Raising the Mast

Heading south now down the Hudson, one more lock to go through. Lock 1 is a federal lock unlike the  others, Erie Canal, being state run locks.  Turned out to be the easiest lock and it actually only had one pipe that we could connect to. We weren't sure what was going to happen but all was very smooth.

leaving the federal lock

Back in tidal waters now. Our timing was great and we were able to ride the tide at about 8 knots down the river to Albany Yacht Club where we stopped for the night. Rough landing for me with wind and current but no damage done. Not a great stop. Washroom/showers were terrible and not much to walk to- a bit of a rough area.

Albany

Early morning departure to travel with the tides. It was so cold out again, we dawned our foul weather gear. Fog was a bit of a worry for us as it came and went for the first hour of our trip.
Heading to Hop-On-Nose, Catskill Creek to have our mast put up!

Hudson River 1st light in Albany

yes, those are touques!

sharing the road

Beautiful little river running up to the marina. We fueled up then headed in. Sean (owner) and his crew of 2 took the mast off the boat and placed it dock side.  Al was able to rig and place antennas etc. having everything ready for first thing in the morning. Once Al finished we walked to the west side of the town of Catskill then back to the boat for dinner and and early night.

coming in to Catskill Creek

8 am mast was put into place and secured by 8:30. It's always such an uneasy feeling seeing your mast swinging in the breeze like that but we felt good about the whole process. Watching the guys do their thing you could really tell they had done this a thousand times before. Even as the thunder and lightening started they were still all business and smiles!

glad I could help out!

Al changed the oil and filters while we waited for the storm to pass, which it did within the hour. Sails were up, and boat cleaned by 3pm giving us time to walk the east side of town.  Another awesome little town with amazing architecture and super nice folks. The rest of the day was extremely hot and humid, hard for the body to get use to all the temperature variation!

I borrowed Sean's car for a beer run and to pick up groceries, Thanks Sean. We had a celebration dinner at the restaurant on site, absolutely delicious! Then another early night as we would be leaving early in the morning again.

Another big hurtle behind us.
Haven returns to her natural state...

I'm about week behind, sorry! This internet thing isn't as accessible as one would think.  More to come soon...