Single handed on the Hudson to Manhatten

Friday October 4

I got up early, around seven, and will have to prepare the boat for our first departure.  Single-handedly got the store away.  All the other things required to start sailing.  I tried to call several marinas, but none of them had fuel or handled sailboats or responded.  I tried motoring into Terry Marc Marina, but there was nobody there.  Nobody answered the phone.  Nobody answered the radio, so I left and headed to Haverstraw Bay Marina. I arrived just before noon, fueled up, and got a pump out.  All before the lineman's lunch.

I started heading south to the Statue of Liberty, 36 miles away.

I wore my life jacket the whole time.

I got up very early the next morning and departed the Manhattan skyline, sailing the first segment in a broad reach. 

Eventually, the engine and motor sailed until the winds died. 

Anchored behind the Statue of Liberty using a recovery line with a float on the anchor, as Mark suggested.

I was able to fly the drone.

It was a rolly night at anchor.

x

Hudson

We left Castleton for East of Green Flats and Upper Flats 

Monday Sept 30

We helped a Tartan 35 put up her mast before departing south on the Hudson.  

Brian twice went way off channel, almost grounding us.  He blamed it on autopilot. 

We're doing well, so we decided to anchor east of Green Flats and Upper Flats.  

It was on the east side of the river.  I had considered Espus Creek, but I could not find tide information on Aqua-map, so the shallowness concerned me.

We ran aground on a very mushy bottom and had to wait for the tide to turn before we could get out.  We had a steak dinner and at 21h30, about two hours after low tide, Bellum spun and we easily pulled her out with the windlass. 

Spent an hour trying to anchor in a very soft Bottom in almost 20

Feet of water

Tues Oct 1

We left the anchorage late after finishing some more rigging tasks. 

Lots of green stuff.  We mainly motored, but we did sail a bit.

The anchor at Beacon and the windlass were stripped.  Would not pull up 

To Nyack

Put the motor on the dinghy.  Tested motor. 

Walked through Beacon 

Coffee

I ordered a new drum to fix the Lewmar windlass from Defender.

Brian won't listen to or take advice on how to lift the dinghy.  I told him I would pull up the anchor by hand, but he tried to do it.  Did not listen to instructions 

I hauled the anchor up by hand and found that he wasn't at the helm when I raised it.  He was in the cabin.  When I called him, he acted like, "What do you want?"  The anchor was up, and he was not at the helm. Now Brian is a saboteur?

Thursday, October 3, Brian is off at the  Nyack.  I found a building with a laptop charging station and free Wi-Fi at an MNT bank, where I updated the Maximizer and my iPad.  I then walked back to the boat, prepared for my walk to Congress to pick up the new drum for the windlass.  It was an 8-mile, 8 1/2-mile walk.  My toe was hurting, so I decided to take the bus back and ended up in the Palisades shopping mall—a very dull, humongously oversized mall.

I took another bus back to the boat and installed the winless drum.  It's not perfect, but I managed to get it working well enough to pull and drop anchor. 

Met Lisa for supper at Hudson's restaurant.  She had picked up 3 litres of diesel for me in a water bottle, which helped me reach the next fueling point.

We had a pleasant supper, and we walked back to the boat together.  I read a bit, snacked on some peanuts, and rewarded myself with a shot of scotch, then went to bed.