New Baltimore New York to Whitehall New York – June 18, 2017

Jun 16^th – It was a cool and rainy day with moderate winds decreasing throughout the day.  We decided to stay one more day at Shady Harbor Marina to take advantage of the pay for 2 days and get one day for free deal.  I took a bucket of soapy water down in the bilge to wash off anything that looked like it may have had a salt residue from our salt water travels.  I also lubed some of the parts that developed some corrosion/rust.  Afterwards a nice hot shore shower and then I spent the afternoon watching movies while Maria got caught up on her shows on Netflix.  We went to the on-site Boat house restaurant for an early Fathers day dinner and had their Prime Rib special … It was Exxxcellent! 

Jun 17^th – It started out as a muggy cloudy day and transitioned to an extremely hot and sunny day with the winds increasing at the end of the day.  We left Shady Harbor Marina this morning and headed 33 miles up the Hudson river through 3 locks to Mechanicville New York and pulled into their free town dock.  We first headed to get a pump out at Shady Harbor’s fuel dock, however they weren’t open yet thus I pumped the boat out myself with their permission.  Our first lock was the Troy Lock … after passing through this lock we are out of tidal waters … yea!  We then continued on the Champlain Canal route and went through the first 2 Champlain locks.  The free town dock is great and it has power and water as well as washrooms with showers better than most marinas that we’ve visited.  We walked into town to tour around a bit and then get some supplies and headed back for a BBQ dinner on the boat.  Later we walked back into town to get some “Ben & Jerry’s” Ice Cream … Yum!

Jun 18^th – Happy Fathers Day!  It was a hot and mostly sunny day with moderate winds which increased in the afternoon.  We got up early and left the Mechanicville town dock to travel north 50 miles on the Hudson / Champlain Canals through 8 locks to Whitehall New York and pulled into their town dock which is free with free power & water.  I’m liking these free docks … Exxxcellent!  The locks opened at 7am and close at 5pm thus we were concerned about making it through 8 locks, however there wasn’t much boating traffic and most locks were ready to take us on arrival.  Our daughter Amanda called us on route … which made it a challenging call especially since we had a poor signal.  Communications with my Dad and our son, Sean, happened after we arrived in Whitehall when we were able to relax and focus on the people instead of the navigation.  We met a few boaters on the free dock and then decided to walk into town to do some exploring and ended up getting take out pizza from Joe’s Pizza which was Exxxcellent!  A great Fathers Day dinner … Pizza & Beer!

An interesting building that we passed on the Hudson

Going through Locks once again ... 11 in the last couple days

Most Loopers went left (Erie) and we went right

Bambie on the side of the Hudson

Am I supposed to go under this?  Apparently it's 17' high

Another pretty Hudson River view

Free Town Dock in Mechanicsville

A Moo Moo here and a Moo Moo there ...

Hmmm ... Did my wake do that!?

Nice view

What is this?  Is it going to drop when I go under it?

Happy Fathers Day!  Pizza & Beer!

Still in New Baltimore New York – June 15, 2017

Jun 13^th – It was another extremely hot and mostly sunny day with moderate winds.  We’re still at Shady Harbor Marina and it looks like we’ll have to stay longer … I can hear people saying “Why”?  Well … I tackled more boat jobs … adding distilled water to the batteries, checking all the boat fluid levels, cleaning out all the sea strainers and then checking for loose nuts and bolts in the engine compartment … and then I found a broken motor mount on the starboard side of the port engine.  This is the same engine that had a broken motor mount replaced in Green Turtle Bay.  After they replaced the broken motor mount I believed we still had issues and called the Service department at Green Turtle Bay but they told me our engine was aligned properly.  Well something is causing the issue thus first we have to locate a replacement part and then we’ll need to identify the root cause.  It appears that we’ll be stuck here for a number of days until it’s fixed and hopefully we identify why we’ve broken 2 motor mounts on the same engine.  The mechanic here seems to be knowledgeable, however there is only one mechanic at this marina thus he’s extremely busy.  I’ll be doing some of the grunt work myself to help him as well as help me reduce the labour cost.  At the end of the day we said our goodbyes to Scott & Karen (“Last Call”) since they’ll be leaving early in the morning to head for the Erie Canal.  Once we get up and running again we’ll be following the Champlain Canal route.   

