

SUNDANCE in the empty marina

Jim talking to one of the locals

10-17-10, Catskill, NY (on the Hudson River)

We started the day with a very light fog and no wind.  A perfect day to put the mast up.  We were second in line to get our mast put up at Hop-O-Nose Marina.  The mast went up without any problems and we spent the rest of the day working on installing the boom, radar, bimini, boom vang, sails, mast instrument connections, sheets and tensioning the rigging properly.  We got it all done by about 3:00PM.  Most of our sailing partners from Oswego were there also.  There are no more low bridges South of here so tomorrow a sailing we will go, wind permitting.

                    Us at 36 feet, rafted up between a 51 footer and 44 footer

Early morning fog at the marina

10-16-10, Catskill, NY

Today was a nice day, but windy.  We traveled down the Hudson River from Troy to Catskill, NY.  When we got to Hop-O-Nose Marina, there was no space to tie-up.  A 51 foot boat invited us to raft up to them, so we did.  "Saber Tooth" (one of the Canadian boats that we have been traveling with) then rafted up with us.  We are scheduled to get the mast put back up tomorrow.  We will be the third ones to get our mast up tomorrow.  The wind was really blowing today out on the river.  It was out of the North, so it helped push us along.  The current at troy was 2 knots going South.  Most of the time it was less than a knot.  We got to the marina at about 2:00 PM.  One of Kyles friends stopped by yesterday.  I think they enjoyed the bars in Troy.  Kyle slept most of the way to Catskill.

                                      Some of the Hudson River scenery

10-15-10, Troy, NY

Today was a rainy cool day on the Erie Canal.  We made it through the rest of the locks on the Erie Canal and the Federal Lock on the Hudson River.  That was the last lock we needed to pass through.  We left this morning at about 7:00AM and arrived in Troy at about 5:00 PM.  About the only boats we saw moving today were the 4 sailboats that we have been locking through with from Oswego.
                                 The NY version of a house on the Rock

A small falls on the canal

The fall colors

A nice cozy little house on the hill.

A small falls on the Erie Canal

10-14-10, Fonda, NY

Al the sailboats at lock 19 that were there all night were ready to go at 7:00AM when the locks opened.  The lockmaster was there, but I think he had to have his breakfast first.  He opened the lock at about 8:00AM.  We still made good progress today.  We made it past lock 13 and half way to lock 12.  We stopped at a wall used for maintenance equipment on the locks.  It was in a small town of Fonda, NY.  Nobody was in the office.  There were keys on the office porch that opened a side gate.  The rest of the facility was fensed in.   We were the only ones on the wall.

                                      This is where we started our day.

The fleet of sailboats that we locked through with all day.

The tallest lock on the Erie Canal, 40 ft.

A guillotine door, the only one we encountered

The fall colors.  It looked much better in real life.

10-13-10, Lock 19 Wall, Close to Frankfort, NY

We woke to a very cold, frosty, foggy morning.  The fog cleared by 8:15AM and we headed across Lake Oneida.  There was very little wind, so that was good, since we have the mast down.  We saw one sailboat, in the canal at the end of Lake Oneida that had run aground. There was a little marina that he was probably heading toward that was not deep enough for a boat with a keel.  A power boat was there to pull him out as we passed.  We stopped at lock #19.  We got there at about 6:00 PM.  The locks close at 5:00 PM.  There were 3 other sailboats there.  We had no shore power.  Jim made a camp fire in a grill and Kyle did some slack-lining between two pine trees.  We will be one of the first boats to go through lock 19 tomorrow.

A view to the end of the dock and across the canal, in the early morning.

From our dock to across the canal as the fog was breaking up.

                                              Going down the canal.

On the wall at lock 19 with our friends from Oswego.

10/12/10, Brewerton, NY

We made it out of Oswego, our temporary home town.  The locks opened this morning at 7:00 AM and we were waiting at the first lock at 8:00, along with another sailboat and three power boats.  We made it through all the Oswego locks (1-8) and one lock on the Erie Canal (lock 23).  We are now at the entrance to Lake Oneida.  The trip on the canals only had us bucking 1.5 knots of current in the narrow spots.  It was a very colorful trip, with the leaves changing.  There were some tree branches floating in the river that we had to watch out for.  A few of the buoys were covered in weeds and almost completely submerged.  It was a cool and partially sunny day. 


                                              Our first Oswego Lock

After being raised up in the first lock

One of the other Oswego locks

                                   It felt good to be under way again.

Fall colors on the Oswego River