Thursday, November 3, 2016

another day is done.

Today we came ashore in Delaware City, DE. We had been anchored out the past few days after our time in New York City so laundry, showers and solid ground were much appreciated!

But let me step back a bit and fill in the holes since my last post. One thing you apparently can't find in NYC is free wifi (at least not at the marina we stay in, there is actually very fast free wifi, it just doesn't stretch that far). 

After our soggy arrival in Waterford, NY, we took on one last lock, Federal Lock in Troy, NY which dropped us around 17 feet. This on clearly sees more commercial traffic. It didn't have any lines for us to grab and steady our boat along the wall as all the ones on the Erie Canal had so we had to wrangle lines and have a few moments of panic in the process. 

We spent the remainder of the day motoring down the Hudson River. The shores on either side were dressed in their fall best, crimsons and burnt orange interspersed with the remaining greens. Our destination was Hop-o-Nose to once again to become a sailboat! Along the way we encountered many larger vessels--barges and tour boats mostly. And, we also began contending with tides and currents. Nothing crazy but they moved us along at a brisk pace in some places and slowed our progress in others. Of course, it all depended on the time of day. 

We arrived at Hop-o-Nose late in the day and pulled up to the dock. We made dinner, wandered around the boat yard so Fozel could stretch his legs and tucked in for the night. First thing the next morning, the guys at the yard used their ancient crane (which, rumor has it, helped in the building of the Erie Canal) to slowly raise the mast. Fozel and I wandered into town to kill time while Josh took care of reattaching stays, shrouds, and boom. After lunch Josh continue working while the babe and I rested. While we snoozed Josh went to help a catamaran we had met before going up the Niagara river, Komotion, put their mast back up at a place up the river. They traded war stories and planned to keep in contact as we all head south one by one. Josh and I put the sails back on late in the afternoon in preparation for a morning departure. We met a couple of fellow cruisers who were also there to be re-masted on a boat named Hericanne from Montreal. Josh and I met each half of the couple separately and traded info and stories before they got squared away with the crane and we got underway, waving goodbye as we went. 

The following day was more gorgeous foliage, currents trying to push us back up the Hudson, and more traffic. Josh has been doing 99% of the driving and I've been handling the boy and food prep and clean up. It works. We spend most of our time below deck so Josh has been seeing most of the interesting stuff. Plenty of barges, enormous homes perched on cliffs overlooking the brown waters and some wildlife. Late in the afternoon, we pulled up to a mooring field in Marlboro, NY associated with a nearby marina. They had already pulled docks for the season but said we could moor for free. Score! This was the first mooring we had done on Interlude and other the some fiberglass shards in the palms of our hands we did okay. Unfortunately our full keeled boat orients to the current and not the wind so we did some knocking into the mooring ball, which isn't dangerous, just noisy. 

Wednesday, we undertook the last leg to Manhattan. This go round we encountered West Point, a crumbling castle, slow moving barges, and several adorable towns. Josh spotted the Tappan Zee bridge in the distance and we knew New York was within reach. They're building the "New New York Bridge" right next to it and it's a sight to behold. Truly a marvel of engineering skill seeing it span across both sides to meet in the middle. 

A few hours later we scooped up a mooring ball at 79th street boat basin and dighied ashore. First stop was food. We shared a slice, Fozel's first and then got a bit more grub before letting the kiddo run through Central Park. I made the mistake of telling him it was a park so he was convinced there was a playground just around the next bend. Poor guy. We did find one on our way back to the marina so he got to climb up and go down the slide "two more times" several times. 

Thursday was a day for exploring. The weather was drizzly and gray and cold enough to bring your breath out in white misty puffs. Still, we persevered. We jumped a train down to one world trade, walked across the island to the Brooklyn bridge, wandered up into Chinatown for a $15 lunch (total!), scooped up a pumpkin steamed bun, ate some Big Gay Ice Cream, and ran thru the revolving door at Sephora in Times Square a hundred times (Fozel's choice). One of Josh's former co-workers lives on the very, very far north side of Manhattan and graciously came down to the upper west side to eat dinner with us. It was lovely! Of course both Josh and I look like wildlings (Josh especially--his beard and uncut hair, oy!) so we chose a low key ramen joint. 

Friday afternoon Josh's best friend joined us on the boat. We had moved into the the marina before he arrived and I'm sorry to say it wasn't much more comfortable than the moorings. There is so much traffic on that river that the wakes that toss you are nearly constant. The marina has floating docks because of the tide but with the wake that also means you feel like you're trying to jump from floating brick to floating brick (a la Mario brothers). 

Saturday we ended up doing lots of playground hopping starting in Central Park and walking through the the upper east side and then back down to midtown before hopping a train to the lower east side to check out the High Line! We were all exhausted by the end of the day. We sent Rod on his way early the next morning and Fozel and I went for a run while daddy fetched bagels. Fozel got a rainbow bagel and hasn't stopped talking about it since! Thus ended our time in New York City. We moved to an anchorage southwest of the Statue of Liberty in the late morning and enjoyed a calm quiet night there (after a windy hail filled storm blew threw around dinner time).