Still Waiting

As of today June 29th we are still waiting at Shady Harbor Marina with many other boaters for the Erie Canal to open all locks so we can head toward Lake Ontario into Canada.  The recent rains from up north keep causing flooding issues for the canal.  We are lucky to be in a nice spot with electric and everything we need while we wait.  Those up in the canal system are not as lucky from what we are hearing.  Each day we wait for the update and today it seems it will be at least a few more days.  We really have no choice but to wait here.  We are to far to return and so we wait. This is VERY UNUSUAL.

Waiting for the Erie Canal

We have come nearly to the end of our journey on the Hudson River of 134 miles but are now forced to wait a few days here at the Shady Harbor Marine for the Erie Canal to  open back up.  The recent tropical storm a few weeks back caused flooding and damage to the canals and they are under repair .  There are just a few more to fix and we are hearing that we should be able to get under way again by Friday. We have not slowed down very much on this trip so perhaps this is a good time to clean and work on the boat and get in some major supplies. We do feel lucky that we have found a nice marine at an average price that comes with all we need including a transient car to borrow for supplies.  We have not had one of those for a while. There are several boats here that are doing the loop and waiting with us.  The couple who run the Active Captain website are also here. Several boats have been waiting  for over a week already so we feel lucky that our stay will be much shorter.  Below are some pictures I have taken as we finished traveling the Hudson the last couple of days and where we are now.  I will not blog again until we get under way and head up to the Erie Canal system.

Saugerties Lighthouse is now a Bed and Breakfast

              
             

Lots of Lighthouses

Rip Van Winkle Bridge in the Catskill Mountains

                              
                  

U.S.S.Slater in Albany, New York is the last World War II Destroyer Escort still afloat in the United States

Waiting at the Shady Harbor Marina

Up the Hudson River

We have been putting the miles away on the Hudson River.  The scenic beauty on this stretch is breathtaking.  We have gone past Peekskill, West Point, Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, Hyde Park, and we are now spending the night at Kingston NY. This is the town known for quarring blue stone years ago. The weather on this stretch has been near perfect. We should make Troy tomorrow which would set us up to enter the Erie Canal but Tropical storm Andrea dropped so much rain earlier on this section that parts of the canal are still closed.  We hear it could be next Tuesday or  Wednesday before the entire canal is open. Several have been waiting for close to a week already.  We should only have to wait a few days it appears. We will know more tomorrow.  The pictures below do not really do justice to the view we have seen but I wanted to share a few.

Mountains

      
                       

What a View

West Point

                           

                                    

West Point

The Esopus Lighthouse Outside of Kingston

       

Rondout Lighthouse

Mansions on High Trains at the Base

New York and the Hudson River

Last night we anchored behind Sandy Hook and got off to an early start this morning to enter New York Harbor.  What a sight to see from the boat.  We saw the Statute of Liberty in the distance and slowly approached her mile after mile.  It was a sight to remember from our viewpoint. We were looking at Ellis Island  to one side and Long Island to the other side. The harbor itself was quite busy and the captain did a great job of manuvering us through. We then began our journey up the Hudson River.  This river runs for 315 miles but we will exit at Troy where we will enter the Erie Canal.  The currents in this river are very unpredictable.  Most of the time today we were only traveling at 5.5 mph.  A slow but beautiful day. The Palisades stretch for 20 miles from Jersey City, N.J. north to Nyack,N.Y. They were on our port side for several hours.  We passed one town after another each with a story of its own.  We passed Yonkers, Tarrytown, Nyack, Ossining, and Haverstraw where we  pulled into a marina for the night.  Washington Irving said to be the first American author to earn a living by writing, loved the Hudson River.  This is where in 1820 the short story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow began. Note the name of the town, Tarrytown.  Today was one of the most scenic that we have had. Tomorrow we continue on up the Hudson River.

Lady Liberty Coming Into View

                  


Coming Closer



The Palisades

Jersey Shores

In the last couple of days we have covered the Jersey Shores and finished the ICW.  We had 65 more miles of ICW after Atlantic City.  Since then we have anchored out  and spent last night at Clark's Marina to prepare for going into the Atlantic for our jump from Manasquan Inlet to New York. As we finished the Jersey Shores we saw more and more of the destruction of Hurricane Sandy. Much has been done but there is still a lot to do. We traveled through another small canal called Point Pleasant and came out of the inlet at Manasquan to enter the Atlantic.  Today we made the leg of the Atlantic and we are now anchored in Sandy Hook with the view of New York in the distance. The oldest lighthouse of the United States is also here at Sandy Point which we can see in the distance.  Sandy Hook looks across the New York Harbor Inlet.  Good bye Jersey, hello New York.

