August 30, 2015  Day 71 New York Summer 2015

Veazey Cove, Bohemia River
Maryland

We had a leisurely morning at Penn’s Landing and enjoyed the waffles Joyce prepared for breakfast.  We left Philadelphia around 9:15 and headed back down the Delaware River to Delaware City.  We arrived there after 2pm and pulled up to the fuel dock so Donna and Amado could get off the boat and retrieve their car.  We also pumped out the holding tank while were there.  It is always hard to say goodbye to friends, and we do hope they will travel with us again!

We were on our way again to find an anchorage. We entered the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal and tried to anchor at Chesapeake City. After three tries, we were not happy with the way the anchor was holding, so we left there and continued another hour to the Bohemia River.  We chose a cove called Veazey Cove that had protection from the south, and anchored for the night!

Since it was already 6:45 pm, we immediately turned on the grill to fix hamburgers for dinner.  We were tired from our long day and glad to be here.  We will probably spend more than one night here.

(We will post pictures of our weeknd soon!)

 

August 29, 2015  Day 70 New York Summer 2015

Penn’s Landing Marina
Philadelphia, PA

We were up early doing last minute preparations for our friends visit.  Joyce returned the rental car while Bill cleaned the outside of the boat.

Ft. Delaware on Pea Patch Island

Donna and Amado arrived at 1015 with their wonderful golden retriever, Baloo. They have traveled with us before and Baloo seemed to remember!

We were soon on our way to Philadelphia and enjoyed our four hour cruise.  We arrived at Penn’s Landing at 3pm and got settled in.  After docktails in the late afternoon, we walked to Farmacia, a nice restaurant that included outdoor seating.  This allowed us to take Baloo with us and also enjoy dinner off the boat!  We took a longer walk on the way back and enjoyed the architecture of some of the historic buildings. 

Enjoying dinner with Donna & Amado in Philadelphia

We had a very nice evening until some horrendous rap music started blaring near the marina and lasted until after 2am.  That made for an uncomfortable night sleeping!!

 



Having fun at dinner



Baloo was comfortable on the boat!

August 28, 2015  Day 69 New York Summer 2015

Delaware City Marina
Delaware City, DE

We got a very early start (0615) leaving Cape May for Delaware City, and it made a big difference. We were able to have the current with us the entire way. We did have 2 to 2 ½ foot waves for a while but nothing uncomfortable.  There were several tows with barges or tankers that we had to watch out for, but all in all, an uneventful ride.

After we got checked in at the marina at 1215, we picked up a rental car and ran several errands to provision the boat and pick up prescriptions.

In the meantime we had been on the phone with Donna and Amado, our friends from northern Virginia, trying to figure out a good time for them to spend the weekend with us.  Long story short, we all agreed that this weekend would work!

We got everything ready for their Saturday arrival. We were also able to make reservations to dock in Philadelphia on Saturday night.

 

August 27, 2015  Day 68 New York Summer 2015

Utsch’s Marina
Cape May, NJ

Before departing the Golden Nugget Marina, we stopped at the fuel dock to empty our holding tank. Then we ventured back out into the Atlantic Ocean and headed south towards Cape May. We had another great day on the water with calm seas.  Again we are glad we waited so long last week for this to happen. 

We arrived in Cape May at 1:45 and got tied up in our slip.  We spent a quiet afternoon just relaxing. Bill took a nap and Joyce read a book!

We walked to the nearest restaurant, The Lobster House, for a seafood dinner.  This must be the height of tourist season because we had to wait thirty minutes for a table.  We had not eaten out in a while so it was a nice change!

We will leave at sunrise tomorrow to go to Delaware City, DE. The current will be against us so our 56 mile day will be a longer one.

August 26, 2015  Day 67 New York Summer 2015

Golden Nugget Marina
Atlantic City, NJ

We departed our anchorage at Sandy Hook just after seven o’clock and headed into the Atlantic Ocean for 92 miles to Atlantic City. Waiting a few days paid off and we welcomed the fairly calm seas with just 1-2 footers!  We bumped up our speed to shorten the day and made the trip in 9 1/2 hours.  We used some of our time underway to make contacts for more reservations, rental car, etc.

