Captain's Choice blog: Going for the Gold - Part 1 and the Hudson River

When we met with Kim Russo, the AGLCA director, back in Charleston I told her we had a dilemma...we have several different spots where we can say we crossed our wake and I wanted to get a feel from her as to what protocol was. She exclaimed "there aren't any looper police, the choice is yours". Mark and I decided we would just celebrate at each spot and we'd know when we wanted to switch the white AGLCA flag for gold.

Getting up at o'dark thirty Thursday morning was a real struggle after the Billy Joel concert Wednesday night. There was rain in the forecast and if we left early we would get a little push from the current as we made our way up the Hudson River. First we had one last thing we needed to accomplish before we left the NYC area...we had to pass in front of the Statue Of Liberty which would give us part 1 to going for the gold. Mark and I brought our 360 Sundancer back on it's own bottom from Connecticut about 9 years ago, so when we passed in front of Lady Liberty the captain and I crossed our wake, thus giving us our gold. We stopped and did a little photo shoot, wishing another boat would pass to help with pictures but we managed to capture the moment by ourselves. Hooray for us, what an adventure!
We had hoped to pass Allison's apartment before she left for work so that she could get another glimpse of Captain's Choice out her window but we didn't make it on time.
Our anchorage for the night was at Haverstraw Cove, 56 miles from Staten Island. We anchored in 18' of water with great wind protection from all directions. After dinner we were delighted to sit and listen to the evening concert coming from Bowline Point Park.

The forecast was for the rain to start during the night and heavy rains to persist in the morning...the weatherman got that one right. We checked the weather when we got up Friday morning, heavy rain until noonish then clearing. The weatherman got it right again and the rain started to subside and there were tiny bits of blue skies peaking through the clouds. Mark's grandmother always said "if there is enough blue in the sky to patch a pair of blue jeans, it's going to be a good day". We really didn't want to travel up the Hudson unless the sun was out, just to beautiful to do in the rain, but since the weathermen were 2 for 2 we picked up anchor and headed up the Hudson. Yay, the sun came out, I had forgotten how truly beautiful the Hudson is. The mountains, trees, rock formations, trains, West Point...all just gorgeous.
We traveled 56 miles to Gumaer Island, an anchorage in Rondout Creek, Kingston. The creek is a little narrow so we put a bow and stern anchor out in 18' of water. A great anchorage offering protection from all wind directions and very quiet, we even saw deer on the island.

We headed 43 miles to Shady Harbor Marina in New Baltimore Saturday. We were watching the radar carefully, the skies were not looking very inviting and my phone showed we would make it without getting wet, the radar said we would not. The radar won....the skies opened up and it was raining sideways for about 20 minutes. Luckily it stopped when we got to the marina and didn't start up again until after we were all set at the dock. The amount of rain north of NYC has been terrible and has caused the Erie, Oswego and Champlain canals to close on and off. Although the scenery is just gorgeous the water color is mud brown, with a lot of debris floating in it.
When we were at GKYC they did not have a laundry room and the grocery stores were more like Italian deli's so we decided to stay at Shady Harbor for 2 nights allowing us to re-provision and get 2 weeks worth of laundry done. It also allowed us time to sit by their pool on Sunday as the skies were partly cloudy and temps were in the high 70's, my kind of weather! The other thing I love about this marina is being able to watch the freighters and tows and barges go up and down the river.

We finished up the Hudson River on Monday, 25 miles and 1 lock from Shady Harbor Marina to Waterford and the start of the Erie Canal. We are staying on the Waterford dock with 3 other looper boats for possibly two nights depending on the weather...storms forecasted for Tuesday. We took all of our tide charts and had a burning ceremony. Once through the Troy lock, no more tides!