Day 1 on the Erie

We are docked for the night at Lock 8 after transiting through 7 locks today - not bad for just under 6 hrs. of cruising time.  Some one told us last week that after our first day of locks, we would be experts, so I guess we have now earned that distinction.  We are currently more than 200 ft higher in elevation than when we left Waterford this morning.  Most of the locks have free walls on either end where you can dock for the night and some are better than others.  Major highways and train tracks tend to run along the Mohawk River, so many of these free docks are subject to highway and train noise.  I guess you get what you pay for!

We finally saw our first bald eagle today - at least I did.  We were just preparing to enter a lock, so Mark was otherwise occupied.  I think I got a pretty good picture of the eagle as he landed in a tree.

We are keeping our travel plans flexible each day as many marine facilities here are still rebuilding after Hurricane Irene came this way last year.  It is amazing that the locks are up and running after so much damage.  

Entering the Erie Canal

We have just spent two wonderful days at the Waterford, NY Visitors Center docks before beginning our trip through the Erie Canal.  The first afternoon was spent washing and drying four loads of laundry and the second morning was spent buying and putting away lots of groceries, but we still had plenty of time to explore the area.  Waterford claims to be the oldest continuously inhabited, incorporated village in the United States, or something like that. 

This afternoon we walked over to Lock #2 to watch a boat lock through.  This is the first of a series of 5 locks, known as the Waterford Flight, that we will be transiting in the morning.  These 5 locks lift your boat more than 167 ft. in less than 2 miles and it takes about 2 hr to pass through all of them.  If that doesn't totally exhaust us, then we will probably move further tomorrow and tackle some more locks. 

We are still in awe of how beautiful the Hudson River was, but did not see as much wildlife as we expected.  No bald eagles spotted, but we did see a few deer.  Mark spotted this one swimming across the river in front of us. 

Lighthouse are one of my passions and these are two of the many attractive ones that we saw coming up the Hudson - Esopus Meadows Lighthouse and Rondout Lighthouse. 

Memorial Day on the Hudson

We finally made it out of New Jersey , through NYC, and are now anchored in the Hudson just one day away from the beginning of the Erie Canal.  The weather forecasts are starting to sound like the Chesapeake Bay - hazy, hot, and humid with a chance of thunderstorms.  Hopefully, we won't get slammed too bad this afternoon.  We had a good trip from Manasquan, NJ  to Great Kills Harbor on Staten Island last Wed.  As it turned out, that was the only good weather day as fog had everything socked in for the  next couple of days. We took advantage of the bad weather to spend a night off the boat in Manhattan where we visited our favorite deli, Carnegie's, and saw a Broadway play - Sister Act.  We had a great time and when the sun peeked out again Saturday morning we pointed our bow toward the Verazzano Narrows Bridge , Manhattan's Battery, the Hudson River and points north.  The scenery along the Hudson is beautiful beyond belief.  We didn't realize that we would be cruising right through the Appalachian Mountains - in fact, we motored under the Bear Mountain Bridge which carries the Appalachian Trail over the Hudson.  It was exciting to pass right by West Point, but disappointing that they no longer allow visiting boats to stop there.  Last night we docked in Kingston, NY where the waterfront area has been revitalized after years of neglect.  It was a pleasant and quaint little stop.  After provisioning and catching up on laundry, we'll probably try to rest some the next few days in anticipation of the many locks that are awaiting us in the coming days.

Times Square

Lady Liberty

Bear Mountain Bridge - Hudson River

NY - tomorrow - maybe?

We are currently anchored in the Metedeconk River - about 6 miles from Manasquan Inlet, which is our jumping-off point for New York Harbor.  Unless there is a drastic change in the weather forecast between now and tomorrow morning (which is entirely possible), we will be in Great Kills Harbor sometime tomorrow afternoon.  The last few days have been wild and wooly! - lots of wind - make that lots and lots of wind and whitecaps on the inland waterway. While it wasn't dangerous, it was definitely uncomfortable.  Saturday we traveled from Cape May to Atlantic City.  This was our first visit to Atlantic City and after several hrs., we had seen all of it we needed to see.  I did make a profit of $22.25 with my $5.00 investment in the slot machines at the Golden Nugget.  Early Sunday morning we were underway again and ended up at the Tom's River Yacht Club, where we were warmly welcomed.  Yesterday was rainy and foggy, so we decided just to stay where we were, but did move from the club's docks to the adjacent anchorage.  Keep your fingers crossed that when you next tune in, you will be reading of our uneventful passage to NYC.

Atlantic City Boardwalk

Mark at Atlantic City beach

Our neighbor at Farley Marina

The Golden Nugget

The Golden Nugget by night

Leaving Atlantic City in our wake

Waiting for weather in Cape May, NJ

One of the facts of life on a boat is that you are at the mercy of nature, so here we sit in Cape May waiting for the wind and waves to subside so we can make our way to New York.  We have two choices from here - one is bad and the other is worse.  We can creep our way up the NJ inland waters as far as Manasquan, but it is very shallow and running aground is a distinct possibility.  The other option is to head out in the Atlantic, which with NE 15-20 with gusts to 25 and 4-6 ft seas, would be definitely uncomfortable - if not dangerous.  I guess we could opt to wait here for a better forecast, but it looks like we'd be waiting almost a week.  So, tomorrow we plan to set out on the inland route.  Stay tuned to see how it turns out!

