Day 59: Kingston to Troy

11 June, 62 miles. It's a bright, clear, calm day with a temp around 22 deg C. We're off the wall in Rondoubt Creek at 0900, and in the company of a friend of Preston in Fleming 55 "Patriot", we motor out of the creek and into the Hudson for our run north. I might add a few extra images from yesterday before the day develops.

The day develops thusly; the breeze has arisen, and 45 North's Otto Pilot doesn't like dealing with it when it's on the stern. But the breeze and the tide are in our favour just now.

The forecast for the weekend, though, is very concerning. Several days of rain are expected in upstate NY (this out-of-season precipitation having made the news, lately) and we are motoring towards it. So, Troy is going to get wet within a day or two and the Erie will fill up again and might cause further flooding problems on top of those that are just being remediated now. This we do not need to hear; there is the chance that our expedition might become dead-in-the-water at Troy, and Preston might have no recourse other than to take the boat back to the Chesapeake... Norfolk, perhaps. In that sad case, we would find a way to continue west as best we could. Fingers, and all other things, crossed! But our mood is quietly sombre.

We motor past Albany (losing Patriot into the Albany Yacht Club), and on to Troy, where we're fast a little after 1600. A band is tuning up at a nearby bar, so we head off to see what's what. I've heard there's a very good BBQ restaurant and I can feel some baby-back spare ribs coming on. As to the immediate future, we'll do a 'Darryl Kerrigan' and put out some vibes. We find it difficult to believe that after traveling 150 miles upriver, we're still at sea level. The Hudson River as far as Troy is the world's longest marine estuary and is still affected by tidal flow at that distance.

And so ends Phase Two of our expedition; the Atlantic bays, ocean, and Hudson River to the start of the Erie Canal. Phase Three starts when we enter the Erie Canal system at Waterford and will end at Oswego when we emerge into Lake Ontario.もっと詳しく