Rip van Winkel

Today was a relatively easy one; we left CBC around 9 and caught a good piece of the outgoing tide. At one time we were moving along at 6.9 knots over the ground. So it didn't take all that long - about 4 hours-to reach the land of Rip Van Winkel, Icabod Crane, Sleepy Hollow, and the headless horseman. I am tied up at a marina in Catskill N.Y. It is dark and the full moon is rising over the hills in the distance. It is quite a lovely scene. They really think a lot of cats in this town. The theme is present everywhere.What Mel did with moose, this town does with cats. The downtown area is well preserved and quite old but "up the hill" you will find the Wal-Mart and other big box stores.
I motor sailed all the way and for about 2 minutes tried to turn off the engine and go on sails power alone. Alas, the tide was against me at that time and I soon reached for the key to activate the "iron genny". It is looking as though much of this trip will be on the motor. The winds in the Hudson River valley are kind of flucky and seem to come at you from different directions every minute.
I have attached a few photos from the download that I did tonight. The first is of Heiner and Marleyn, a couple who I referenced in my last posting. The second is of a waterfront building in Albany N.Y. I don't know what it is but it was impressive. The third is of a barge that passed by me at CBC. The 4th is a long distance shot of the Catskill mountains, and the last is of the crew on the Beneteau, trying to decide how to cut their fenderboards so they would fit in their storage space. "How many sailors does it take to cut a piece of wood?"
Tomorrow will also be a relatively short day. I think that I will stop at Kingston N.Y., anad may be there for more than 1 day of there is anything to see or do. I am only about 80 miles from where I pick up Graham on Friday. The weather promises to be very good over the next week or so, so there will be no problem making the pick-up as scheduled, and we should be able to make good progress on getting through New York City and on to the New Jersey coast.
I am tied up next to a crew aboard a large Beneteau sailboat. It is their plan to try to go from Tarrytown N.Y. to the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay in 30 hours. They will be sailing non-stop and going the outside route, once they leave Tarrytown. I guess that it will take me about a month to do the same distance.

It is turning out that many of the marinas have Wi-Fi. If this trend continues, I will have no choice but to do a lot of writing. Until the next time, or "a la prochaine"

Mike