Jun 14^th – It was a warm sunny windy day.  We’re still at Shady Harbor Marina waiting for our replacement motor mount to arrive.  Apparently it should be here sometime tomorrow, however the mechanic may not be available to install it until Friday morning.  This morning I disconnected the coupler between the prop shaft and the transmission and the good news is that the alignment was good between the motor and the shaft.  Once we install the motor mount we’ll need to test it to see if we’re still getting a vibration … if so maybe our underwater gear has an issue.  We also lost our inside lighting on our aft deck a while back thus I tried to determine the issue today.  I found some ground issues however it seems that power isn’t making through the hard top … perhaps there’s a break in the wire some where???  Oh well, I decided to leave the rest of the job for another day since it will be a big job to run a new wire from the flybridge into the hardtop … a job for another day.

Jun 15^th – It was a warm day with a mix of sun and clouds with the winds progressively increasing throughout the day with late day showers.  Yep … we’re still in Shady Harbor Marina.  The replacement motor mount arrived today and Pete, the mechanic, installed it while I did some of the grunt work.  Everything went well and the engine is in alignment and the test run proved that the underwater gear is aligned as well.  The port engine has a bit of a vibration when running at high RPMs thus the mechanic recommended that we have a Volvo diesel mechanic give the engine a good tune up when we get home.  It was a rainy evening thus we had dinner on the boat and watched a movie.  You’ll notice I’ve added a few old pictures that were taken by “Last Call” since we’ve been busy with our boat fixes.

Pool time at Shady Harbor Marina

After dinner pic of us with Jim & Mandy (Shell Belle)

Aqua-Fennatic amongst the Swans

New York, New York

Aren't we cute ;)

Oh my gosh ... they ganged up on me ... Look at how shocked I am!

Would you wear this as you BBQed your dinner?

Haverstraw New York to New Baltimore New York – June 12, 2017

Jun 10^th – It was a hot and sunny day with moderate winds.  We pulled up our anchor from Haverstraw and headed 65 miles north up the Hudson River to Saugerties New York and anchored in Esopus Creek.  On the way we stopped at Panco Fuels in Haverstraw to take on some diesel and get a pump-out.  During our travels we encountered a large number of Looper boats which left Half Moon Bay marina which was close by our Haverstraw anchorage.  We had to be very attentive to the water today since there’s lots of floating debris in the Hudson but we also were very attentive to our surroundings since the scenery around the Hudson is beautiful.  We invited Scott and Karen (Last Call) over for dinner on our boat and enjoyed their company while we watched the sun go down.

Jun 11^th – It was an extremely hot and sunny day with moderate winds.  We pulled up our anchor from Esopus Creek and headed 30 miles north on the Hudson River to New Baltimore New York and grabbed a slip at Shady Harbor Marina for 3 nights.  The marina hosted a pig roast for all of the boaters at the marina including at least 15 other Looper boats that are here with us.  I tried to revive our bikes from all the salt water baths they were exposed to but they were too far gone thus we removed them from the boat and retired them … unfortunately they didn’t survive the trip, however they were over 20 years old thus they don’t owe us anything.  Our plan is to buy replacement bikes once we get back home.  We then headed up to the Pig roast and of course there was tons of food as well as a guy playing/singing great tunes with his guitar.  It was so hot that we had to go for a dip in the pool … which was very refreshing since it was only opened yesterday.  We plan to stay a few days to enjoy the hot weather that is forecasted as well as to accomplish a few jobs on the boat.

Jun 12^th – It was another extremely hot and sunny day with moderate winds.  We accomplished a number of boat related jobs today including removing the bike rust stains from our deck, removing the mustache from the front of our boat, removing the rust stains from our davit system, cleaning the dingy, washing the boat, defrosting the fridge, etc.  After lots was accomplished we headed to the pool with a few loopers to cool off.  We then joined a large group of loopers at the on-site restaurant for dinner.  It was a productive day!

We look so small!

More Hudson River scenery

West Point Military Academy on the Hudson

It's a race ... Us vs the sailboat ... who's going to win?

