Hudson River and Erie Canal 2023

 As you can see I didn't get this post out before the end of 2023...not even close.

Sooooo after leaving Philadelphia we traveled down the Delaware Bay to Cape May NJ and then along the coast to Staten Island NY. While traveling the Lower Bay near Sandy Hook we heard radio chatter about whales in the area. Jill began scanning the area and, sure enough spotted a whale tail slapping the surface. Unfortunately my concentration was fixed of an oil tanker approaching outbound from Raritan Bay so I have yet to see one. We spent a week Great Kills YC and met up with our friends Bryan & Vickie who flew in to travel up the Hudson with is. Luckily they are brewery fans too!

  Leaving Great Kills we traveled into NY harbor to Liberty Landing in NJ. This is an expensive stop but decided to treat ourselves. The views of Manhattan are amazing. Traveling into the Hudson on a Sunday made it much less stressful as there is less traffic.

We made a swing by the Statue of Liberty so our guests could get the obligatory photo op.

And then on to the marina.

A nice thing about staying on the NJ side is that it's very close to the Empty Sky Memorial for 9/11 and the ferry to NY leaves right from the marina.

After a visit to the city we continued up the Hudson to the town of Croton-On Hudson. It was a perfect weather day to travel and take in the sights along the way.

In Croton we rented a car and went to the Croton dam which was much more impressive than our last visit in 2016 as the water was actually flowing this time. We also took the opportunity to visit a couple of breweries as well!

The next stretch of the trip is the most scenic as the river has mountains on both sides and we travel past West Point. Unfortunately to was grey and threatening rain all day. 

Once we got into Kingston the rain started and continued through the night but we made the best of it!

We stayed an extra day so we could enjoy the town and were even able to find....a brewery! By this point in the trip Jill's knees were really giving here fits. We knew that replacement surgery was in the future, just didn't expect it this soon. With the help of our e-bikes and scooters she was a trouper at keeping up with the fun!

Ask her how she got the name Col. Curby sometime....

Next stop was the fun little town of Catskill NY. This happens to be the home port of our friends on OLOH and they came home from their summer cruise the next day. We were happy to get a chance to catch up with them even for a brief visit.

AJ must be making drinks...

The final leg of the Hudson takes us through Troy NY to Waterford and the start of the Erie Canal.

Troy, NY.

Bryan & Vickie were able to travel the first part of the Erie to Schenectady with us before they had to jump ship and return to the real life. It was great having them and, as fellow boaters they are easy to travel with as they "get" the idea of boat life. 

It was while in Schenectady that I heard about the passing of Jimmy Buffett. This was a shock and a gut punch. Having boated as long as I have JB was the song track that went naturally along with our travels. I can't begin to count the number of his concerts I have attended but some of the best were when we weren't even inside but anchored "backstage" listening from the deck of Chasing 80 and grilling cheeseburgers. The best I could offer in tribute was to fly his Landshark flag for the remainder of the trip.

Fins Up!

It's a pretty easy 4 day trip across the Erie with some nice small towns to visit along the way. We were putting the boat in winter storage near Brewerton NY., a first for us. As we traveled we could see the leaves just starting to change so we knew it was time to "head for the barn".

One of the small towns was Ilion, NY. The home to Remington Arms at that time. We found a funky little pub across from the plant that hosted workers after shift's for decades, called the Crossway's Tavern. I understand the plant has shut down and moved south. I can only hope places like Crossway's can hang on till we visit again!

The last stop before crossing Lake Onida to our winter port was Sylvan Beach. This is a cute stop with an old time amusement park that had already closed for the season (another sign to head south). We found one beach bar open with the perfect sign for us over the bar.

Back at the boat it was confirmed we had made the right decision to not cross the lake today.

The next day was calm and cool for 20 mile run across the lake to Winter Harbor Marina. After spending a few days cleaning up the boat and packing full a rental SUV we said goodbye to Chasing 80 and headed south returning home in mid September.

Jill had already made an appointment with our Ortho who confirmed that it was time. Which one she asked...your call...they're both bad. Well by mid October she had her right knee replaced. We were both amazed at how smoothly it all went and she is already looking forward to having the left done this fall.

That being said...our original plans for this summer had been to travel the Down East Circle Loop (look it up). We decided that may be a bit ambitious for this year so we are putting it off till 2025. The "plan" for this year is now to travel Lake Champlain, the Ottawa River, Rideau Canal back to and around Lake Ontario returning to storage in the same place. This will allow us shorter travel days and more stops to hopefully take some stress off of that left knee!

We hope to be back in the water and ready to start around Memorial Day. The tracker and NEBO will both be on so you can follow along. We'll be heading back east on the Erie to Waterford where we'll go north on the Hudson to the Champlain Canal. Here's hoping Crossway's is still open for a cold one along the way!