Hurricane Sandy Destruction

             

Manasquan Inlet into the Atlantic

Oldest Light Tower in the United States (1764)

Cape May to Atlantic City

We are now traveling the ICW part of the trip that Hurricane Sandy hit so hard. Opinions vary as to whether or not to take the ICW in this part of the trip up to New York or to go out in the Atlantic. We have chosen to take the ICW.  The channel needs to be traveled only on the rising tide.  Boats that draft more than 5ft should not go this way. After a long day yesterday and over 50 miles we made it to Atlantic City!  We took a shuttle into the main drag of town to see Trump's Taj Mahal, Showboat Casino , the new Revel and the Boardwalk.  We were impressed but decided we liked Las Vegas better. This morning we left out a bit later and made our way another 55 miles up the Jersey coast. The captain is happy to say that we touched bottom but have never been grounded yet. After a short trip up the coast tomorrow to finish the ICW  we will check into a marina at Manasquan and wait for weather that will allow us to go  out into the Atlantic to  Sandy Hook just inside New York Harbor. As of today we have traveled over 3,000 miles.

Always Another Bridge

    
                

Atlantic City Coastline

On to Cape May New Jersey

We finally got under way on Saturday morning bright an early to catch the tide in our favor for the trip down the Delaware Bay.  The wait was worth it. The weather was good and the currents carried us up to 11 miles an hour at times.  The crossing of the Delaware went great.  We then entered into Cape May canal which took us on into our marina for the night.  We chose to stay at the highly suggested Utsch's Marina. What a nice surprise, they give everyone a bottle of sangria.  We found ourselves in a small town and a shark fishing tournament was going on at the marina down the street.  Not a good day for the poor sharks. This  area coming up was hit the hardest by Hurricane Sandy.  There are many areas that we will have to be very careful in traveling because of all the shoaling and destruction. Actually we are sitting at anchor now waiting for the tide to rise so we can go through this area. We had hoped to make Atlantic City tonight but I do not think that will happen since we are sitting at anchor waiting now.

Delaware Bay Lighthouse

            
                     

Entrance to Cape May Canal

We Ar Now in New Jersey

               
                          

Cape May Area



Back on the ICW (The Meadows)


                    
                    
                

Utsch's Marina

Waiting in Delaware City

We have been weather waiting here at the Delaware City Marina since Wednesday afternoon.  Hopefully we will be leaving tomorrow.  The rains are gone but the high winds were predicted to be 15 to 20 knots for today.  NOT a day to tackle the Delaware Bay.  The harbormaster here has been very helpful to all of us boaters that are waiting to go down the Delaware.  He gives us a weather briefing every evening and allows us to stay for half price if it is weather related. While waiting Mike has done some necessary maintenance on the engine.  He changed both of our fuel filters, tightened the shaft packing, and gave Rocky a clean bill of health.  As of today we have covered 2,867 miles.  We have enjoyed walking the old canal front but it is hopefully time to move on tomorrow.

Located in the Old C&D Canal

                         

Boats Waiting With My Therapy

C&DCanal to Delaware City

We have now finished the Chesapeake Bay and left Maryland behind.  Today we traveled the C&D Canal between Chesapeake Bay and Delaware Bay and got our first look  at the Delaware Bay. We are spending tonight at the Delaware City Marine before we take off on the 56 mile trip down the Delaware Bay. We need to make sure the weather is good for this full day of travel in the open waters of the bay. At this time the weather forecast for tomorrow is NOT good which is why we chose a marina tonight. The weather is thunderstorms, high winds, possible tornadoes.  We will probably be right here until Friday. We did arrive in time today to take a tour of Fort Delaware out on the island in front of Delaware City. There is so much history all along the eastern coastline.  Fort Delaware is where the POWS from Gettysburg were taken we found out today.  This is a terrific old fort and many people are even in the dress of the period and give talks as you walk throughout the fort.

Exiting the C&D Canal

        
              

Entering Delaware City

Fort Delaware

           
                           

Fort Delaware

Annapolis

Back out into the Chesapeake Bay today.  The seas were moderate to rough.  Our destination today was Annapolis, Maryland which is just off the Chesapeake up the Severn River.We traveled about 54 miles today.  I did forget to mention yesterday that we had made it into Maryland.  The Solomons are also in Maryland. Several large tankers were seen in the distance today.  We passed by a large oil unloading facility today. We are anchored on a mooring ball tonight that was put out by the Academy for a first come first serve basis.  Luckily there were a few left when we arrived.  We would be required to vacate if a hurricane came so the navy can put their boats on. Lets hope we never hear those words.  The storms, winds, and rain have been enough for us.

