Day 11 – Sailing at Haverstraw on the Hudson.

Drone Video shot: Oct 17th 2017.

Sept 1-2nd, 2008

Roxane and boys flew out this morning on a 9:30AM flight. I escorted them to a taxi that was waiting outside the marina at 5:30AM, and sent them on their way. They had no trouble at all, it was about a 1.5 hour drive to JFK Airport and a 1 hour flight to Buffalo airport. My brother met them there, and drove them to the mini van that was left at PCYC.

Today I was meeting some good friends and clients that live in New Jersey, they drove out to the marina for a fun filled day of sailing. The Zuidema’s have 4 boys, 3 of which came out with mom and dad, Mary and Dave, Seth 12 years old, Caleb 15 and Dave jr 26.

We set out on the river in front of Haverstraw, this part of the river opens up very wide, it is more like a nice sized lake in this area. We set both sails, and the wind actually picked up to over 22 knots. We were sailing, and sailing fast about 8 knots, Dave jr said he never experienced anything like it, he only saw this in movies, Dave sat on the rail with the rest of the boys, not too soon after Mary joined them. Dave Senior was not too sure what to think of all this, since he is a little afraid of the water. Dave must of asked a dozen times, where are the life jackets again?

After sailing around the lake dodging barges for a couple of hours, we tucked ourselves behind a nice peninsula, where about 30-40 power boats were anchored. Here we were pretty protected from the winds, but I wanted to get a little closer so we would be out of the wind. The depth read 8-9 feet, so we dropped anchour. I was so excited to be out sailing again after so many days on the boat, and unable to sail. I felt like I was back home on Lake Ontario again, that I completely forgot about the tides. (More drama to come on this subject.)

We fired up the BBQ, and enjoyed hot dogs, burgers and anything else we could find on the boat. (Roxane said I had to get rid of everything in the fridge.) The boys went swimming in the Hudson right off the swim platform. Dave was a little sea sick, so he went down for a nap. I asked Mary if he was enjoying himself, she assured me he was, this is the way he likes to spend his day off, sleeping!

After a few hours being anchored out, we decided to pull up the anchor and head back to the marina. Well so much for that plan, the tide had started to go out, and we were stuck in the muck pretty good. The dept was 5 feet and dropping, the bulb on the end of the keel was in 1.5 feet of mud. There was no options but to wait out the tide, it would not be high tide again until past mid night. With time to kill, Mary and I jumped in for a swim, and I wanted to check out just how stuck we were. I reported that we were not going anywhere too soon. So the two older boys decided they would swim to the end of the peninsula. Not long after they left, a police boat came by to ask if we were ok. I said we were fine, and I would wait out the tide, but asked if they would not mind dropping my friends off at the Marina. They kindly agreed, but not before having to pick up the boys on land, and off they were.

Our friends the Zuidemas taken ashore by Police boat.

I actually had a very pleasant night waiting for the tide. I sat out in the afternoon sun, and waited for the tide to completely go out and come back again. The water depth went to as low as 4 feet, so 2.5 feet of the keel was in the mud, but the boat remained up right. I then enjoyed a BBQ steak, and some left over pasta. I watched the sun set, listen to some music, and watch the boats go by. At about 9PM the boat started drifting it was free! I started the motor, and continued to head down the river.

My next stop was Peterson’s Boat Yard, just north of the Tappanzee Bridge NY. I arrived there at about 10:00PM, and caught a mooring for the night, more on this to come!