Is this a lighthouse or someone's home?

Our bikes didn't complete the loop ... Thanks for all the good times :(

Pig roast at Shady Harbor Marina

There were lots of Loopers at Shady Harbor's pig roast ... Exxxcellent!

Looper Noodle Soup with extra Noodles!

One of the Looper tables for dinner at Shady Harbour

Shady Harbor is flying a Canadian Flag ... We feel so special!

Coney Island New York to Haverstraw New York – June 9, 2017

Jun 6^th – It was a cool and rainy day with moderate winds.  We pulled up our anchor from Coney Island and travelled 11 miles to Staten Island New York and pulled into a slip in Mansion Marina.  It looked like it was going to be a crappy day thus we decided to do some chores.  Maria did some laundry while I washed the salt off the boat and flushed out the dingy motor with fresh water.  We no longer have to venture out into the ocean thus we should see less salt on the boat from this point onward and soon we’ll be in fresh water … I can’t wait!  I also walked into town to get my hair cut since I started to feel a little like Crusty the Clown!  We met the New York AGLCA harbour host and picked his brain for our NYC visit which will start tomorrow with a visit to the Statue of Liberty.  And to close the day we joined 6 other Looper boat couples for dinner at a place called Coles. 

Jun 7^th – It was a cool day with a mix of sun and clouds and moderate winds.  We are still in Staten Island and will be for a least a couple more nights while we explore NYC.  We grabbed a cab this morning with Scott and Karen (“Last Call”) to go to Liberty State Park in New Jersey to take the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and to Ellis Island.  We learned that we would have been better to take the ferry from New York since we could have used public transportation to get us there.  After our island visits we headed back to New York and had to figure out where to get a MetroCard so we could use the X1 Express bus to get back … Once we had this figured out we walked down Wall Street and back and decided to head back to the boats and we were successful!  Then Karen and Scott made us an Exxxcellent dinner including angel hair pasta with an amazing sauce loaded with fresh shrimp.

Jun 8^th – It was another cool day with a mix of sun and clouds and moderate winds at Mansion marina in Great Kills harbour.  We caught the bus into Manhattan with Scott and Karen (“Last Call”) and had a great bus driver, Frank, that gave us some great tips/information for our 2^nd visit to the big apple.  We took the bus directly to Central Park to meet up with Joe for a carriage ride around the park.  Joe was knowledgeable about the area and his trusty horse, Dante, pulled the carriage around the park while Joe told us stories about the area.  After the ride we walked to Time Square which was filled with people and enormous TV screens everywhere.  We lined up for theatre tickets however it was going to be at least an hour before they opened and the shows we wanted to see weren’t on the list thus we decided to pass on this opportunity.  We visited all kinds of places like Rockefeller Centre, St Patricks Cathedral, Radio City, Saks Fifth Avenue, etc.  We then grabbed the subway to the 911 memorial which is quite amazing and sparked memories of that terrible day that’s still stuck in my head.  Afterwards the girls grabbed the balls of a brass bull to get rich … Really??!! … Hopefully it works.  We then walked into China town and Little Italy and stopped for an Italian dinner.  We were all running out of steam thus we grabbed the X1 bus back to Staten Island however we missed our stop and had to walk a mile back to the boats.  We definitely got more than our share of exercise today!   
Jun 9^th – It was a warm mostly sunny day with light/moderate winds.  We left Mansion marina with “Last Call” and headed 53.6 miles north up the Hudson River to West Haverstraw New York and anchored in Haverstraw Cove.  On the way we stopped at the Statue of Liberty to take pictures of each other and then repeated the process in front of the Manhattan skyline.  We rocked and rolled a bit as tour boats and ferries passed by us, however it’s one of those things you’ve got to do thus we just sucked it up while we made sure we had enough pictures of each other.  5 Loopers were behind us and repeated the process however they are heading into a marina tonight.  We also found out that Cruising Odyssey just wrote an on-line article about our trip.  You can find it here:    http://cruisingodyssey.com/.

Aqua-Fennatic under the Statue of Liberty

Looper dinner near Great Kills harbour in NY

Ohhh ... I can see up her skirt!

