We were up early this morning, but not early enough.  We left an anchorage in Haverstraw Bay after a 60NM trip yesterday. It turns out that the Hudson is closed today at Tappan Zee Bridge.  They are putting up a new bridge and they need to close the bridge to boat traffic, today being the first time, the closures will continue through 2016 and 2017.  From their website “Approximately 70 closures are anticipated through the end of 2017”  Anyone heading south this fall or heading north in the spring should check the New NY Bridge website for closures.

This information was filed in all the legally required locations, however, this was on page 31 of a 49 page Notice to Mariners  As with most bureaucracies, NY State and the USCG dropped the ball on telling boaters.  This is not unusual, Douglas Adams put it best:

““But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.””

We found out about the closure when we approached the bridge this morning at 08:10 following the closure at 08:00.  The email notification of the closure arrived about 11:00 as we walked back from a nice patisserie  in Nyack.

Thankfully, Nyack is a nice town and we enjoyed the walk around town.  Nyack Boat Club have been generous hosts to a few boats today.

We have spent the last two nights at Hop-o-nose Marina, putting up the mast and getting the boat back together ready to head out on to the Atlantic coast in a few days.

The Hudson is still a commercial water way, we saw ships and barges in the short section we came down on Monday, this one is big enough to have helicopter pad on its cargo hatch.

Part of the cruising life is traveling in the company of others and making new friends.  We left Loyalist Cove in the company of Brad and Julie on Estrella Del Sur and we have seen them at a couple of stops, including here in Hop-o-nose.  We met a couple of other crews including RC Wings who are also joining the Caribbean 1500.  With the natural common ground of boat issues there is always lots to talk about.  I think we are going to make lots of friends on this trip.

Yesterday morning our mast went up with the help of the old crane.  As ever the process was painless and perhaps a little safer than the last time we were here.

We had a busy couple of days, but the boat is ready to go in the morning.  We will be in Sandy Hook, south of NYC by Saturday afternoon.

We enjoyed a leisurely, fine-weather motor down the Oswego and Erie Canals this week.  With stops in Oswego, Phoenix, Sylvan Beach, Little Falls, Fonda and Waterford we took our time on all but the last day.

Here are a few random pics.

The green paper is our permit to be on the canal for 10 days, at $50, it is quite the bargain.

 

Kinship at Phoenix, we liked this stop a lot, docked next to a nice park with WiFi.  A coffee shop  a few meters down the street made it all the better.

We saw a few housed where the front faced the canal, some were very impressive.

The Mohawk Valley forms a natural path for the canal, Interstate 90 follows a similar path as does a major railroad line.

 Here a canal worker fishes on his lunch break.  He is in a strange aquatic manlift, we have never seen one like it.

High school rowers heading down the canal

What looks to be a house near Schenectady, wonder how lives there?

We were the last boat of the day to go through the locks at Waterford, here you can see the guard gate being closed behind us to mark the end of the day.

Here is Kinship on the right at the end of the trip.  The leg from Fonda to Waterford might be all downhill, but locks can be hard when it is windy.  We had a long day and were glad to get tied up at the canal wall.  This morning we moved over to the visitors center on the left where we have power and water and a pump out.  Tomorrow we will head out down the Hudson to Hop-o-nose to get the mast put back up and Kinship will be a sail boat again.

Lastly here is Pete Seeger singing the Erie Canal Song, it dates from the building of the current canal and the demise of mule drawn barges as the new canal has no towpath.

 

A later edit – The Shards have published their segment on the route we took, one day we will be able to sail and film…