We head up the Hudson River, familiar territory for us, and are reminded once again of the beauty and history in the Valley. Most stops are repeats of previous and Looper standards, but gives us a chance to revisit some favorite places.
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Now that all the open water transits are behind us, the next leg of our Summer of 2024 takes us up the Hudson River. Which means a shift in cruising mindset. While it is a river, it’s a big one and subject to tidal changes, i.e. changing currents. Hard to imagine that a river would change direction twice a day, but it does. For us, this means trying to time transits as best we can so we’re traveling with the current, saving fuel and giving us a push to go a little faster. We can’t always time it perfectly, because there are other things we need to balance, but it’s another factor in our daily route planning.
Another issue in river cruising is deadheads, or large tree branches – or even whole trees – floating along waiting to jump out in front of you. There definitely seems to be some kind of log-to-boat tractor beam. Plus if there have been recent heavy rains there are usually more things floating down river, having been washed off creek banks by the raised water levels. So increased vigilance is necessary.
Having two relaxed days at anchor in Great Kills gave us ample time to adjust our thinking. This was not new territory to us, so we weren’t planning a lot of exploring. Dave had all the routes planned to the start of the Erie Canal, and we had the weather forecast out far enough for a general plan. We were ready to roll.
New York Harbor
Jun 10, 2024
There’s just something about New York City. Even if you’ve never lived there (I haven’t) nor have any desire to do so (I don’t), there’s a certain vibrancy and charisma surrounding it. It’s a cultural hub dating back to the founding of the colonies and our country, and thus there’s just something so…iconic American…about it. And coming through New York Harbor by boat — your own boat – is particularly poignant and moving.
Making the turn from Great Kills on a sunny and clear morning we passed under the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge with the colonial-era Fort Wadsworth and its fortifications tucked into the shadow of the bridge, and we were officially in New York Harbor. Another slight turn to the east, and the Manhattan skyline came into view off our starboard and the Statue of Liberty off our port bows. I have to say Lady Liberty looks kind of small from the water when compared to the towering buildings across the river in the Manhattan Financial District, but it still packs an emotional punch as we passed a few hundred yards away. It’s a little spine tingling to think of what it must have been like to see this same view as one of the many millions of immigrants who made the journey (okay, maybe with fewer skyscrapers) with the hope of a new life in America; she is a most gracious sentry.
The harbor was busy with ferries, commercial vessels, and other boats. Dave didn’t find it at all intimidating, but I would have if I hadn’t been distracted by picture-taking duties. We had arranged the afternoon before with another boat we met in Great Kills to take the traditional Looper pictures of each others’ boats passing by the Statue, so we passed by then circled back so I could take their photo. Dave had the hardest part of dodging all the other traffic, but taking pictures with all the chop and bouncing we were doing from the confusion of all those wakes was not easy. Just know that for the handful of photos that look good, there were dozens of others with a railing in the foreground, or Lady Liberty’s head cut off, etc.
It all took just a few minutes and then we continued on our way up the Hudson. We passed by Lower Manhattan and could see the new World Trade Center proudly and defiantly dominating the skyline. There are so many unique buildings and sights that are appreciated so differently from the water — a mix of old and new, quirky and artistic, grandiose and humble all mixed together. The Intrepid Museum with its namesake aircraft carrier and the USS Growler. The driving range surrounded by huge nets. The sci-fi looking park of elevated pods with cascading plants. The Jersey side is more subdued and functional but still had personality, such as the stand-out Water’s Soul sculpture of a woman’s head with finger to lips.
Continuing along the Upper West Side of Manhattan, the tops of buildings at Columbia University and General Grant’s Mausoleum (of ‘who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb’ fame) peaked out high up on the hill, along with church steeples and bell towers. There were more trees to hide the many old and stately apartment buildings, and we could see the highway hugging the coast heavy with weekday traffic. The Little Red Lighthouse was tucked under the George Washington Bridge, and then we were passing the more vintage-looking Yonkers with remnants of old infrastructure. By the time we got to the new Tappan Zee Bridge, other boats were rare and the river looked more like a river. In fact, from here on it was rather surprising how undeveloped it is along the river – probably because building on rocky palisades is not easy.