Most of the boat traffic was local fishermen either heading out to deeper water or casting their lines near our path.  We saw very few cruising boats. We were entertained by a group of dolphins though!

A large group of dolphins had fun diving near us!

We arrived at the Golden Nugget Marina at 4:30. Shortly after we arrived we saw other boats from Williamsburg. They were traveling together to New York from their club at Kingsmill. We spent a quiet evening and had dinner on board.
 

Tomorrow we will go back off shore and travel to Cape May, a shorter distance of 42 miles!



Approaching Atlantic City

August 25, 2015  Day 66 New York Summer 2015

At anchor
Sandy Hook, NJ



Leaving our anchorage behind the Statue of Liberty

Major ship traffic!

We said goodbye to the Statue of Liberty this morning when we left our anchorage at Liberty State Park.  We would usually go out in the Harbor and go under the Verrazano Bridge to the South Bay. However, this time we took a detour and followed the waterway along the western side of Staten Island.  Much of it was industrial and intended for commercial traffic.  Some of it was home to abandoned and derelict boats. All in all it was interesting and of course Bill thought it was fascinating!  We passed towns such as Bayonne, Elizabeth, Woodbridge, Perth Amboy before entering into Raritan Bay and eventually Sandy Hook Bay.

Tug Boat Alley?

We stopped for fuel at Atlantic Highlands Municipal Harbor. At $2.35/gallon we could not pass up the opportunity!  We continued on for another three miles and anchored at Sandy Hook.  We have been here before and knew we would be rocked by the wakes from the large and fast ferry boats, but we decided to tolerate it for one night.

We took time to make phone calls to get reservations or the rest of the week.  Tomorrow we will go to the Golden Nugget Marina in Atlantic City.  We have been waiting for the waves to die down on the Atlantic Ocean and tomorrow looks like a good day to run offshore.

August 24, 2015  Day 65 New York Summer 2015

At anchor, Liberty State Park
Jersey City, NJ



The beautful Palisades line the west side
of the Hudson north of the city

What a good day we have had.  We left Half Moon Bay Marina at 0820 and headed 37 miles south on the Hudson.  We did not have much boat traffic at all until we reached the New York City Harbor area, and even then it was not a problem.

This is our fifth trip through the harbor and we have not found it boring yet.  Seeing the World Trade Center, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, Manhattan, and more is still very impressive from the water. And, all the while, we have many ferry boats, tows with barges, and other pleasure craft wanting their share of the water!  Oh, and we are trying to take pictures as we are cruising through all of this!



The World Trade Center dominates the skyline

Lady Liberty - always a thrill to see her

We are anchored at Liberty State Park, which is right behind the Statue of Liberty. It is amazing to know that every time we look out of the boat, we can see it!  We can also see the World Trade Center from here. We are in a fairly protected basin with land on three sides.  There are three other boars anchored here as well.  We arrived at lunch time and have had a good day just enjoying being here.  The cruise ship, Carnival Splendor passed our anchorage late this afternoon. We saw it earlier today docked at the pier in the city. We will be on that ship in late October on a cruise to Bermuda!

Anchored at Liberty State Park

We will leave in the morning and go to Atlantic Highlands Marina for fuel and then anchor nearby. 

Ellis Island



Carnival Splendor

August 23, 2015  Day 64 New York Summer 2015

Half Moon Bay Marina
Croton-on-Hudson, NY

After spending five nights at anchor in Half Moon Bay, it was time to go to a marina!  We were desperately low on water, and needed to get a few things done that required power. 

Our popular anchorage at Half Moon Bay

Our anchorage was quite the hotspot on Friday and Saturday with many small boats anchored near shore. There were also kayakers, paddle boarders, and jet skis on the scene.  Most of them left before dark and it finally quieted down.

We drove over to the marina this morning– all of a ten minute drive – and went to the pump out station first to empty the holding tank. Then we went to our spot on the dock and got settled in.  We are just staying one day.  We have been here on two other occasions and did not go into town this time.  Joyce did lots of laundry, baked bread, vacuumed, and fixed dinner.  We also relaxed by reading. 

