Day 283: Friday, June 14, 2013

Port to Port: Haverstraw to Plum Point (Newburgh)

Underway: 11:44 am   Motor Off: 5:05 pm    Miles Traveled: 23/20   Stayed At: Anchor

First Things First: Saw our first castle; saw our first waterfall; first time we heard, saw and talked to another boat named Aurora; first time in water 165 feet deep.

Mile 116 to Mile 94: What a beautiful day on the Hudson. Today was exactly what we were hoping our travels on the river would be like. The sun was shining (the forecast a couple days ago was for storms and rain). The winds were light. And we got a really nice boost from the current. We were consistently going 5.5 mph or better for a good part of our journey. And the scenery was inspiring. Tall granite hills covered with trees. Cliffs showing the twisted and folded rock layers. Amazing lighthouses, homes, and even a castle on an island on the river (Banneman’s Castle). Coming around the corner and seeing the massive fort-like buildings that make up the West Point Campus can’t be matched many other places. Even though we can’t go much farther north until the canal system reopens, we are thoroughly enjoying what the river has to offer in the meantime.

We were having such a good time we wanted to keep going another 8 or 9 miles to get to a place we stayed at in 2002 but a line of afternoon thunderstorms started moving towards us and it looked like we were going to get wet so we found what we thought was an okay temporary anchorage while the storm blew by. As soon as the wind kicked up, though, we started dragging the anchor and had to quickly pull it up and move back and to the other side of the river to get out of the wind. We got anchored just in time for the clouds to break up and the wind to die down. We never did get a drop of rain (thankfully).

After tacos for dinner and a couple more episodes of Homeland (kind of like 24 and just as addicting) we planned our travel route for tomorrow, wrote the blog and read a little before going to bed on a calm, quiet Hudson River.