Day 37, Monday, October 5th

Coeymans to Catskill

Track on Viewranger

I had arrived on Sunday afternoon at Albany Airport and had thought of taking the bus to Coeymans. Google maps can show what public transport options exist, cool! I thought. Unfortunately the route exists but is run only on weekdays, and just twice a day. I had to take the taxi after all and got there much faster and poorer (70$).

Caprice was hanging in the crane already, as Eric had promised:

We had been forced to leave the laundry hanging in the boat, since we couldn't finish drying things fully 5.5 weeks ago. I was fearing a mold circus, but was pleasantly surprised - all was well, no mold, no spoiled food (the fridge had worked well through all this time). The only problem was that the bilge pump had been switched off by the yard guys, and my bilge was again totally full. This time it must have come from above, but I really don't know where the leak might be.

I had also planned to clean the ugly diesel soot from the stern but got distracted by my neighbor and when we finished chatting I was ready to start that job. Suddenly somebody climbed up the ladder and said hi - it was Mike from the yard who lives there in a big nice RV. We chatted some more and he gave me some great tips for the route south. By the time we were done it was cold and dark and I thought of cleaning the stern in the morning instead.

The next morning was freezing cold, I could barely get out of bed. After breakfast the guys turned up and put the boat into the water where she promptly touched bottom and wouldn't move. We had to wait another 10 minutes before the tide was at its peak and could move her off. Then I realized that I had forgotten to clean the stern. It will have to wait until I inflate the dinghy I think.

I finally got to fix the wildly dripping (more like streaming) stuffing box with a big pipe wrench and a slip wrench that Mike let me borrow. I said goodbye to Eric, Mike, Hedy and Carl - really nice people!

Carl had told me that it was 28 miles to Catskill, so I called ahead at Riverview and asked for a slip for the night and a mast step the next day. I made good progress by taking off soon after high tide and getting an extra 1.5 knots.

The weather was fine - in fact it was getting so warm that I changed to t-shirt and shorts. Another piece of the Tappan Zee bridge was passing me its way down:

At the town called Hudson I passed the first of a series of pretty light houses 

Did I mention I love bridges? It must be my father's genes, because he's a civil engineer. This bridge is the 'Rip Van Winkle' bridge:

It was only just past 2PM, and to my surprise Catskill was jut around the next bend. Had I known this I'd have asked to have the mast done immediately today. As it was, Mike told me that his helper had already gone home for the day, so I had plenty time to work on other things and take a walk though charming Catskill.

I spent some time cleaning and reconnecting the flexible fresh water tank that I hadn't used for years - when on Lake Michigan I had considered the lake water cleaner than any water that had spent weeks in that old bladder tank. But I'll soon be in salt water if all goes well, and will need that tank. Unfortunately, it turned out that it has a bunch of pinhole leaks at the seam that show up when it's totally full and has high pressure. I'll try to glue it soon. I made friends with a Canadian boat Sante 1: John, Bruce and Marinete (from Brazil). They showed me their beautiful Beneteau 361 - I gotta say that's a very spacious and beautiful boat!

Next door was a Lagoon 38 - the 'smallest' of the Lagoon catamarans - but it's huge. I didn't meet the owners, else I'd have loved to see the inside of that one too. It's part of the fun of cruising - seeing other people's boats.

I walked to town and by the time I got back it was dark and cold already. A salad for dinner and to bed!

Day 38, Tuesday, October 6th

Catskill to Kingston

Track on Viewranger

I wasn't the first in line for the mast this morning, it was my Canadian friends. But I wasn't in a rush after I figured out that my next leg wouldn't be that long today either. When it was my turn everything went smooth. The only problems were that I hadn't realized that some of the clevis pins were a little different from the others, which had me scramble to exchange the pins on the forestay that was already attached with the upper shrouds. After I had fore and backstay, and the two upper shrouds secured Mike took the crane off and let me do the lower spreaders myself, with the result that I put one inside of the lifelines by mistake. However, that wasn't a big problem to solve. I had met another neighbor, John from 'Holly Jean', and he and Bruce helped me to reattach the heavy boom. Finally Caprice was a sailboat again. I didn't want to lose more time to put the sails up yet and departed soon after saying goodbye to my new friends. I hope I see them again on the way.

The weather was even nicer than yesterday, and the tide carried me quickly south, first past the Saugerties light house:

Then under the Kingston-Rhinecliff bridge

All the bridges we went under are huge - the Hudson is wide in most areas, and to keep shipping unmolested, the bridges all have huge vertical clearance.

The entrance to Kingston Harbor is protected by the Rondout light house:

Just south of Kingston is Vanderburgh cove, a wider and shallow area of the Hudson, and this is where I dropped the anchor for the night.