Bill keeps watching the NOAA website and it looks like Wednesday and Thursday will be the best days to go offshore down the New Jersey coast.  We have been waiting for anything less than three foot waves, so we are hopeful!

The view from our dock at Half Moon Bay Marina

We will leave in the morning and cruise just under 40 miles to New York City tomorrow and anchor again.

August 19, 2015  Day 60 New York Summer 2015

At Anchor,  Half Moon Bay
Croton-on-Hudson, NY

We left our anchorage near the Rondout Lighthouse (which marks the entrance of the creek into Kingston) at 0730. We had partly cloudy skies all day but it was fairly calm. We did not see too many boats out today – just a few tows with their barges, and a few pleasure craft boats.



Saying goodbye to the Rondout Light
as we left our anchorage this morning

One of many beautiful homes in the hills along the Hudson



Bannerman Castle

West Point ("Beat Air Force" on the roof -
 it says "Beat Navy" on the other side)

More of the West Point campus

As always, we enjoyed passing West Point and admiring the beautiful architecture and the cliffs that surround it.  Our son-in-law is Army, so we took this one photo for him!

We arrived at our anchorage in Half Moon Bay, which is in Croton-on-Hudson. It is a large anchorage and fairly well protected from the south and east.  There were several boats here when we arrived but by five pm there were just three of us. Many of the smaller boats were just here for the afternoon. 

We have been studying the Atlantic Coast forecast for the weekend, especially the wave heights. The forecast is for three footers, but we have learned that is usually underestimated.  We are located about 30 miles north of New York City, so rather than get farther south, we have decided to stay here for three days at anchor and see what happens. 

Our anchorage at Half Moon Bay

We had chicken on the grill, and fresh corn on the cob for dinner.  We are just relaxing for the evening!

August 18, 2015  Day 59 New York Summer 2015

At Anchor, south of Rondout Creek
Port Ewen, NY



A calm Hudson River this morning

 

The wind started to pick up when we reached our anchorage



Calm as the sun was setting

We got a rather slow start his morning as we did not leave Albany until 0920.  We had the current with us most of the day, sunny sky, little boat traffic, and a light breeze.  That is until we were almost at our anchorage and the wind picked up, thunder and lightning were nearby and storm clouds could be seen in three directions.  We went ahead and anchored anyway and just waited. We were happy we dodged a bullet when it never reached us!

We had a light dinner onboard and are planning our next stop – another anchorage at Haverstraw.  It has been an interesting day of seeing everything we passed on the way north.  We are getting very familiar with this river!  We also traveled the Hudson in 2012 on the Great Loop and in 2013 on the Down East Loop.

August 17, 2015  Day 58 New York Summer 2015

Albany Yacht Club
Albany, NY

In preparing to leave this morning, Bill first washed the decks of the boat.  Then we drove to the pump out station and emptied the holding tank. At 10:00 this morning we said goodbye to the Erie Canal and Waterford as we entered the Hudson River.  Twenty minutes later we entered the last lock of the season.  This is the Federal Lock at Troy, NY.  We had a perfect transit of this lock – not a bad way to go through the last one!  This was our 60^th lock this summer!

We arrived in Albany and docked at the Albany Yacht Club at 11:40. This was a very short trip today!  We got checked in and then took a cab to Walmart.  We had to pick up prescriptions and get a few more provisions.  Another cab ride back to the boat, and we were set for the day.

We had dinner on board, watched TV, and read this evening. We are not sure how far we will go tomorrow but will definitely look for an anchorage along the Hudson.

August 15-16, 2015  Days 56-57 New York Summer 2015

Waterford Harbor Visitors Center
Waterford, NY

This is our last night in Waterford as we plan to move on to Albany in the morning. We had a fun day today with a visit from Looper friends Rick and Margi.  They were in New York visiting family, and when they realized we were still in Waterford they drove over for a visit this morning. The Farmers Market was just getting underway when they arrived so Joyce and Margi browsed all the booths while Bill and Rick sat a nearby table catching up!  We picked up some baked goods and took them back to Carried Away and enjoyed the treats while we continued to visit.  We saw them in May but it seemed like much longer!  We will be in Florida with them this winter and look forward to that as well.

