Tonight finds us tied to the dock at the Steel House Restaurant in Kingston NY.
Tuesday we left New York City shortly after sunrise. The big weather system that had been forecast to hit was supposed to start depositing rain early in the afternoon, and we wanted to be safely at anchor in Haverstraw by then.
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| Overcast NYC |
Getting through the upper New York harbour was as challenging as it had been in the fall on our trip south. Water taxis and ferries went zipping by in every direction, undoubtedly transporting morning commuters to their jobs.
We breathed a sigh of relief as we passed under the George Washington Bridge and left most of the crazy behind us. The rest of the morning went without incident, and by 1115 we were in Haverstraw Bay dropping our anchor just north of Croton Point near Croton-On-Hudson NY. We had originally planned to go back to Haverstraw Cove, where we had anchored in the fall, but with the winds forecasted to be out of the east and very strong we decided the shelter of the hills on the eastern shore of the bay would prove beneficial.
The rain came later than was forecast, but by supper time on Tuesday it was lightly raining, and it would continue to rain until early this morning. We heard of a number of flood warnings being issued, and even some road closures due to mudslides.
We spent yesterday cuddled up inside the boat, snug and dry, while the heavens deposited many inches of rain. We spent the day reading, playing on the computers, or watching movies.
The rain finally stopped early this morning, but it took until around noon before the fog lifted sufficiently so we could continue travelling up the river. Once the fog burned off we were left with a sunny, and quite warm day.
One thing that was probably exacerbated by the rains was the debris in the river. Branches, logs, and even a couple trees floated by as we travelled. We had to actively dodge a number of objects in the water.
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| Lots of debris in the river |
Our destination for the day was going to be the Mariners on the Hudson restaurant in Poughkeepsie, where we stayed in the fall on our way south. They have a floating dock which you can stay at for free if you dine in their restaurant. This system is known as 'Dock and Dine', and is something that we like. Not only can you get an inexpensive dock to spend the night on (we're cheap when we eat out :-)), but you get a nice meal without any of the work.
We got to Poughkeepsie by 1630, but as we approached the restaurant we found that they didn't have their docks in yet. Disappointed, we turned back up the river and continued on to our plan B. We had spotted an anchorage behind Esopus Island, about 6 miles north of Poughkeepsie, but when we went in to check it out we found it was much deeper than we wanted to anchor in. The shallowest spot we could find without going too close to shore was about 50' deep. We carry about 250' of chain and nylon rode, so this would require us to have pretty much all of our rode out to achieve a reasonable scope. We weren't too happy with that idea, and we had some doubts about the composition of the bottom and it's holding ability, so we decided to pass on the anchorage and continue on.
I quickly scanned the Active Captain info for the nearby area and found that there were two restaurants in Kingston NY that did 'Dock and Dine'. We decided we'd give one or the other of these a try and continued up the river to Kingston.
We made the turn off the Hudson and into Rondout Creek around 1830. As we headed into Kingston we started scanning the buildings on the shore of the creek looking for the two restaurants. We finally spotted the Steel House and their dock, and by 1850 we were in and tied up.
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| Tonight's 'Dock and Dine' location |
After getting the boat buttoned up we headed up to the restaurant, taking a seat on their outdoor patio right in front of our boat. After a nice meal we retired to the boat to watch a bit of TV before bed.
Tomorrow morning we'll head out early and will complete our passage up the Hudson. By tomorrow afternoon we should be back in Waterford, and tied up to the dock at the visitor center, where we'll await the opening of the Erie Canal. It had been originally scheduled to open on Saturday, the 3rd of May, but due to all of the rain dumped over the last two days, the opening of the canal has been delayed until Monday, the 5th of May. Rob and Serena from S/V Vita are already there, so we'll probably be buddy boating with them up the Erie back to Lake Ontario.
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