Since our last update, we have visited two of our favorite Chesapeake Bay towns - Annapolis and Baltimore.  We spent a quiet Sunday evening on a mooring just inside the Spa Creek bridge in Annapolis.  Monday morning we motored through rain showers to Baltimore, where we docked at Harbor East Marina.  About 30 yrs ago we lived just south of Baltimore and the entire Harbor East neighborhood was non-existent at that time.  Today it consists of numerous high-rise office and condo buildings with many trendy shops and restaurants.  It is a short walk to Little Italy and Fells Point.  The highlights of our Baltimore stop included lunch at Bertha's in Fells Point (famous for their mussels), dinner at Sabatino's in Little Italy, and an Orioles-Yankees games (which the O's won!). It took us a day and a half to cruise from Baltimore to Cape May, stopping overnight on the Conhansey River off of Delaware Bay.  The big excitement on that leg was meeting a huge ship in the C&D Canal.  Well, happy hour beckons, so that's all for now.

Sunrise - Patuxent River, Maryland

Chesapeake Bay's Thomas Point Light

Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Sunset over Cohansey River

Cape May, NJ

Gray and gloomy means great going

We are docked at the Solomons Island Yacht Club in Solomons, MD after a fairly smooth trip across the mouth of the Potomac River.  We left Hampton YC Wed afternoon approximately 1 hr. after my plane landed.  It was pouring down rain, but the seas were flat and the winds were calm, so we motored out into the Chesapeake Bay.  For our non-boating friends, here is a little weather primer - when we talk about good weather, we are not necessarily talking about sunshine and blue skies.  We are talking about flat seas and calm winds.  Actually the winds don't have to be calm as long as the seas are flat.  Thursday was the kind of day that most people would have called "beautiful" - lots of sun and blue skies, but we stayed anchored in the East River for a second night because the wind was blowing 15-20 out of the north and the waves were 3 ft.  That does not make for a good ride when you are headed north.  Yesterday was still a bit choppy on the Bay, but we did make it from the East River to Fishing Bay.  Today was a good day and we are glad to be able to step off the boat for the first time since Wednesday.  Our plans for the next week include stops in Annapolis and Baltimore before heading thru the C&D Canal to the Delaware Bay and New Jersey.

Hampton Crabbers

Great boating weather - really!

              Sunrise over the East River                                                                    

New Point Comfort Light

Pride of Baltimore II

Smith Point Light

Point No Point Light

Time to move

Calypso has been docked for over a week now at Hampton Yacht Club and I am afraid that if we stay much longer, we will be permanently attached.  This was a planned stop so that I could fly to Atlanta to take my mother for a hot air balloon ride to celebrate her 86th birthday.  This was on her bucket list, but I assured her I was not going to help her do everything on her list as I want her to have lots of reasons to keep living.  We have enjoyed our time in Hampton, visiting with old friends, reprovisioning, and completing lots of boat chores.  Many, many thanks to our good friends, Tom and Judy, for loaning us a car for the duration of our visit.  They will be shocked when they see how many miles we put on  that car.  I fly back to Hampton tomorrow and off we go! Stay tuned for the next chapter in Calypso's journey.

First leg completed!

A home in River Dunes Plantation

A barge slips by us in the Chesapeake-Albemarle canal

An interesting planter

NS - generous sponsor of our retirement

Keep the coal moving - keep the pension coming

          

                         Always a thrill to cruise by Norfolk Naval Base                                

On the 22nd day of our Great Loop cruise, we completed the first leg of this adventure when we arrived at the Hampton Yacht Club in Hampton, VA.  The plan is to stay here for about a week while we catch up with old friends and while I take a short trip down to Atlanta to take my mother on a hot air balloon ride for her 86th birthday.  It was with mixed feelings that we ended our Atlantic ICW portion of this trip.  In some ways, it was a great way to begin because our familiarity with the ICW made us very comfortable.  On the other hand, that same familiarity tended to make the trip boring at times.  We did discover four new anchorages and three new marinas on this trip.  Our worst day was last Saturday when we crossed Albemarle Sound (NC).  In 8 or 10 crossings of the Albemarle, I think we have only had one that was pleasant.  I am always amazed that we have the technology to put people on the moon, but NOAA cannot predict or even report the weather accurately.  We were "supposed" to have E 10-15, but instead we had NE 20-25 - BIG DIFFERENCE!  Then, to make it even more exciting when you are crashing through the waves with water coming over the pilothouse, someone has decided to put lots of crabtraps in the channel - but, we made it safely!  When we leave Hampton, we will spend a few weeks on the Chesapeake Bay before heading north to New Jersey and New York.