We had dinner on board, finished all the laundry and have spent the evening reading.  Joyce also had a phone call from Janet, another Looper friend tonight.  We hope to see Janet and Bob in November when we head south for the winter.  We cherish the friendships we have made through boating!

August 14, 2015  Day 55 New York Summer 2015

Waterford Harbor Visitors Center
Waterford, NY

Just a short post this evening.  We stayed at Waterford and got a few things done.  Bill made a marathon trip to a local grocery store to restock our empty shelves and refrigerator!  Joyce’s hip is still problematic and she cannot walk that far.  She did get some of the laundry done and took care of correspondence, organizing files, etc.

We planned to grill salmon tonight but the rain storm quickly changed our minds.  We could see the weather on radar but it has lasted much longer than expected.

We have decided to stay here until Monday and then make a short trip to Albany for the night.  We may not post again until then. We are not doing anything exciting – just trying to regroup and relax.

August 12-13, 2015  Days 53-54 New York Summer 2015

Waterford Harbor Visitors Center
Waterford, NY

The past two days have been challenging, but we are happy to say we are at the end of our journey on the canals and are back in Waterford where we began one month ago. We are glad we took this trip all the way to the 1000 Islands. The scenery has been beautiful and peaceful and we have met very nice people!

damage to the bowsprit

We left Canajoharie yesterday morning and traveled 37 miles. This included transiting five locks.  We did ok in the first four locks in spite of having slightly higher winds at 10-15 mph. However we had major problems in the last lock of the day.  The wind pushed the bow of the boat over the sill soon after we got tied up. The lockmaster pushed us back over to make us parallel to the lock and then he walked away. He then began lowering the water level and did not look back to see the process had repeated itself, and by now the bowsprit had lodged itself on the sill as we were being lowered.  It raised the bowsprit and caused a great deal of structural damage to it with large cracks in several places.  We eventually got through the locking process and tied up on a lock wall for the night about four miles farther away (our planned destination).  We have talked with our insurance company and everything will be taken care of – it is just a very frustrating and exhausting experience. We are fortunate that we were not injured in the process!

more damage

Today was our final day of 23 miles and six locks. The wind was lighter and we did fine. We arrived in Waterford and got tied up on their floating dock just before 1:00.  We were exhausted and did not do much of anything after we arrived. The boat needs cleaning and we need to go to a grocery store but that will wait until tomorrow. We even located an Italian restaurant that delivered dinner to us!

Just after sunset - love the clouds reflected on the water -
our view tonight in Waterford

We hope to stay here three days and get reorganized and rejuvenated!

 

August 10-11, 2015  Days 51-52 New York Summer 2015

Canajoharie Free Dock
Canajoharie, NY

We decided to travel a short distance of nine miles yesterday.  We left St. Johnsville just after 0900 and had a calm ride.  We only had to transit two locks and these were easy ones.  We arrived in Canajoharie at 1050 and tied up on the free wall. We chose this location because we were here a few weeks ago and liked the small town. The free dock also has 50 amp power! 

We have stayed here two days.  We had rain much of today and did not want to travel in it.  We are not in a big hurry so we just relaxed on board.  Unfortunately Joyce’s hip is causing her problems and walking into town was not an option.

We will depart in the morning and go as far as we can. 

 

August 9, 2015  Day 50  New York Summer 2015

St. Johnsville Municipal Marina
St. Johnsville, NY

This was another easy day of travel on the Erie Canal.  We only needed to go about eighteen miles and left at 0820 – another calm day and mostly sunny sky.  We had three locks to transit. Lock 17 is the most interesting one at Little Falls. It is a 40.5 foot drop going east, and has a guillotine door. We were the only ones in the lock, having just missed the opening, and had to wait about 40 minutes for it to be ready again.  We shared the final lock of the day with two other very small boats.

An eerie photo of the Erie Canal with these reflections!

Look at the man on the cliff! We think he was
 working on something- at least he was brave.



Carried Away docked in St. Johnsville

We arrived in St. Johnsville at 12:30 and first went to the fuel dock at the marina. The diesel price ($2.43/gal) has been the lowest on this entire trip, so we filled all three tanks.  We are spending the night here in this quiet place. 

