We departed Stansbury on Sunday, June 11. We took advantage of favorable weather days and kept pushing up the Jersey coast, doing a few 75 mile runs to stay ahead of an approaching pattern that promised to create some coastal slop. We arrived at Atlantic Highlands the day before the winds shifted around to the north, just in time. Our approach to NY Harbor was only a bit bumpy, not an issue. We motored on past Lady Liberty and Manhattan, our 5th trip up the Hudson.
Our Manhattan transit took us past Le Grand Bleu, one of the largest private mega-yachts in the world at 374 ft. It carries a 70 ft. Sunseeker as well as a 68 ft sailboat on its deck, in addition to numerous other vessels as well as a landing craft to land a Land Rover for shore excursions. Hard to miss a monster like that. We’re becoming better acquainted with the area, and have learned of some suitable anchorages that enable us to bypass marina stays. Haverstraw, in particular is one we like to miss! The anchorage across the river at Croton is much more pleasant. We land the dinghy at the Croton Yacht Club or the public park. The riverside park is a delightful area to stroll.
Our cruise up the Hudson was pleasant, although rainy. We stopped for an hour just south of Troy, NY and anchored, it’s a good spot to lower our mast in preparation for the Erie Canal. Bridge clearance is 20 ft. on most of the bridges, our air draft is 24 ft. so it’s necessary to lower the mast to gain the additional clearance. The mast will remain lowered until we complete our transit of the Trent Severn system, since the controlling bridge height there is 20 ft. as well.
Our cruise plan at this point is to head toward Oswego on the Erie Canal, then cross the eastern part of Lake Ontario. The entrance to the Trent-Severn waterway is at Trenton. The waterway, established in 1833, extends 240 miles from Trenton on Lake Ontario to Port Severn on Lake Huron. Once we transit the waterway with its 45 locks, we’ll arrive in Lake Huron, and continue to Georgian Bay. From there, our plans are uncertain, contingent on weather, water conditions, and potential guests. It’s a great place for guests to join our cruising, since the pace is very relaxed, there’s minimal weather pressure, and the conditions are almost exclusively benign, so no danger of seasickness!