Shortly after the notorious Sing-Sing Prison, we pulled into Half Moon Bay Marina in Croton On Hudson. I have to say we were not impressed with Half Moon two years ago, but it was the only place near here that could accommodate us and it was just for the one night; this visit did nothing to change our opinion. Not a bad place, just over-promised, under-delivered, and over-price. It had been a long day of travel, and the only place open on a Monday was an Indian restaurant – and it was really good! After dinner we met a Looper from Minnesota, a West Point ’81 grad.
Marlboro
Jun 11-12
Short trip to Marlboro, so we could afford a later start in order to travel with the current and arrive at slack. It was a nice calm day for travel, and we didn’t see even a single deadhead in our path. We passed West Point towering above the river, looking even more foreboding than usual against the backdrop of the gray sky. We had hoped to actually visit the ruins of Bannerman’s Castle this time, but had to settle for just admiring as we went by; perhaps on the way back south in the fall it will work out for a visit.
Marlboro Yacht Club is in its first year of welcoming Loopers. It is completely member run and there are no paid staff, and when they have a transient coming in they have a team of members waiting to help you dock. We gave them an ETA were greeted by three burly middle-aged guys standing on the dock, two of which took our lines with one hand while holding cigars in the other. The three bantered with each other and chatted with us in classic New York accents. Meanwhile, a fourth gentleman sat silently in the cockpit of his own boat nearby watching everything, cell phone in one hand and cigar in the other. Once the boat was secured, we half-expected him to hold up a card with a score.
Don’t think ‘yacht club’ means fancy or big expensive boats. This was a local club next to railroad tracks, simple but nice facilities that included a pool and clubhouse, and some of the nicest people you could hope to come across. The boats were mostly smaller and a little older, but well cared for. The members haul all the docks out in the fall and put them back in the spring all by themselves, as well as handle repairs and maintenance. The guy who was our contact for booking came down later that day to welcome us, and we gave him a tour of the boat. This is the kind of place we love – great people, unpretentious, and united by a love of boating.
Kingston
Jun 13-16
In the short distance to Kingston we passed by the Culinary Institute of America, the FDR Home and Library, and the Vanderbilt Mansion – all places we had visited two years ago and had no plans to go again. Frequent trains sped past us along the shoreline, freight trains (with lots of Amazon cars) on the west bank and Amtrak on the east. We also passed by two of the iconic Hudson River lighthouses – always a touch of vintage romance to each of them – and eventually turned up Rondout Creek to get to our marina.
We were staying a few days in Kingston for a couple reasons, for once not weather related. One was that we really liked the town when we were here before and wanted to explore it more; it has a very eclectic Uptown area that is fun to wander through. The other was because we were a little ahead of our planned itinerary and needed to slow our roll a little so we could pick up some friends in a week. Kingston is full of Colonial and Revolutionary War history, and in fact has one corner in uptown where all four properties date back to pre-Revolutionary times. One had been turned into a cool bookstore/coffee shop/bar. We took in their large Saturday Farmer’s Market and explored the several blocks of uptown. Another day we took a dinghy ride up Rondout Creek a few miles to the dam.
New Baltimore
Jun 17-18
We could see lots of Looper movement on our tracking app as we departed on a Monday morning. With moderate winds coming from behind us and a following current, we made good time and got great gas mileage the whole way. We passed a couple more Hudson Lighthouses along the way to Donovan’s Shade Harbor Marina. But there’s really nothing there except the marina,but it’s a Looper stalwart stop. They do have a pool, which we partook of one hot afternoon and met a Looper couple who were also retired Navy. The poolside bar made from a shipping container was a popular hangout in the evening – the closest thing to Docktails we had experienced in a while. Once again the extra night stay was just to slow our roll going north. Our big entertainment one morning was watching from the cockpit as a group of resident turtles sunning themselves on a nearby rocky ledge were slowly chased off one by one by the rising tide.
