This morning the weather had turned wet and foggy. We left early anyway to beat the expected crush of boats stepping their masts downriver at Hop-O-Nost Marina in Catskill, NY. These guys are really good at this process and we have used them twice before. Mast stepping is a worrisome process when your mast weighs 800 lbs, but here we do not worry. They make mast work a real joy and the Marina has a first class restaurant and bar that is one of our Hudson River favorites. The ride there was rather dreary, with continuing rain and fog, but we arrived just before noon and - much to our surprise - our mast was stepped and we were docked in a nice slip with power by 1300! We went up to the restaurant for a lunch of clam chowder and crab cakes that was just as good as we had remembered from last spring. Later, for happy hour, we decided to hang out in the bar for a drink and ended up watching Denver narrowly beat Dallas while talking with their bartender & chef. Jeff doesn't usually watch sports, but during this nail-biter of a game, he was cheering Denver like mad. (Neala thinks it may have something to do with the two martinis......) We weren't going to eat dinner, but after seeing the Special - pork chops with mushroom sherry cream sauce and side of risotto and baby asparagus - we decided it was better than anything we had on the boat and promptly ordered two!
Departing Albany in fog and drizzle behind a large ship
Saugerties Lighthouse is always a classic example of the picturesque Hudson River
Stepping the mast at Hop-O-Nose marina
Sean - jack of all trades - climbing the mast to retrieve the sling
10/7/13 - Sean Meagher, We Love Hop-O-Nose!
The weather in New York State was going to be awful, with a major cold front passing over this evening so we decided to take a lay day and do some serious boat cleaning and stowing. Jeff scrubbed the decks (while it rained off and on) while Neala made the cockpit glisten like it never has before (you mean it's white??). We also got all of the gear that had been laying around in the cockpit stowed. We finished running the halyards, installed the boom and vang and carried all of the mast supports up to the boatyard shed where we hope to find them again in the Spring. (And people think all we do is lie around reading on this trip - it's WORK!!) We returned to the Creekside Restaurant for dinner that night, excited to see what the chef had awaiting us. Jeff had their baby back ribs and a Caesar salad and Neala had a house salad with their creamy peppercorn dressing. Our mast stepping buddy Sean stopped by at our table and we were amazed to hear his story. It turns out, Sean is not only the mast stepping guru, but he is also the very understated owner of the entire marina and the chief chef of the Creekside Restaurant! He told us his story after dinner about renting the restaurant, then buying it, then leasing the marina, then buying it too, then buying the next marina downriver as well! Sean is an amazing businessman and an all-around great guy. We highly recommend his marinas and restaurant for travelers along the Hudson.
Sean hosts 8 seasonal wine and food parings during the entire year!
10/8/13 - Another Day at Hop-O-Nose
The weather along the New Jersey coast does not look good for the next few days, with remnants of Tropical Storm Karen creating gales along the eastern seaboard, so we decided to take another lay day at Hop-O-Nose. Jeff did some calls, Neala finished the cockpit, Jeff worked on the satellite communications and later we walked a mile to Walmart to get some needed provisions. We returned to the Creekside Restaurant for our last dinner this season. What we hadn't mentioned earlier, is that we discovered a delicious chocolate dessert that we had again tonight. It was a chocolate bomb composed of chocolate and vanilla gelato with a maraschino cherry center encased in a dark chocolate shell. Fabulous - especially as it melts a bit! We shared one, however this required us drawing a "property line" between the two halves so that Jeff - who eats faster than Neala - could not infringe upon her half. Fair is fair when it comes to chocolate!
(Sorry, no photo of the chocolate bomb. You will just have to trust us)
10/9/13 - On to Haverstraw Marina
We slept in a bit this morning and finally got underway at 0845 to head downriver on an ebb tide. Jeff took some calls in the morning while Neala ran us aground on a shoal! In her defense, unbeknownst to Neala, Jeff had turned off the depth sounder alarm at Hop-O-Nose. Later, when she heard the depth alarm she was again worried since the depth indicated 100 feet! Evidently, the deep water alarm had been enabled by mistake. But this was certainly the first time anybody on Jeff's conference call had ever had it suspended for the presenter to deal with an emergency of this nature. Fortunately, the grounding was minor and soon we were back underway down river and Jeff's demonstration call continued. The rest of the day was uneventful and we passed Cold Spring off of West Point to wave at our friend Will Hembree - who we had met in May on the Erie Canal paddling his kayak from Cold Spring to Oklahoma! Neala had seen him again on Presque Isle in Erie as he passed through the Great Lakes area. We are all Facebook friends now and follow each others' travels. Traveling along the Hudson, we noticed that the leaves up north were turning more than those down south. Around 1815 we pulled into Haverstraw Marina and took a guest slip for the night.
Picturesque little scene departing Hop-O-Nose
This "lighthouse" had a WAKE and proved to be a large tug and barge!
The Mid-Hudson Suspension Bridge, opened in 1910, is one of the older bridges on the Hudson
One of several river boats that cruise the Hudson - this one was traveling from NYC to Montreal
Our Facebook friend and primo-kayaker Will Hembree, Laura, and their two dogs waving to us from the Cold Spring pier
Passing West Point is always beautiful. Neala remembers going here to the graduation of her college roommate's son, John Goodwill!
Jeff admiring the beautiful sunset in Haverstraw Marina
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