Whitehall, NY

We went for a walk in the park by the Schuylerville Lock first thing on Monday June 18 before we resumed our voyage.  It was a pleasant place to stay overnight and we appreciate the opportunity to dock for free and get out to stretch our legs.  It was interesting to see that adjacent to this lock was an older and smaller canal that preceded the current wider and deeper one.

From here, we went through locks 7, 8, 9, and 11(there is no 10). Between  two of them we reached the highest point and after that we would descend in each of the subsequent locks.  We also passed the infamous Guillotine gate near one of the locks that prevents water from flowing through.

Near Fort Edwards (which we hope to visit next time) we finally left the Hudson and cruised through a dug canal that eventually brought us to Whitehall. On the way we went under another very low bridge (17.5 feet). It was a squeaker but we felt confident going through it as our antenna was still lowered from the earlier bridge. 

We passed through some pastoral scenary and one unfortunate dwelling.

We stopped at Whitehall, home to the U.S. Navy, to have lunch at a cute historically restored restaurant there.

Tying up at the Town dock, we met another cruiser who warned us of a forecasted afternoon storm of which we were unaware.  Over lunch we decided to stay in Whitehall for the night since the town provided free dockage, electricity and water.

Jonny busied himself with boat chores in the afternoon and Lynn did not.  The predicted storms came through with only a short burst of heavy rain. We had made the right decision to stay put.

That evening we took a walk through the town.  Whitehall was significant during the Revolutionary War and there are several references to that time in the downtown area.

Although it is friendly towards cruisers, the town seems to be on a downward slide. It hadn’t changed much since we were here three years ago. There were few business establishments in this part of town and though the waterside park was planted with flowers, the town still has a feeling of glory long past.

The next day we’ll be going through our final lock before entering Lake Champlain!

Schuylerville, NY

We had a perfectly beautiful day of cruising up the Hudson on Sunday, June 17 - Father’s Day.  The weather was warm, but not hot, as we cruised past Albany, Troy and Waterford. 

The Hudson River leads to the Champlain Canal System which is part of the 524 mile New York State Canalway Trail Water System that links the Niagara and Hudson Rivers, the Finger Lakes, Lake Ontario and Lake Champlain.  We encountered our first set of locks in Troy which is one of the largest we’ll see on this trip.  We expect to go through over 100 locks in the next couple of months!  On the following photos, you can see the progression as one of the locks fills with water.

We traveled about halfway through the Champlain Canal System which is actually the upper Hudson. The canals and accompanying locks are used to circumvent the rapids.  We passed through five locks on our way.  Some of them opened quickly for us, but others required us to wait until southbound traffic went through first.  At one lock we had to wait for almost 30 minutes because a barge that was behind us has priority over pleasure craft  to go through locks.  Also, no other boats can be with it in the lock for safety reasons. 

By late afternoon, we reached Schuylerville which is on the Saratoga Plains, the site of a noteworthy Revolutionary  War battle.  Last time we cruised up here we rented a car and spent time in Saratoga Springs but we skipped that fine side trip this time.  

After going through the lock, we tied up at the lock wall next to a pretty little park.  Boats can tie up here for up to 48 hours.  There are no services but we could get out and stretch our legs and explore the park on foot. 

The day was starting to get rather hot so we decided to go for a swim which is getting commonplace for Jonny but for Lynn, it was just her second time this trip.  The water, though cold, was very refreshing and we are now definitely out of any traces of salt water.

Because it was Father’s Day there were lots of phone calls with Stephanie, Andy, Lisa, and others who we are arranging to see on the trip.  We expect to be in Lake Champlain by the next day.

New Baltimore, NY

We delayed our departure for a few hours on Saturday, June 16 because we would be runnning against the current.  So we did boat chores and took off towards Albany at 11:45.  The current continued to run against us, slowing us down for a few hours until it finally switched to our favor.  Jonny needed to inflate our large red fenders so we can use them as we go through the many locks on the Champlain Canal.

So Lynn spent the day on the helm which was quite pleasant. The weather was so much nicer than the previous day - warm and sunny with little boat traffic on the river even though it was Saturday.  The Hudson is always so beautiful with its lush greenery, rolling hills, charming little towns, and attractive homes.

Towards the later afternoon and after a heated discussion, we finally decided to anchor next to Houghtailing Island in New Baltimore,NY, south of Albany.  It was a beautiful anchorage, wooded on both sides of the waterway and very calm.  Again, as in so much of the Hudson, the only sounds were those of the commuter trains going by, but we actually enjoy their wailing whistles.  Once we settled in, Jonny made dinner while Lynn updated the blog.  We are preparing to be pretty busy over the next couple of days with about ten locks to go through on our way up to Lake Champlain.

Kingston, NY

We spent the morning of Friday, June 15 visiting West Point.  Thank goodness for Uber which is so convenient to use everywhere these days. Just three short years ago when we did our Down East cruise, Uber wasn’t an option.  This time Uber got us there in no time.  Driving through the little town of Highland Falls, we arrived at our destination in time for the first tour of the day. 

The United States Military Academy, also known as West Point is an impressive place to visit.  The beautiful campus is strategically located on the banks of the Hudson which has been so instrumental in our country’s history and especially its military victories (and defeats). This is the view of the Hudson from the Visitors Center.

The campus of West Point is beautiful with its Gothic architecture and grey granite buildings.  A consistent architectural theme is reflected throughout the campus with even the newer buildings complementing the historic ones. The campus also had many fine sports facilities.

