I Heart NY!

I completely understand the pride and infatuation that New Yorkers have with their home state. The New York I always thought of was Manahattan, Times Square, Wall Street, and Broadway, all of which were fine for a weekend but I could never see the allure of living in the busy, smelly, pushy city that never sleeps. But running the boat down The Hudson brought it all into perspective. I have never seen such beautiful boating. Not even Georgian Bay, which is some of the finest display of nature I have ever witnessed. What makes The Hudson special is the combination of nature and architecture. As you are awed by the beauty of lush green against the backdrop of black mountain rock, you round the bend and are faced with the massive Westpoint Academy. And then there is the train that runs along the river...that was really neat to see. Up in the hills are some of the most splendid homes - both modern and gilded age architecture. Just a fabulous run. I'm so glad we did it. Now I get why people summer in the Catskills.

I insisted that we stop in a little town called Saugerties because I had cooked up a big surprise for Tom. About two years ago while in Miami we saw these magnificent binoculars from WWII warships that had been polished and mounted on large aluminum stands. We thought one would be great for freighter viewing off of our balcony but decided to "think about it" and of course never went back to the antique show and bought one. Tom has said several times since that he regrets it so I tracked down the vendor and lo and behold, his workshop is in Saugerties, right on the Hudson. I knew we'd be passing by and thought what a great surprise outing it would be. Guess what Tom is got for his birthday this year. I am traveling with a very Happy Cappy again!!

Saugerties is as small town as small town gets. Really quaint and the people are so accomodating - not at all the classic New Yorkers. The marina was tiny so they had us tie up at the fuel dock for the night. As soon as we docked this undersized and unremarkable golden retriever jumped from the dock to our swim platform, proceeded to the aftdeck and promptly squatted on Scrappy's little pee grass (fake grass) that we keep on the boat for emergency pees while running. She then turned and jumped back onto the dock and was Scrappy ever ticked about the whole thing. It happened so fast that by the time he got out to defend his property she was gone. That dog was every bit a typical "New Yorker".

We are parked in Albany and after two weeks of unbelievably perfect boating weather, all "hail" broke loose. It has been like winter here. Still we washed all traces of saltwater off Uncorked and told her she is on track to a better "freshwater" life with us in Michigan. We are heading home Tuesday and then we'll return in a few weeks to work our way through those dreaded locks. (Well, I dread them because I'm crew. Captain Tom is excited about the whole journey) That will be the final leg of my blog. Look for an entry around May 29th.

NY is in sight!

After the big Hatteras adrenaline rush we played it safe in the Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds and laid over at Portsmouth. We waited out the winds for two days and used the opportunity to get the props aligned. We also went to the historic movie theater in town and saw "Oceans", the new Disney movie. It was incredible. Hard to believe all that activity is going on underneath us as we run the Atlantic. From Portsmouth we had flat seas and ran to Virginia Beach and then up to Atlantic City for Cinco de Mayo, which we celebrated by making tacos on the boat. Not too impressed with Atlantic City. The weather was not cooperating but we just couldn't spend another night is this sorry substitute for Vegas so we ran inside and it was really a nice, fast and beautiful run alongside Long Beach Island, NJ and up through Barnegat Bay. We put in at Manasquan Inlet at a little town called Brielle where we met a fun couple and emptied a few bottles of wine together. The Weavers, Bonnie and Jack, are also retired and enjoy traveling so we had lots to talk about and shared stories about favorite destinations. We agreed that often what makes a place memorable is the people that we meet; we share laughs for a night and then often never see or hear from one another again but it's great to have these "encounters", which is the term that Jack used to describe these snap friendships.

Today you can look for us in The Hudson.