Croton-On-Hudson to Poughkeepsie

Every day is a frickin' adventure!!!

Poughkeepsie is just 39 miles up the Hudson, so a short day. Armed with that information we took our time getting started. We spent the morning cleaning the boat. Russ hosed off the outside while I did the inside (dusted, vacuumed, and mopped).

Now, most boaters clean the boat after they arrive in a marina, not before the day. But we're not most boaters.

Around 10 am we hoisted off. We wanted to pump out first which meant we needed to get to the pump-out station on the other side of the marina. Not a lot of current, not a lot of wind -- this would be a trivial thing to do.

Russ had kept his lines and fenders on the port side, so I needed to turn around and back onto the dock. I did, nice and slow, then bumped the engines just a bit to get it moving backwards.

Then the boat started to shudder. I put her in neutral and mentioned that to Russ. He said he thought it felt something but he didn't seem concerned. I put her in reverse, bumped her again... and the starboard engine stalled.

Frogman Russ

We were already moving (slowly) to the dock, so Russ threw a line on the cleat, and with my port engine only I managed to sidle her up. We tied her off, pumped out, then tried the engines again. Yep, same result. In neutral it ran fine, in gear it stalled. Actually, it made a horrible noise and Russ yelled, "SHUT IT OFF!"

Is that at all sounding familiar? Didn't to us, but it should have. I've written about this before.

Click the picture to see
Russ and the tangled line

We figured something was wrapped around our starboard engine's prop, but we'd have to get in the water to know. Russ had prepared for this (he's that kind of guy). Wetsuit, mask, fins, and snorkel, and a hefty line knife to cut us free. He donned it all and went into the water. He didn't have to do more than look to his right to see it was OUR OWN LINE. Still attached to a cleat, a line was left on the stern and fell into the water in the short distance we traveled to the pump out.

Russ cut the line at the cleat, which nearly exploded from the stress. Then he attempted to get under the boat to free the prop. Pretty clearly this wasn't going to work.

The rope. New, too, dang it.

My husband prepared for this moment too. He built himself "a hooka" which is a slang term for an underwater breathing apparatus. Out came the pump and hose. Within fifteen minutes he was under the boat cutting away. He pulled up a couple of arm loads of rope. Then he started to shiver uncontrollably.

Russ pulled himself out, peeled off the suit, took a hot shower, and sat in the sunlight. Meanwhile I made us lunch.

He was prepared for cold water, too. Russ has a second suit -- a dry suit. After giving himself recovery time he donned that, and went back under to finish the job.

By noon, we were underway. And my clean floors were a complete mess from wet foot prints... sigh.

West Point

While short, the ride up the Hudson was beautiful. We even made great time since the current was going with us. As I approached our marina, I realized that current will make docking a challenge.

We hailed the dockmaster, who told us to wait outside while he got into position. As I did I felt us being pulled to the marina wall. I decided to take a boat ride and turn us in a circle, just to kill time. Just as I turned away from the dock the dockmaster hailed us and said, "That's perfect. I want you to back in."

Oh. Kay. I did as instructed, letting the current pull us backwards into the marina. From there I'd have to make a turn to the right as soon as I cleared the wall. The instructions I received were to gently push the bow toward the right. Turns out this allowed the current to move us sideways, right up against the pier. All I had to do was occasionally add a bit of forward momentum to keep her in position. That was fun! I learned a new trick.

The forbidden island. There's a castle there that's falling
apart, so no one is allowed to go there.

On the right is our doppler radar. It shows things coming at
us in red and things moving away in green.
This is an image of a train.