We learned a lot about the school, its history and famous alumni.  Lynn was particularly impressed by its leadership philosophy which emphasizes that graduates should “live honorably, treat people with dignity and respect, and demonstrate the character, competence, and commitment that builds trust.”  It’s too bad that our current leadership in Washington is not living out this philosophy.

We got back to Zendo by noon and resumed our voyage up the Hudson passing the Culinary Institute of America, Hyde Park, and a Vanderbilt Mansion. We are spending less time visiting sites this time because we want to get up to Canada to spend more time there during its short summer.

The day was supposed to be quite warm but in fact it was so chilly that we closed all the stratoglass for the bulk of the day which we never do unless it’s raining.  But Georgio managed to make himself quite comfortable. 

Overall, we had a comfortable cruise with little boat traffic and beautiful scenery.  We’ve been enjoying our anchorages and decided to choose one near Kingston at Port Ewan rather than staying in a marina in Kingston which we did last time. On our way there we passed the Port Ewan Lighthouse.

We arrived at 6 pm and settled in for the evening at a beautiful calm anchorage next to the stately Rondout Lighthouse in Kingston. 

There we had leftover Chinese food from our last night in NYC. We ate on the aft deck with a gorgeous sunset as our back drop.

Bear Mountain, NY

We left Staten Island at 6:45 on Thursday morning, June 14, to take advantage of the tides.  Our cruise took us past the Statue of Liberty, Jersey City and Hoboken and the mighty Palisades on the New Jerseyside, as well as the entire western side of New York City.

Our plan was to cruise up the Hudson River to Cold Springs, NY.  We really liked the village of Cold Springs and our original plan was to anchor there and visit West Point the next day.  Cruising the Hudson is one of Lynn’s favorites - it’s so beautiful - both bucolic and historic.  But we weren’t expecting it to be as windy as it was. The wind was gusting up to 30 knots.  Fortunately, it was out of the north so it wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t great.  Because we were heading north and into the wind we were hobby-horsing the whole way.

We originally planned to go all the way to Cold Springs on the east side of the Hudson.  But due to the need to find an anchorage with protection from the north wind we decided to anchor off of Bear Mountain on the west side of the river which provided better protection from the wind.  It was also on the same side of the river as West Point which we wanted to visit the next morning.  What is tricky about anchoring on the Hudson is that the depths can  drop from over 70 feet to 3 feet in 150 feet. But we found a gorgeous anchorage at the foot of Bear Mountain next to the state park.

We took the dinghy  over to the park the park to explore.  It’s a huge and beautiful park and the Appalachian Trail goes right through it.  We met a few hikers including a young woman who was hiking it alone.  She had started in February in Georgia and was planning to go all the way to Maine.  She was extremely engaging, energetic and of course, very fit!  What an incredible commitment!

The park had miles of hiking trails, picnic areas, a carousel, a little zoo with bears and foxes, and an amazing lodge.

 After our own short hike and exploration we settled on board Zendo for a quiet and relaxing evening.

Staten Island, NY Part 2

We stayed five nights (June 9 -13) at the Great Kills Yacht Club on Staten Island and used that cost effective dockage as our base of operations for a NYC visit.  Our first full day was spent exploring Brooklyn because Lynn had never been there.  After studying and maneuvering the public transportation system we learned that it’s faster to go through Manhattan to get to Brooklyn even though that doesn’t make sense by “how the crow flies.” We explored the historic and lovely Brooklyn Heights neighborhood and the new (to both of us) DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges Overpass).  This was a cool area with a big and interesting flea market, lots of restaurants and pubs, and a great waterfront  park and amazing views of Manhattan. 

Our second day in the city was spent in Manhattan where we checked out the Museum of Natural History which was somewhat of a disappointment.  Many of the exhibits seem to not have changed since we were there as children, though there were a couple that were newer and worthwhile.  We made up for that disappointment by spending a couple of hours biking through Central Park.  It was a beautiful day and we were surprised to see so many people enjoying the park on a Monday.

That evening we met Robbie's daughter Chloe who works in NY and lives in Hoboken with her husband, JA. Her office just moved to the original Woolworth building which is an Art Deco masterpiece.  

We went down to West Village to meet JA for dinner.  But first we had to stop and quench our thirst at a beer joint.  Afterwards, we had a delicious Italian dinner at an intimate little restaurant there.

On Tuesday, we returned to Brooklyn to visit the exquisite Brooklyn Botanic Garden where we participated in a walking tour to more fully appreciate all this garden had to offer. We highly recommend a visit here.  It would be especially beautiful in the spring because of the extensive spring blooms but even though we were past the cherry blossoms, there’s a fantastic rose garden and lots of interesting and unique gardens. ( Shakespeare, herbs, Japanese, etc.).  We followed that with lunch in the Park Slope neighborhood.

On our final day, we treated ourselves with tickets for a Broadway show, Come From Away.  We went to the matinee performance and we totally loved the show.  It was heartwarming, funny, and sad and the music was wonderful.  Definitely one of our favorites.  After strolling through 

Times Square and Midtown we found an Anthony Bourdain endorsed Chinese restaurant where we had a very authentic and tasty meal.  So we satisfied our requirement to have great Italian food and Chinese food while in New York!

Our final trip back to the boat was the now familiar trek of walking, bus, subway, bus and more walking.  It took us about one and a half hours to get anywhere from our Staten Island dock but we felt it was worth it.  The Great Kills Yacht Club was the calmest spot in the metropolitan area, the docks were great, the facilities were convenient,  the people were friendly and the price was right!