Isaias, Nobody Likes You Either

2020 Trip Itinerary:

1. Leave Buffalo 

2. Go through Erie Canal

3. Now what?

We've been on the Erie Canal for so long, it was hard to imagine taking Dumbledore anywhere else. But everyone was excited to move on and see what other places we could swim, walk, and explore. 

Our first stop was in Troy, just outside of Albany, where we were very abruptly reintroduced to the concept of tides. Troy is on the Hudson River, which, unlike the Erie Canal, has a drastic change in water level at different times of the day as the tides come in and out. It also didn't help that when we pulled up to the Troy town wall, the public floating dock was under construction. The wall loomed above Dumbledore's bimini, and the low tide left Dumbledore far below the edge of land. 

Dumbledore was feeling particularly short

In order to get onto land, Justin had to vault us up and we flopped onto the wall like seals. 

She made it!

We continued our way down the Hudson River, and our next stop was a leisurely hike near the water. Well, okay, it wasn't really leisurely. Now that I think about it, it wasn't even a hike. It was a crazy combination of climbing and scrambling over rocks and a practically vertical incline. After having lots of fun rock climbing at Little Falls, we decided to do some more and climb Breakneck Ridge. (This time we chose to do our climbing during daylight, though.) 

Breakneck Ridge was not the longest hike we've ever done. Shianne and Makenna did a sixteen mile hike in Texas, and they still managed to run the last two miles in 90 degree heat, so I wasn't concerned about their endurance. I, however, have spent most of my post-covid time very far from any gyms, and most of my exercise recently has been running up and down from the flybridge, which really isn't very far. This trail led us straight up the side of a mountain. There was a full mile of clambering up and over boulders, bracing ourselves against trees and using other rocks as leverage to haul ourselves up the path. 

You can almost smell Makenna's sweaty armpits from this picture. 

Shianne was enjoying a lovely view of my butt. 

We were well rewarded for our hard work. After lots of very sweaty climbing, we reached the top of the mountain and some incredibly gorgeous views. 

I have never been so grateful for a mountain breeze.

What has more saltwater in this picture: the Hudson River or Makenna's sweaty self?

After a grueling climb up the mountain, we expected the hike back down to be relatively easy. We were wrong. We finished all of our water early and Shianne twisted her ankle. Plus, we were all worn out from the hard climb up. After a few hours of walking and singing Hamilton songs at the top of our lungs to keep up morale, everyone made it back safely. And we certainly deserved the giant ice creams we picked up on the way home. 

After our perfect hiking weather, we got an unexpected and unwelcome visitor. Rain and wind started as we moved down the Hudson, reminding us of our first time doing this leg of our trip. But this time, instead of piling on the rain gear and driving for hours in the cold and wet, we got to drive from the cozy comfort of our warm cabin. 

I didn't have to go out in that! Yay!

I had been hoping to see some of these picturesque lighthouses in better weather, but I guess we'll have to try the Hudson a third time. 

I posted a picture of this the last time we went through. I didn't think of a clever caption then either.

The wind was from the north,  and at first, we plodded down the Hudson in relative comfort. I even managed to squeeze in two music lessons before feeling queasy. But after a couple of hours, the wind picked up. Justin and I looked at our weather apps, and we realized that this rain squall was more than just a storm; we were in the middle of hurricane Isaias. About twelve hours previously, Isaias had been hovering over the Carolinas, and it was not forecasted to make its way so far north. Gusts whipped by the boat, sending anything that wasn't secured on the deck flying. A boogy-board was snatched by the wind and hurled into the water. 

A few minutes later, an enormous blast of wind slammed across the boat. I was driving, and I heard the wind hit the boat, but all I could see was the water in front of us. Justin poked his head out to see how our equipment up top was doing. "Oh crap," he said. then ran upstairs to the flybridge. I kept the boat moving, hoping Justin didn't fall overboard. A few minutes later, Justin returned to the cabin, soaking wet and cold. Shianne and Makenna eagerly asked what had happened. 

"Uh, the bimini ripped," Justin replied. 

"Oh, that's not bad," I said, thinking about all of the other things that could have gone wrong. "As long as the solar panels are still there." 

Justin didn't answer at first, waiting for Shianne and Makenna to go back to their own activities before muttering to me, "the solar panels are at the bottom of the Hudson." Apparently, Justin had seen the gust of wind tear through our bimini, grab our solar panels and hurl them into river like a frisbee. 

The winds didn't last for too much longer. Isaias was rapidly declining from a hurricane to a tropical storm to a blustery day. Eventually, the winds calmed down enough for us to tie up to a dock in Poughkeepsie and survey the damage. 

Why did we bother holding up the bimini under that low bridge? We could have ditched the whole thing down and saved us a lot of effort. 

The dock in Poughkeepsie reminded us again that tides are a thing. Between the excess water from the rain and high tide, the platform beside the floating dock was completely submerged. Once the rain stopped, we couldn't resist hopping off and splashing around in the warm water. 

Advanced puddle jumping.

In Poughkeepsie, we picked up a passenger for the evening: my friend Emma who happened to live nearby. She joined us for an evening of roast beef, board games, and--of course--swimming.

I just realized we've known each other for almost 20 years. We're old. 

We took Dumbledore out into the river, and we encountered another phenomenon we hadn't seen during our time on the canal: currents. As the tide changed, the Hudson River picked up speed. By the time we decided to swim, the water was moving quickly enough that we tied lines to our more novice swimmers to keep them from shooting off to New York City. 

We made quite the knot with all of our lines by the end.

As the sun set, the lines keeping us attached to the boat became more important. It's one thing to get carried away by a current, it's another thing to be carried away in the dark. But we did get a lovely view of the nearby bridge. 

Is this the rainbow connection Kermit was singing about?

