Go Right Now!

West Point, NY

41 22.20 N 073 57.43 W

 

I finally checked for a weather window. WOW, it says leave right away or wait 7-14 days for another window!!! OK, after due consideration, my command decision is to go now.

Actually, now is kind of a fuzzy term in these circumstances. We are still 45 miles from the Verrazano Narrows. We had tide with us all morning, but now it is turning against us. We also have a 15 knot breeze on our nose. We will gets slowed to maybe 3.5 knots. But the wind should shift to NW, and then we can motorsail against the current. My best guess is that we pass Manhattan around midnight.

Hopefully, this could be a repeat of our best passage ever. One year we made it from Poughkeepsie NY to Deltaville VA in 52 hours! We had NW winds like tonight. Offshore winds bring us speed but only little waves; that's ideal.

By the way, we saw a new sight at West Point. The rod of the football stadium says BEAT AIR FORCE. In the river in front of West Point there are a half dozen mega-yachts anchored in 100 feet of water. There are also three NY Water Taxi boats anchored there. Must be something big happening. I wonder what? ;-)

One bad thing about being out on The Hudson on weekends is the number of rude boaters we meet. If one measures rudeness by the number of power boats passing close by at 25 knots, this place rivals Cape May Inlet NJ. The jerks ignore calls on the radio to slow down. They will not even pass 100 feet away. No, they pass 25 feet away throwing up huge wakes. I fantasize about having agin to launch floating rope in front of their paths to foul their propellers and bring them to an abrupt halt.