Manhattan in the background

Wall Street ... the Financial district

NYPD ... their big police car ;)

In Central Park

Dante eating while we chill

Time Square

St Patricks Cathedral

The 9.11 Memorial

What!? ... What are you doing!!!

NYC - China Town

NYC - Little Italy

Dinner with Scott & Karen in Little Italy

Heading towards Manhattan

Cruising north on the Hudson river

Maria taking us north on the Hudson river

Chesapeake City Maryland to New Jersy to Coney Island New York – June 5, 2017

Jun 3^rd – It started out as a very cool and cloudy morning with low winds and transitioned to a warm sunny afternoon.  We got up extra early this morning and pulled up our anchor from our Chesapeake City anchorage and travelled 72 miles, mostly along Delaware Bay, to Cape May New Jersey and pulled into a slip at Canyon Club Resort Marina.  The winds were calm and we headed down Delaware Bay as the tide was falling thus we were getting a push to Cape May.  There are 5 other Looper boats in the marina with us and “Last Call” is anchored close by.  I washed the boat and did a few boat related jobs while Maria made some fresh bread and dinner.  We also spent time strategizing our next moves.  The Lake Simcoe Yacht Club (LSYC) had a Sail Past today and we called them after dinner to say Hi.  It was great to hear all of their voices and we miss them all!  Afterwards we enjoyed a cold one on the dock with the other Loopers at the marina.  We heard a bugle or trumpet playing an end of day Army tune and later learned it was Steve from “Sanctuary” … he did a great job.

Jun 4^th – It was a warm sunny day with light winds in the morning transitioning to heavy winds in the afternoon and overnight.  We left the Cape May marina this morning and headed 44 miles north on the Atlantic Ocean to Atlantic City New Jersey.  The 5 Looper boats that were in the marina joined us while “Last Call” decided to go 30 miles farther since the conditions on the Atlantic Ocean were perfect thus they wanted to put in some extra miles.  When we arrived a number of us went by dingy into the dingy dock and checked out the Golden Nugget Casino.  Maria and I walked into town to check out the boardwalk while the others stayed close to the Golden Nugget Casino as well as the on site Tiki bar with live music.  The boardwalk was amazing with a number of Casinos, a large steel pier with an amusement park plus all kinds of shops, restaurants as well as an amazing beach.  We never made it to the end of the boardwalk before turning around to head back.  When we returned to the Marina where we left our dingy we found the rest of our Looper friends at the on-site Tiki Bar … we had a cold one with them while we listened to some great live tunes and a few of us got up to dance.  Then we headed back to the boats since it looked like a storm was coming in.   

Jun 5^th – It started out warm & cloudy then cool & rainy and finally cool & foggy.  We expected to stay another day in Atlantic City, however “Last Call” contacted us and let us know that the weather was better than expected thus they convinced us to pull up our anchor and we ran 97 miles north on the Atlantic Ocean to anchor by Coney Island New York.  We ran on the ocean with a following sea thus we ended up surfing … guess what song I was singing to myself … “Everybody was surfing … surfing USA”.  When we arrived in New York I had another song in my head … “Start Spreading the News … New York, New York”.  Since we arrived in the afternoon we decided to anchor by Coney Island with “Last Call” and both boats plan to pull in to Mansion Marina on Staten Island New York tomorrow morning.  We’re hoping for good weather for our New York adventures.

Cape May Looper docktails

Atlantic City Here We Come!

Dingy ride to the dingy dock at the Golden Nugget Casino

The first arrivers at the Golden Nugget

Atlantic City Steel Pier with rides!

Including a helicopter ride

Atlantic City boardwalk ... there's lots of activity here!

OR would you prefer the beach ... get your bathing suit on and Lets Go!

These guys had a great percussion band

New Jersey Korean War memorial in Atlantic city

Hmmm ... maybe our next ride ... Boating to Covered wagon ... what do you think?

This guy was in the Rainforest café ... it was amazing inside the restaurant

At the Tiki bar by the Golden Nugget

The view of Atlantic City from our anchorage

This guy came out of the fog in New York to greet us ... NOT

The Coney Island Light House

We have Swans in our Coney Island anchorage