That evening we dropped Emma back off and continued on to a safe anchorage. At this point, the skies were clear and the water calm, as if Isaias had never been there. 

We stopped the next day to do some swimming near an old, abandoned castle. We weren't allowed in, but it provided a neat backdrop to our afternoon of swimming. 

I am completely convinced a vampire lives here. 

As we were swimming, we were surprised by the salty taste in the water. We were definitely getting closer to the ocean! 

With Isaias gone, we were able to see the beautiful hills looming up on either side of the river and cross under bridges we had no concern about fitting under. 

I have no clue which bridge this was. It might just be a bridge too far. 

We spent the end of the week anchored outside the picturesque town of Croton-on-Hudson.

Sometime I miss owning a sailboat, until I remember how little sailing is involved.

We quickly decided "Croton-on-Hudson" was way too long to say and renamed the town Crouton. Crouton is located at a wider part of the Hudson, so it isn't bothered by fast currents and we were able to spend an entire day swimming off the boat.

Dumbledore looks almost as excited as Makenna to be back in salt water.

Our anchorage was not a busy area, but there were fishing boats here and there that zipped in and out of the bay. For the most part, we ignored each other, but then we noticed a small fishing boat blaring its horn and its crew frantically waving their arms for help. We pulled up our anchor as quickly as we could to come to the rescue, but another boat reached them first. Everyone was able to get off the sinking boat safely, but we got there too late to personally offer much help. So I did what any responsible boater does: took pictures and felt superior that my boat didn't break that badly. 

I'm so glad this wasn't Dumbledore.

This was a spot we had visited on our first trip, and the one thing we remembered the most was the pizza. With it's close-but-not-too-close proximity to New York City, Crouton has some of the best pizza I've ever encountered. Either that or when we're in Crouton, we're just unusually hungry. 

Even if the pizza wasn't great, it gave me an excellent opportunity to take some sunset pictures of Dumbledore from the dock. 

I would have taken a better picture, but I was making sure my precious pizza cargo was safe.

We left Crouton for our weekend in Buffalo, then came back to the boat the following Sunday night for a short week onboard to move the boat from Crouton to the Jersey Shore. After a last morning of swimming in Crouton, we set off down the Hudson towards New York City.

Before long, we could see New York City looming in the distance. 

"It's the greatest city in the woooorld!"

We scrambled upstairs to take pictures and try to point out our favorite buildings as we passed by.

Shianne was only a little bit excited.

Then the sun began to set, and the city came alive with bright, vivid lights. 

The buildings were a little bigger than Buffalo.

Our phones weren't taking the best pictures in the low light, so instead of a bunch of blurry photos, please enjoy this single blurry video.

That evening we anchored the boat behind the Statue of Liberty with an incredible view of the city. 

I wonder how many toilets there are in this picture.

I tried to look up her skirt. 

While it was really neat anchoring in such an iconic place, New York Harbor was not the most comfortable anchorage we've used. Nobody slept terribly well as wakes from passing ferries and cargo ships kept hitting the boat and waking us up. It didn't help that the next morning we were heading out into the ocean, so the weather dictated our wake-up time. And unfortunately for us, that was early. Justin bit the bullet and rolled out of bed at the ungodly hour of 7:00 and we were quickly underway. We felt a little bad that our younger crew members missed a great view of Manhattan, but we decided sleep was more important for both their health and safety and ours. 

See you later, Lady!

Even with Covid-19, people still buy things from around the world and the harbor was filled with container ships like any other busy day. The container ships were massive, and it was fun trying to imagine what they could be carrying. Couches for the furniture store where I work? New cars for people to drive? Just barely enough phone chargers and earbuds to last us a week?

If Justin starts asking for a boat this big, I think I'll go crazy.

As we drove south along the New Jersey coast and left the main shipping channel, the cloudy sky descended on us. After a few hours, we were surrounded in a fog so thick, I couldn't see more than a few yards ahead of us. Luckily, we were out on the ocean where there wasn't much to run into and not anywhere near the deep channels where the commercial shipping traffic would go. Our GPS navigation app wasn't affected by weather, so I knew I was headed in the right direction the whole time. But it was still unnerving to be out on the ocean and not able to see the coast. Small fishing boats would appear in the gloom as if from nowhere, and I kept hearing a large ship's horn, but I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. 

Justin cropped most of the anxious from this picture. Most, but not all.

Eventually, the fog lifted and we didn't run into anything. Throughout this trip, going back to Buffalo on weekends has meant some creative navigation to move our car with us and have it ready to go on Friday mornings. As we've gotten further and further from Buffalo, this process has gotten more and more complicated. Tuesday for me was completely dedicated to getting Justin's car to the slip we had reserved at the Jersey shore. Justin dropped me off at a train station and I spent an entire afternoon frantically navigating the New Jersey and New York public transportation systems. The whole day was exhausting, and I didn't make it back to our marina with the car until after midnight. 

I did see this swan though. 

I wonder if he's in cahoots with the geese that tried to kill me on the canal. 

While I was stressing out on trains and train stations, the rest of the crew was having a blast at the beach. 

I wasn't there, but I'm guessing she was running from a shark

The next day we did our best to relax. A thunderstorm came through, so the beaches closed, and it was a little too chilly to be outside swimming for most of the afternoon. But later that evening, after the storm passed, we went out to the beach for a late-night stroll along the water. 

This week was a short one for us, ending with a seven-hour race in the car to get back to Buffalo for some routine doctor appointments. Everyone made the appointments on time, but we're all looking forward to next week when we move the boat as little as possible and enjoy a relaxing week at the Jersey shore.

Hopefully we don't lose anything else to another hurricane. 

tl;dr: We survived hurricane Isaias and made it to the Jersey Shore