Hudson River Trip - Day 4

So I ended yesterday's post listing all the options for continuing our journey... which did we choose?

We woke up on Tuesday, July 5 to a beautiful day, took things leisurely in the morning and walked to The Brownstone Diner and Pancake Factory for breakfast again.  We did a little cleaning and as Noon checkout approached, we agreed that as we left the Morris Canal, we'd look left (up the Hudson) and right (down towards NY Harbor) and turn whichever way looked most inviting.

The water was smooth!  We so sorry to all our guests from the past two days who had to endure all the choppiness of the NY Harbor.  Today both directions looked wonderful, so we turned left and headed up the Hudson.

Note:  We did decide that we're not going to try and head all the way up to Kingston, NY as we had been.   We're going up one day, then coming back.  It is clear I underestimated the currents in my planning and it looks right now that we're going to see some rougher weather over the weekend.  We don't want to be unloading a whole week's worth of stuff in high winds again.

As the Statue of Liberty receded behind us, we began to see all the NYC landmarks - both on land and on water.  At first we made relatively good speed 4.5 kts and I thought some of the slow speed was lost to fighting the chop.  Later (and for most of the day) we slowed down to the 3.5 or so (sometimes even 3 kts) that we've come to experience with the Hudson current during this time of spring tides.

The weather was a partly sunny type of day... some of the clouds were dark, but it was a very pleasant day overall.

As we got up past the Empire State Building, towards the Intrepid, we began to see some of the wonderful new architecture cropping up on the NYC skyline

Passing the 79th street boat basin (where part of "You've Got Mail" was filmed).

I took this photo because I finally got the concept of "hull speed" and how you can get trapped in the bow wave depending on the size of your boat - this guy had no problem.

Riverside Church and Grant's tomb.

There were only a few other pleasure boats out and about.  We made good time and reached the GWB in approximately 3 hours.

Soon we reached The Cloisters and the northern part of Manhattan Island.

This is just a contact sign for a dine and dock restaurant near the Cloisters.

This bridge marks the northern edge of Manhattan (on the right).  Across the Manhattan River to the left is The Bronx.

Around this point, the western bank was the magnificent Palisades, these continued up all the way to the Tappan Zee.  I realized what a true gift it was of the Rockefellers to purchase this and donate it to keep this beauty intact.

As we went north, I wasn't as familiar with all the names of the landmarks, but the trip was beautiful. Motoring along at a peaceful 3.5 knots, while not making great time, is a nice way to spend a day.

We started seeing the Tappan Zee Bridge shortly after passing Manhattan.  As it got closer and closer, we started worrying about where to stay.  Many of the Hudson River Association clubs didn't answer or had too shallow water for us to stay.  Finally, just as we were crossing under the bridge, we contacted the Nyack Boat Club and they welcomed us!

The Tappan Zee is a wonderful widening of the Hudson... Tarrytown is on the eastern bank and Nyack on the western bank.  We turned towards Nyack and Vicky went forward to get ready to pick up a mooring.  This was our first time having to "fish" for the mooring... she got it on the first try!

We took a few photos of our surroundings before catching their launch for some showers.  The Nyack Boat Club is a wonderful location and they had nice facilities.

But we wanted to get back and try out our galley.  We do so much day sailing and "restaurant cruising" that don't frequently get to cook onboard.  I made a nice spread of reheated leftover pizza and smoked sausage, accompanied by some horseradish cheddar, tomatoes and of course - boxed wine!

As nightfall came, Vicky had to take a work related call.  She did that with a view of Nyack and the anchorage on the right and the bridge and Tarrytown on the left.

I worked on my photos and blog until the flies (terrible here) got too much to handle, then we turned in.

It was incredible going through the Hudson... all the history I've read about over the years, thinking of Ichabod Crane, our revolutionary ancestors trying a chain across the Hudson, Henry Hudson himself exploring and discovering the Tappan Zee.  It was quite a day.  We also had seven hours of basically calm motoring.  Otto behaved wonderfully once we had him steer to a heading rather than try and plot a course.  Only the occasional bow wave from a passing ship interrupted the beauty.