Waterford, NY

The day started out with big clouds, high winds & light rain. That quickly passed, the wind died, the sun came out & it was hot, hot hot! Lot's of floating debris in the water, and the logs are getting bigger. We were working against the current again, and only able to travel at 7.5 mph. That makes for a very long day! Went through the lock at Troy. When we got to Waterford, it looked like there was no room left to park. Al found a spot that was just big enough for our boat. Other people on the dock couldn't believe someone was trying to put a boat in such a small spot & had to come down the dock to watch.  Al parked perfectly with an audience. Everyone else said that they wouldn't have tried to park in that spot. There are 13 boats here & 6 are Mainships. We plan to go into town for dinner. Later tonight we'll put our new washing machine to the test.

Tomorrow we'll start the Erie Canal.

Rip Van Winkle Bridge

Athens-Hudson Lighthouse

Hooper gets a pit stop

Albany

Troy Lock

Lock #1 on Erie

Original Erie Lock

Kingston, NY

It was a beautiful day on the water. It was sunny, hot, and warm. It hit 89 degrees today. It was almost too hot, so I had to hose down Hooper to keep him cool. We were against the tide all morning, so we were only traveling at 8 mph. There was a lot of small logs & debris in the water. We went past Bear Mountain, West Point & CIA (Culinary Institute of America). By West Point the river is at it's narrowest at 1,400 ft. wide and deepest at 200 ft. We ended up at Kingston, NY and went all the way up Rondout Creek to the spillway. We tied up to an old abandoned bridge abutment. In 1828 there was a canal here that went all the way to Pennsylvania. Coal & bluestone were freighted in here via barge.

Tomorrow we hope to go to Waterford, NY.

Bear Mountain Bridge

West Point

Mountains

Castle ruins on Pollepel's Island

Traffic on the Hudson

Esopus Meadows Lighthouse   built in 1872

Rondout Lighthouse    built in 1913

Entering Rondout Creek

Tied up to old bridge abutment

Spillway

Swimming hole

NYC & Hudson River

Today is our 17th wedding anniversary. We celebrated by leaving the comforts of home to live on our boat for the next 6 months. We left early in the morning at dead low tide. We picked the right day to leave as the ocean was extremely calm. We saw lots of dolphin looking for fish off of Long Beach. We had planned to stop at Al's old work place, LRS (launch repair shop), on Randall's Island, but it was so nice we decided to keep going. The current was working with us, which is rare, so we were able to travel at 11 mph all day. We ended up at Half Moon Bay Marina at Croton-on-Hudson, NY. We're surrounded by mountains. It's so hot here we decided to put the dinghy in the water & go to the nearby beach to cool-off. It's weird being in fresh water. Tomorrow we plan on going to Kingston.

Leaving Massapequa at sunrise 

                 

Verrazano Bridge

Statue of Liberty

NYC

Little Red Lighthouse

Palisades

Sunset