Platform to Unload Oil

                     

Annapolis MD

Sunday at The Solomons

Today we made our way to the Solomons on the Patuxent River. About 18 miles up the Chesapeake from Tangier we encountered a shipwreck a few hundred yards off the shipping lane.  As you can see by the holes rusted through the hull this ship has been here a long, long time. We also sounded our deepest water of the trip so far at 125 ft. Weather today was good and so were the seas.  We are now anchored in the Patuxent River where we have taken the dinghy in to see the streets of Solomons. People quit often want to spell our last name this way. Oysters, clams, and fish were processed, canned and shipped on ice from here in the Solomons earlier years. This is a beautiful old maritime settlement.

Old Shipwreck

                 
              

Solomons

Tangier Island

We spent Saturday afternoon and night in Tangier Island.  This quaint old town deserved a blog of its own. You really feel like you have stepped back into time. This is a watermans community and crabbing is the livelihood here. Everthing here is brought in by boat. Most who come here remain here it seems.  A few family names dominate the entire small town.  There is a school here for all grades and it has about 75 children.  The population is 650. It is a very religious town and does not have a single bar. We sayed at Parks Marina which is the only public marina and it is run by Mr. Parks who is 82 years. This town has more cats than people it seems and the graves are in the front or back yards of each home.  If you are ever near here you should boat in.  

Tangier Island

Graves

                        
                     

Crab Pots

             

Crab Shacks

       
                     

Plenty of Cats

Up the Chesapeake to Tangier Lsland

Saturday June 7th we finally got underway.  The first few hours were overcast but fine until the thunderstorm winds caught up with us.  This is one ride we will not soon forget.  As the pictures show everything was thrown around on deck above and below. This lasted about and hour and we were glad when the front passed and we were close to our destination of Tangier Island. As the captain says we laid to for about 30 mintues.  Which means safety of crew and boat comes first and destination comes second.  In other words we went off course to handle the waves because there was no other place to go. In the end we were fine and actually nothing of any value was broken.  We usually prepare the cabin for crossing large bays. The sun came out and we went on to Tangier Island.

Storm Clouds Coming

       
                       

Upper Deck (I was on the Floor Too)

Inside the Cabin

            
                  

We're Back

 We returned late on Thursday night June the 6th.  Our plan was to leave out on Friday morning but tropical storm Andrea had plenty to say about that.  We had to remain at Deltaville Marina for one more night as the winds were gusty and there was plenty of rain.We were in a great spot and the people there were very helpful. On Saturday we did not have any signal to blog so I am behind and will do several enteries tonight.Our time home went all to fast. We enjoyed seeing family and friends. We picked up the cats from Dave and Kayla and took them to our daughter in Kokomo. Our grandchildren Laura and Caleb will help to take care of them and give them the attention they need. It was hard to say goodbye again for me, but Mike is anxious to return. The yard looked great, thanks Owen and the house and mail were all in order thanks to Dan.

Portsmouth and Norfolk

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent in Portsmouth and Norfolk Virginia.  The history of this area takes you back to the beginning.  George Washington was here and the naval shipyards were and still are a major force in this area.  Navy ships abound as well as large shipping areas. We were able to find a free dock right in the middle of it all. This area makes mobile bay look small. I now understand all of my past history lessons.  We toured the  Battleship Wisconsin, saw several historical homes and visited the MacArthur Memorial.  Below are several pictures to give you an idea of what we saw. We left out this morning and began our trip across Chesapeake Bay. Mother Nature was very much in our favor and we enjoyed the 58 miles to Deltaville  across the open bay where we are now tied up in a small marina preparing to close up the boat and come home for our weeks visit. We have met our goal ahead of schedule and the MY THERAPY has done her best for us.  We have at this point put on over 2,600 miles of the trip.  We are anxious to see family and visit friends for a few days. The next half will take us longer and up through Canada.  This blog will pick back up when we return.  What a first half!

Battleship Wisconsin

                       

General Douglas MacArthur Memorial

Portsmouth Lighthouse Ship

             

               

Norfolk Harbor

MY Therapy at Port in Portsmouth

       
                    


Passing Traffic (Required to Stay Back 500 Yards)



A Sea of Shipping Containers

                           
                         

Norfolk Virginia

Out Into the Chesapeake Bay