Hudson River #1 on Our List 8-7-09

We’ve arrived at the northern Hudson River Capital City of Albany and have been retracing and celebrating the 400th Anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage here aboard the Half Moon. It has been a 134 nautical mile journey through spectacular scenery combining all the best of urban, rural and mountainside areas, as well as rediscovering our past and a few adventures along the way.

We’ve journeyed on many rivers on our Great Loop trip and the Hudson River is #1 on our list. Bob got a chance to say that when he was interviewed on WRGB for a story on the Hudson Anniversary. We remember when this river was dead and polluted in 1970 with an oxygen level of zero, and through the efforts of Pete Seeger aboard Clearwater and the enforcement of the Clean Waters Act, the river is alive and well.

Many people think that NYC is the capital of New York and Albany, as the bookend city to the north, has had to compete with all that glitz and glamour. It may explain the exorbitant cost of the stunning State Capitol Building which is right out of the Gilded Age.

We are staying at the Albany Yacht Club ($1.25 per foot) which is located across the bridge in Rensselaer. We have had great weather here since we arrived on 8/3 which made it just perfect for walking. We have been to Albany many times, but you really don’t get to know a city until you do a walking tour. Albany is beautifully landscaped with parks, has a vibrant entertainment area, stately buildings in the Roman, Classical and Renaissance style and hugs the river with Riverfront Park. We toured the Albany Institute of History and Art which is showcasing their Hudson River School of Art collection.

The best part of being in Albany is visiting with my sister Maureen and her husband, Kevin. Here we are at an Alive@ 5 Neville Brothers concert on the banks of the river. It was a great evening complete with a full moon to compliment their song, Yellow Moon.

Lest you think that cruising is all fun, here’s a picture of me on another adventure—changing the engine room blower. Why me—I am a little skinnier than Bob and could fit in our very small engine room. Feel the accomplishment —feel the pain. I have to fatten up and eat more cake.

Cat’n Around Catskill 8-5-09

The above title is the theme for the Village of Catskill which it uses to highlight its history, artistry and sense of fun. Local artists have created 52 whimsical cat creations perched all along Main Street. My favorite was the “Cat-ue of Liberty.”

The Budget Frommer's Guide listed this village a few years ago as one of “America’s Ten Coolest Small Towns.” Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School of Art, made his home here in the 1830’s and artists ever since have found the natural beauty of the bucolic landscape and the Catskill Mountains region. Galleries are open for touring and Bell’s Café Bistro offers some interesting selections.

On 8/1, we docked at the Catskill Marina on Catskill Creek off the Hudson River. We were unfortunately too late for the Farmers Market. It has a brand new home right on the banks of the Hudson on the site of the Native American village of Hop-O-Nose.

With the torrential rain lately, the Hudson has a lot of debris and the Champlain Canal is flooding, according to boaters on Morningstar, so we decided to stay an extra day here and wait out the next round of storms forecasted for Sunday. What do we do when it rains all day—read the Sunday New York Times, go see a movie at the Community Theatre (Harry Potter--not as good as the book) and take a cat nap. Purr-fect.

Was Dinghy Really Pirated???? 8-4-09

We had torrential rain here in the Hudson Valley again on Friday, 7/31 but it helped us clean up a very dirty little dinghy. Bob tested the motor and the throttle is stuck in high as these pirates wanted to get a fast joyride out of a little 8hp motor. It can be fixed.

Capt. Joe from Hyde Park Marina called us with the name and phone # of the tipster who alerted him and the authorities about the dinghy. Carol and her husband were out with friends on their pontoon boat for an early evening cruise. They had heard the alert about our missing dinghy and spied it amongst the bushes by the Culinary Institute. She said, “You just don’t see dinghies there and it looked so out-of-place. We took a closer look and saw that it matched the description of your missing dinghy so we alerted the Hyde Park Marina.”

These pirates may have intended to use it again and only stopped as they ran out of gas. I would love to have a picture of their faces when they discovered that someone “stole their boat”. Hope they were wearing flip-flops and had a very long walk home. You know that I am thinking way more evil thoughts than that.

Dinghy is back in the brackets and secured to our swim platform and has a new name, Lil'B. Thank you all for the great names that we received. We chose Lil'B as it stands for “little boat”, conveys endearment and goes pretty well with our BIG boat name, Baby Grand.

But Lil' B may be a little confused as on her bottom, we have to put Baby Grand and St. Paul MN. We were stopped by the Albany County Sheriff boat on 8/3 and advised that since we are a documented boat, legally we have to display the boat name and registered homeport visibly. We do have beautiful hand carved boat/port name boards on our transom but our dinghy blocks them. Sorry Lil' B. It's hard to play second fiddle to a baby grand. I’m a little afraid that she will take this very personally and run-away again with pirates.