Magnolia departed early Thursday morning and turned north on the Hudson to enter the Erie Canal system. We turned south and retraced our path, heading for home. Although It was hard to say goodbye after the 10 fun-filled days together, we are very glad we joined them on this leg of their latest adventure.
Much of this next part of our trip is a rerun, in the reverse direction. Funny thing, even though you might have been there and done that, you can still find new things to enjoy or notice.
By 10:00 am the river was waking up and we were passing more pleasure boats heading north than we had seen last week. On the way to do “The Great Loop”?
We enjoyed Cold Spring and decided to stop here again, anchoring in Foundry Cove.
We spent a rocking and rolling night with the winds and currents out Foundry Cove. For breakfast we treated ourselves to our one and only breakfast “off board” of the whole trip with a return visit to Hudson Hils Cafe.
Now that it is just the two of us, we aren’t touring or socializing as much. We are missing our buddies on Magnolia, so we fill our time with projects.
We were having dinner guests that evening – people we had never met. 😉 MJ (as in Dean and Mary Jo from SYC) has a brother, Pete, who lives on the Hudson and is a boater, too. We made arrangements to pick them up at the Cold Spring Boat Club and bring them out to Kindred Spirit for dinner. We all had a great time and we look forward to seeing them again when they make their first boating excursion eastward to Shennecossett in July.
Off we go again the next morning, only 80% sure of where we wanted to anchor for the night.
We had been debating for 2 days about this next stopover. The annual Clearwater’s Great Hudson River Revival, the country’s oldest music and environmental festival, would be held at Croton Point Park this weekend. I researched it and it truly sounded like an awesome event. The Revival was founded by folksinger Pete Seeger over fifty years ago, inspired by his desire to clean up the Hudson River. He began by building the sloop Clearwater, which became a world-renowned floating classroom complete with educational programs, and leadership in environmental and social justice.
Sounded terrific, except……. 1) boats were not allowed, not even dinghies, 2) no place to bring a dinghy within walking distance, 3) a one-day ticket for a senior citizen cost $76. We regretfully decided to sit this one out.
From our anchored location we could hear music and see some tents. The Clearwater and the Mystic Whaler were taking people out on excursions.
When we arrived, before noon, there were only 2 sailboats in the anchorage off Croton Point Park.
By afternoon the anchorage had filled with 74 (I counted! ) small- to medium powerboats surrounding us. They weren’t interested in the festival, this was just the ordinary weekend crowd on a beautiful June Saturday, complete with floating toys and loud music.
A nearby sailboat was probably here for the festival, they seemed like “free spirits,” or at least she did. Note – if you sunbathe in that attire, you have to expect people will notice! I used a discreet gray box to cover her.
Once most of the day trippers had departed and the anchorage was quieter, we were treated to an hour-long concert by They Might Be Giants followed by Ani deFranco. No view, but great acoustics out here.
What a nice way to spend the evening on our boat, listening to a concert.
An afterthought — I read a lot while we spend time on the boat. I just finished reading an older novel, Time and Again by Jack Finney. It’s a time travel story in Manhattan (1970 and 1882) without the trappings of strange overly scientific and technical science fiction. The main character walks past Croton Reservoir on the west side of Manhattan between 79th and 86th Streets and 6thand 7thAvenue. I wondered if that was a fact. Yes, it is true!
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