This was a fairly short day of travel, but the weather was deteriorating with rain forecast for the afternoon. So we got an early start and were ready at the first lock exactly at 7am. We had five locks to negotiate over 42 nautical miles. This part of the canal really started to look more like a canal, with several stretches being straight and narrow. We passed several dredging crews as well as a clean up crew removing debris from the…
Today was another fine day going through locks on the Erie Canal. Our destination was Little Falls, NY. They have a nice dock in the city that is pretty inexpensive and had showers and laundry facilities. There was also a good pizza restaurant. Thanks to Melissa for the camera work and for not falling overboard during the making of this video!
We awoke to a beautiful Saturday morning. As it turned out, we were the only boat in the chamber in every lock for the whole day! This made it easy since we didn’t have to worry about hitting other boats! This couldn’t have been a more beautiful day. The temperatures in the mid 70s, clear blue sky, and just a light breeze. The waters were great as well. The first five locks were one right after the other. After calling…
Most of the boats who were doing the great loop at Shady Harbor were there because of a Pig roast event that was scheduled for the weekend. We did not plan to stay for the pig roast but instead were planning to continue north. So at around 7am we headed onto the Hudson River for one last day of easy river cruising. Today took us through the cities of Albany and Troy. The river is pretty narrow through here so…
We waited until after noon to leave Kingston in order to take advantage of the current. The trip would only take about 4 hours, which gave us plenty of time to arrive before Shady Harbor Marina closed for the day. Not much to say about today except that we ate at a great restaurant at the marina overlooking the Hudson River.
We floated north at a leisurely pace and enjoyed the many sights on the Hudson River in this area. Our destination was Rondout Yacht Basin which was a quiet and secluded marina across the creek from Kingston.
The Hudson River has quite a strong current, so it is important to time your trip so you are traveling with the current instead of against it. So we departed our slip at Liberty Landing at about 9am. Once again we were dodging ferries, but they were soon behind us as we traveled past the George Washington Bridge and up the State of New York. We were only going about 30 miles so we arrived at Half Moon Bay around…
Our trip into New York Harbor was exciting and a little stressful. We departed Manasquan Inlet while the air was a bit hazy, hoping the light fog would burn off as we got closer to the city. We went out of the inlet and into the Atlantic about 2 miles and then headed north along the coast. The water was very calm and the wind was light. This is good for a smooth ride but means that the haze wasn’t…
We started the day early. I was unsure weather to go the inside route or brave the outside. Several boats were leaving the same time and were planning the outside route. As we were starting to leave we met a Texas boater who had done the loop twice before. He had a larger boat and said he was going inside. So we followed him out of the marina and along the NJ ICW. It wasn’t more than a half hour…
Our trip this day was to take us along the New Jersey ICW. This route is known to be shallow in places so it is not the popular route. We left Cape May late in the morning to time our trip with the rising tide. This gave us the chance to eat a pancake breakfast at the local diner and take another walk through town before casting off at around 1pm. Leaving on a rising tide meant that if we…