Troy
Jun 19-20
Troy had been a surprisingly nice stop two years ago, so we looked forward to a second visit. We were now in the midst of a heat wave, so it was nice to be able to run with the air-conditioning on – not all boats can do that. We passed by two more lighthouses and through the state capital of Albany , arriving at the Downtown Troy dock around noon when the heat was at its peak. After hanging out in the climate-controlled boat til later in the afternoon, Dave and I ventured out for a walk around downtown. Hardly anyone was out in the heat, and Wednesday seemed to be the magic day in Troy when many things were closed so it was a short foray.
After dark, we noticed an American Cruise Lines ship stopped in the middle of the river shining a spotlight along a nearby city dock. We realized they were probably scheduled to dock there and could not because of a couple boats tied up there overnight and apparently unoccupied. The ship eventually sidled up to the cement wall of the nearby park. The next morning we walked Roxy in that direction to see this 250’ cruise ship tied up to a tree and cement road barriers, among other things, and they had removed sections of fence to run the lines! Credit for creativity in the face of adversity, but it really looked didn’t look too safe.
Dave and I scootered to a grocery store about a mile away the nextmorning. What we had failed to recall was how steep the streets are in Troy. At a couple places the scooters just didn’t have the oomph to get up and we had to push them up a block or two. Of course, coming back down with a couple full bags each was a little scary, but we made it without incident. Later that afternoon we took the scooters across the bridge over the river to Watervliet, which looked like a nice post-WWII blue collar town. We found one of the few retail establishments open, and of course it was a bakery – we seem to have a gift of divination when it comes to baked goods.
Final Thoughts
Our trip up the Hudson was leisurely, fortunately uneventful, and a familiar route that we traveled almost exactly two years ago. The contrast of starting the leg in a huge city like NYC and transitioning to the sparsely populated rest of the Hudson River Valley was not lost on us. It’s stunning scenery – high tree covered palisades, trains whizzing past right along the shore, beautiful homes and estates scattered along the way. We didn’t take time to visit sites like the CIA or FDR Library, because we did them our first time through. We also know that we will be retracing this route in the fall. In some ways, this was a little bit of reconnaissance so we can try to visit a few places on the way back south, such as Bannerman’s Castle. Our stop in Marlboro convinced us we also want to stop in more of the small towns along the way, such as Poughkeepsie or Coxsackie
From here we will turn west on the Mohawk River and begin the historic Erie Canal, which will be new territory for us. We are also excited that our friends Patty and Gary of Inconceivable, our buddy boat through most of our Loop, will be joining us for several days! And of course we will be back to locking again, another change in cruising style. We will see how rusty we are and how quickly it comes back.
Pops’ Stats Corner*
- No of Days: 11
- Travel Days: 5
- Miles Traveled: 175.4 (152 nm)
- Deadheads seen: 0
*Pops is the family’s affectionate name for Dave’s dad. He had a mind for sports statistics, earning him the nickname Numbers from the coaches of several Stillwater teams with whom he worked. This regular section of the blog is in his honor, because it’s the kind of thing he would love.
AGREED!!! “This is the kind of place we love – great people, unpretentious, and united by a love of abc-ing.”
Hi Karen and Dave,
I so enjoy your travelogue. Let me know in advance on your way back south and I’ll get you in touch with old (53 years since we met in NJ and my age, or even a bit older) friends who live on a lagoon in Forked River, NJ. They used to sail to Florida and then the Bahamas on the Inland Waterway and have a dock in their back yard. Now, they keep their boat up for the winter and drive to a trailer campground in Florida.
And, of course, if you’re in Annapolis, there’s the Ben Oaks dock at the beginning of the Severn where I still have good friends.
Kurt calls me weekly and I’m in touch with Erin, who’s very ill with intestinal problems. She’s too weak to talk at length but I try to keep up with her through Stephanie and Andrea.