Day 281: Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Port to Port: New York City to Haverstraw, NY
Underway: 6:05 am Motor Off: 3:43 pm Miles Traveled: 31 Stayed At: Anchor
First Things First: First time getting a wave washing across the deck and cabin.
Mile 146 to Mile 116: Remember when I said we were looking forward to the river again and that it would be less stressful? Well, I was a little too optimistic. We had a hard slog today – probably one of the hardest-won 30 miles of the trip. We wanted to get as much advantage from the tidal current as possible so we got up early to leave at low tide. That has always worked for us in the past. The Hudson is different, though. It is a real river with a current of it’s own plus we have gotten 8+ inches of rain over the past week. We actually went backwards for a while as we cut across the river to get out of the wind and start heading up river. It took us 3 hours to go less than 5 miles. We didn’t lose sight of the NYC skyline until late morning when we finally turned a corner in the river. The tide didn’t really give us any boost until 9:00 am. We should have slept in.
Our second mistake was assuming the river would be calmer than the ocean. It’s a lot smaller right? Well the wind was much stronger than forecast and straight from the north – exactly the direction we wanted to travel. Plus the tidal current was going up against the wind. With a long fetch, steady 15-20 mph winds and a counter current, the waves got to be very uncomfortable. We were getting sprayed every few minutes as Aurora pounded through the chop. She did good but once in a while the waves were perfectly aligned and she would be stopped dead. Boris never missed a beat but had to work hard to keep us moving forward. We had one wave crash over the bow and wash across the deck dripping through the hatch and drenching us in the cockpit. Luckily this was not to far from our destination. And the scenery is beautiful.We never went faster than 4.5 mph and we averaged only 3 mph for the whole day. Yikes.
We got a call from our friends on Spiritus with some interesting news. Not only did they warn us about how slow the river is going up stream (even for them) but that the Erie Canal and Trent Severn are closed due to high water. Boats are backed up all along the Hudson waiting for them to open. I have a feeling if I had known this yesterday we probably would have stayed longer in NYC but we hadn’t done our homework so far into the future. We just wanted to get traveling again.
The good thing about today is, after a long day racing the trees, we made it safely to our anchorage – a little wet and a lot tired but everything worked out okay. Luckily it was warm and sunny all day so we at least weren’t freezing to death on top of everything else. Cindy hung out all of our wet stuff while I dinghied to shore to get gas. We look like a laundry barge.
We are planning to stay in this quiet little cove for a couple days – more rain and wind is forecast for Thursday and Friday and we aren’t in any hurry to go north (although we would like to catch up to Spiritus). We have lots of food, water and books to read so we won’t be suffering too much.