Other than the sound of nearby trains, there isn’t much going on. There is a campground attached to the site, and we walked around it this afternoon.  There are a few small boats here at the marina but no transients today, so we feel like we have it to ourselves!

We may stay here again tomorrow but will make that decision in the morning.

August 8, 2015  Day 49  New York Summer 2015

Ilion Village Marina
Ilion, NY

This was one of the quietest days we have had – and we were underway!  We left Sylvan Beach at 0745 and headed east on the Erie Canal.  There was no wind and the water was like glass, providing a mirror image of the trees.  Even though it was a Saturday, there were no boats out! We saw a few small fishing boats, but no one out cruising.  We thought we somehow missed the memo!

We had four locks to transit. We locked up in Locks 22 and 21, and then started locking down in Locks 20 and 19.  Since there was no wind and since we had the locks to ourselves, it could not have been better. 

We left the line of boaters early this morning in Sylvan Beach
as they wait for the festivities of Canal Fest

The Erie Canal was tranquil!

We arrived in Ilion at 1:40 and tied up on the marina’s wall.  Boaters we had met in Phoenix were already here and helped us with our lines. We were happy to be here with full 50 amp power and water!  Ilion is home to the Remington Firearms Museum, but it was too late in the day to have made a worthwhile trip to see it. Remington firearms have been built in Ilion since the early 1800’s.

We got checked in and then stopped at the ice cream shop on site. We had dinner on board and then spent time visiting with Bruce and Jan, the couple we had met in Phoenix, NY earlier in the week. 

We will leave again in the morning and travel to St. Johnsville to a marina. We have a fairly short trip of 18 miles and three locks, and we hope we have an equally good travel day!

August 7, 2015  Day 48  New York Summer 2015

Free City Dock
Sylvan Beach, NY

We stayed here at the dock at Sylvan Beach again today and watched many boaters arrive for the weekend Canal Fest. We also saw many boats just cruising up and down the canal and out into Lake Oneida.

 
Bill attacked the generator problem this morning and replaced the broken impeller.  We now have a functioning generator - a good thing because this free dock has no power!


We went out for lunch at a nearby restaurant on the water, the Canal Café, and had fish & chips. Then we took a walk back into the center of town, which is all of five blocks away,  andpast the amusement park. We walked through the craft fair area and then came back to the boat to relax for the afternoon.

We had dinner on board – steaks on the grill and fresh corn on the cob.  We will leave in the morning and travel to Ilion, NY and stay at a marina.  We have four locks to transit and about 41 miles to cruise. We will miss the main parts of the Canal Fest, but they need our portion of the dock tomorrow to judge the boat parade. 

 

Zoltar was calling out to us but we kept walking!
Where was Tom Hanks??

August 6, 2015  Day 47  New York Summer 2015

Free City Dock
Sylvan Beach, NY

We departed Phoenix at eight this morning and had a very good cruise today. We left the Oswego Canal and entered the Erie Canal and are now heading east! We only had to transit one lock and it was an easy one. 

We stopped at Winter Harbor Marina in Brewerton to empty our holding tank. Then we crossed Lake Oneida which is about 22 miles across. It was calm when we crossed, but we heard afterward there were six foot waves on it yesterday (the wind is one reason we stayed put)!

We arrived at Sylvan Beach about 1:00 and found a spot on the free city wall.  There are many boats here. Sylvan Beach holds its annual Canal Fest this weekend which includes a boat parade, craft show, entertainment, and more.  Being in Sylvan Beach is like a step back to the 50’s with its amusement park (bumper cars, Tilt a Whirl, small roller coaster, arcades), a nice beach area, cottages to rent, a town square, ice cream and pizza places, and a weekly antique car show.

We were grateful to a local boater for catching our lines. We chatted with him later and he came on board to visit for a while.  We also took a walk around this cute little town this afternoon!

We plan to stay here another night and see some of the activities.  Bill also has maintenance to do tomorrow. Our generator stopped working today and after ruling out certain problems he suspects that the impeller needs replacing. Fortunately we have one!

The scenic Erie Canal



Remember this??



The beach at Sylvan Beach