2010 WEEK TWO 6-27 THRU 7-2

At the end of our last post Mike and Marge were leaving us to return home to Michigan. They took a cab to the Amtrak station which was about 5 blocks from the marina. Deb and I rode our bikes there to see them off. They rode the train back to Ticonderoga, NY on Lake Champlain to pick up their car. It all went like clockwork.
This is Albany Yacht Club where we stayed.

The next 5 pictures are of Albany as we headed south. Albany is about 145 miles north of New York City and still that far north is used as an industrial seaport. The river is about 1/2 mile wide here.

The Hudson-Athens Lighthouse we encountered on the Hudson.

The next 4 pictures are of our approach to Kingston which was New York State's first capital. The British burned it to the ground in the Revolutionary War so it was moved to Albany. This is the Kingston Lighthouse.

If you look close, it looks like rock, but in fact, it is the channel seawalls just above the water at high tide. When we keft Kingston, the tide was much lower and I could see that it was a seawall.

We arrived Kingston on June 27 and stayed here at the Kingston City Dock for 3 days. It just happened that Kingston was having their 4th of July celebration that day. There were a number of bands that played. The music was great and an evening of fireworks shot off from this bridge.

Below the city marina office.

The Kingston waterfront used to be called the Village of Rondout. In 1828, the Delaware-Hudson Canal was built to haul coal 108 miles from the mountains of Pennsylvania to Rondout for reshipment to cities along the eastern seaboard. Right in front of our boat here in Kingston is a long island that splits Rondout Creek. This island is where they used to store the coal and at its peak in 1870, they shipped 3 million tons of coal. The Village of Rondout was becoming more prosperous than Kingston, so Kingston convinced Rondout to be annexed. We saw old pictures with nothing but piles of coal, but now its totally overgrown with trees.

The next three pictures are looking down our dock at Kingston towards the festival site. I tried to capture how the crowds were growing.

They had a Maritime Museum that we visited. They had 2 or 3 PT boats there that they were going to restore.

We rented a car while at Kingston and visited the Frederick Vanderbilt mansion on the Hudson River. We also visited the Franklin Roosevelt home which was his parents' farm. His parents were well-to-do farmers and I believe that it was 1,000-1,500 acres with servants. He was an only child and always called the farm at Hyde Park, NY home. He married his fifth cousin at the age of about 23 and they lived in his boyhood farmhouse with his mother. A great place to visit but I forgot the camera so I have no pictures. We also visited the FDR Presidential Library located here.

A nice pleasure boat that pulled into the docks while we were there.

Everywhere we go we see rowboats here in the east.

We left Kingston and headed to Newburgh. The next 8 pictures are of our travels between these ports.

This is the Vanderbilt Mansion pretty much hidden by the trees. It is owned by the National Parks Service.

Where we stayed at Newburgh.

The next 6 pictures are of Newburgh. Newburgh was once a vibrant marine center building wooden ships and barges, then on to steam vessels. The town is full of old ornate homes, but unfortunately it has seen its better days. It's overrun with minorities that are just letting it turn into ruin.

George Washington used this home during the Revolutionary War.

Leaving Newburgh, we headed to West Haverstraw, NY. This stretch is particularly pretty and we passed West Point Military Academy.

Approaching West Point heading south on the Hudson.

On the roof of West Point Fieldhouse says "Beat Air Force."

West Point.

The next three pictures are of Haverstraw Marina. As luck would have it, they were having their fireworks while we were there. We spent 2 days here. We tried to stay at Stony Point Bay Marina 1/4 mile upstream from here and had a little trouble getting into their marina. This entire area is shallow and we are now dealing with tidal waters that Deb and I are not used to. Their buoy system was a little confusing, but as we approached we saw a 38-39 foot boat coming out of the marina heading for open waters on the Hudson so we took his exact path. He left a trail of silt but as we tried, we touched ground, got nervous and turned around. We decided to spend $1/foot more for deep water. We paid $3/foot.

Leaving Haverstraw; next stop Manhattan.

Our first view of New York City.

Approaching George Washington Bridge. This is the bridge that the pilot had to clear when he ditched the airliner in the Hudson recently. He was heading in this direction.

The next 4 pictures we are getting closer and closer to downtown Manhattan.

We've arrived in NEW YORK CITY! This is a picture taken from Lincoln Harbor Marina & Yacht Club where we stayed for 3 days. It's directly across the Hudson from the Empire State Building in Weehawken, New Jersey. We arrived July 3rd.