June 13 Catskill to New Baltimore

June 13

We had visitors yesterday.   Martha’s brother Chris and his girlfriend Leslie  drove up from Connecticut to spend the day with us.  We had walked the mile or so from the marina to Walmart and had loaded up on provisions and thankfully the timing worked out where they were able to pick us up so we didn’t have to lug all our purchases back.   We spent some time showing them the  boat and then took a  trip over the Hudson to  drive by Olana  the home of Frederick Church done in the style of  a Moorish castle. He was one of the original and most renowned of the Hudson River artists.  A visit to the town of Hudson,NY and a late lunch at Legendary BBQ  made for  a fun day.  After the day was done Martha and I realized we had goofed yet again with visitors.  When Leslies’s parents visited us in Cape May we got so involved with the visit we never took a picture of them.  Then dang if we didn’t do the same thing with Chris and Leslie!  Sorry.

We met a celebrity yesterday morning at the marina.  A.J. Hammer is a TV broadcasting personality who has a place in Catskill and keeps his Hatteras motoryacht OLOH at the marina.  He had just brought it up from his annual trip to Florida. Nice guy but quite honestly we had no idea who he was when we were talking to him – just another boater welcoming us to the area.  It wasn’t until we looked at the website listed on the boatcards we exchanged that we learned he wasn’t just any boater.

OLOH is the second boat belonging to A.J. Hammer

 

After a delightful sunny and warm previous day we woke to cool temperatures in the upper 50’s and softly falling rain as we prepared for another travel day.  This would be a relatively short run - just a few hours   to New Baltimore and Shady Harbor Marina. We’ve traveled in the rain before and as long as it’s not a downpour, there’s not a lot of wind and especially no lightening it’s quite peaceful.   Typically the traffic is lighter and with the radar running it gives us a longer range visual of approaching vessels.   We primarily drive from the upper station where there’s better visibility and on days like this having a fully enclosed flybridge keeps us dry. 

Looking back on a dreary Catskill Creek as we depart

The primary items of note we passed today were the Rip Van Winkle bridge and the Hudson Lighthouse. Seems like people up this way really got into Washington Irving’s short stories.  Our visit to Croton was the land of Sleepy Hollow this and Sleepy Hollow that, while up in this area Rip Van Winkle seems to rule with boats and bridges named after this fictional character.  

The Hudson Lighthouse marks   a shoal   called the Middle Grounds where a fiery wreck occurred in 1845 killing 50 of the 300 passengers on the steamship Swallow.  It’s the last lighthouse on the Hudson we’ll see going northbound.

Tomorrow we'll finish our trip up the Hudson and pass through the first lock entering the Erie Canal.

Journey for June 13