On The Average

Duck Harbor on The Hudson River
N 42 09.331 W 073 54.053

Yesterday our accomplishments were not great. We moved from Waterford a few miles down the river to Albany and we tied up at a slip at Albany Yacht Club. Our goal was to have dinner with our friend Rich's family. Alas, it turned out that Rich had a conflict so the dinner date was called off.

Today (Thursday) we got up early and left Albany Yacht Club by 07:30. The tide was against us. (Welcome back to tidal waters. It has been a long time.) Still we made good time and by 11:00 the tide turned and the current was with us. Our goal was to get the mast put up.

I wanted to stop in Castelton On The Hudson where there is a do-it-yourself crane that you could use for $50. We could learn by doing an save $50. I was emboldened by our successful experience lowering the mast by ourselves in Sorel. However, Libby was skeptical and not confident about a do-it-yourself mast raising. Since it is just the two of us, the skill and confidence of both parties would be crucial. I decided to do it Libby's way.

The next opportunity for mast stepping was in Catskill, and I wondered if we could get there early enough to do it today. As it turned out we got there by 14:00. There are two marinas there that do mast stepping -- Riverview Marine Service and Hop A Nose. We used both before. Most of the cruisers rave about Hop A Nose, but I thought that Riverview did a very professional job. Riverview also charges $100 compared to Hop A Nose's $150 fee. I chose Riverview.

We waited an hour for another boat to raise their mast, then it was our turn. They wanted the radar pointing up rather than down so we had to roll it over, but still we had the job done in less than an hour. We're too experienced at this mast stepping/unstepping process. We would prefer to leave it up always.

So, on the average, between yesterday and today, we've been fairly active.

Oh, one thing notable did happen. Between Waterford and Albany we were flagged down by three men in a small runabout who were beached on the shore. We diverted course to help them. They said that their boat was taking on water and asked for a tow to the nearest boat launch site. We were glad to help. I got out our floating poly line, tied off one and threw the rest to them. Floating line is the only way to go for towing and warping. There is little risk that it will get tangled in the propeller.

Psychologically, we left home waters today for our next journey south. There's a bit of thrill that goes along with that, but the really big thrill will come when we put out to sea.
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