Baltimore to Catskill, NY
The time has come! It’s time to begin the big move. None of this is new territory to me, as I’ve sailed all these routes before. But this is a new boat and I work full time and there’s a lot going on in life. Being able to pull this off is a tribute to all those who support me (or at least tolerate my whims) and to myself for being “just crazy enough” to pull something like this off. Speaking of crazy…
I enlisted the help of my old friend, Pat Tilson, my partner in crime in most things sailing. When there’s a boat to move, mischief to get into and other boat oriented shenanigans, there’s not a better sailing friend than Pat. I’ve chronicled our many adventures in the past on both my boat and his. Sailing with Pat is always a lot of laughs.
He picked me up at BWI airport and we left the next morning after a quick provisioning run and some last minute maintenance items. I needed to change the fuel filter, as there was water in the fuel system. So I change the primary filter with the usual cussing that goes along with that job. Got it done. Pat got groceries.
The original plan was to leave bright and early Monday morning on June 24th, but we were ready and what do Pat and Steve do? We left. It was still early and we had miles to go, and it was stupidly hot, so why wait around in a marina? We threw the provisions aboard, departed Anchorage Marina and started down the channel. BTW, shout out to John, a friend of Pat’s, who owns the slip I stayed in for two weeks while I returned to Michigan for work.
Off we went at about 11:30 in the morning.
We motored down the channel towards the Francis Scott Key bridge (what was left of it) and, as we sailed through the area, we surveyed the views of the bridge wreckage and the containership that caused it to collapse (see photos from the last entry). Then, we set our sights sailing out into the bay and turning north towards the C&D Canal.
While slogging north, it happened. The engine began to spit and sputter again… Luckily we were sailing along at a decent clip, so we just sailed up the bay and kept moving. As sunset approached, I attempted to change out the fuel filters and re-start the engine, but failed. No worries, mate, as I had recently paid up my Tow-BoatUS! We called them and they sent a boat to pull us up the Sassafras River to a nice little marina called Sailing Associates. The next morning, the mechanic came out, surveyed the situation and showed me the one thing I missed while trying to bleed the engine. He was well worth the what little money he charged us. I wanted to pay him more, but he wouldn’t take it. So BIG shout out to Sailing Associates. They were so great, we stayed an extra night to wait out a wind storm.
Not much was open in Georgetown, so we just hung out, went to the local chandlery, had lunch at the Kitty Knight Inn, and enjoyed the views and beverages.
Next morning, we were up early and on out way back down the Sassafras. Not much wind, but we caught the tide and were making great time towards the C&D Canal. We cruised right on through, timing the tides to make our run down the Delaware River and into the Delaware Bay (my least favorite body of water to date). It’s quite a long run down the bay. Too far to make it all on a slacking tide. Eventually the tide changes and works against you, usually bring it’s own weather with it. Today was no different. With the flooding time came a head wind, slowing our progress and making the ride into the wind and waves uncomfortable. But we made it into the Cape May Canal, where we couldn’t find a place to berth, as they were all booked up. Pat’s wife, Robin, called the local yacht club and inquired about letting us use reciprocal privileges to stay there. Luckily they could take us as another frontal system was coming in, causing us to stay put for an extra day. The Corinthian Yacht Club of Cape May was a great stay for us, as it had decent facilities, was inexpensive, and was close enough to whatever we needed in town, which turned out to be a simple visit to the C-View Inn, the oldest tavern in Cape May.
With the history lesson of the oldest tavern over and two nights at the yacht club over, we were up, out, and into the Atlantic the next morning for our run north. Cape May was the southern most point of this adventure, as we are further south than we were in Baltimore at the beginning. The run up the Jersey shore to Atlantic City is only about 35 miles. We motored the whole way, as the seas were pretty flat and there was nothing much to report.
There was a fishing tournament in Atlantic City, so finding a slip was impossible. We tied up at Kammerman’s Marina to take on fuel and have lunch. They had no place where we could stay, so we ended up going around to the next channel and tying up to the now-defunct docks at the Atlantic City Aquarium. We’d heard the police weren’t enforcing any rules about anyone tying up there and, by the looks of the dock, they wouldn’t want to take on any liability. We were fine, as we just needed a place to get some sleep and planned to leave before anyone who would care would be out of bed.
Our run north started early. We were up at 4am and off the dock, catching the slack tide out of the channel and hoping to be in NYC before dark. It was a long run with rough seas the whole way until we cleared Barnegat Light and turned more north. Then, the seas began to ease, as expected. This was our window, as the next few days are going to be worse, so we are pushing hard to make the Hudson River and have some protection from the in-coming bad weather. We pushed hard. After passing Manasquan Inlet, we were able to get some sails up and increase our speed. We were right on schedule, entering the Verrazano Narrows before sunset and running up New York harbor. It was a big push and the harbor was crazy with traffic – everyone was out enjoying the sunset as we pushed on up the Hudson River to our planned anchorage at the George Washington Bridge. Pat as a little apprehensive about the harbor, but we’ve both been through here so many times, I insisted we push on, knowing after sunset, traffic would cease and we could easily continue on with good water beneath us. It was a LONG 19 hour day when we finally dropped anchor around 11:00pm, having completed exactly 100 nautical miles of travel.
We got a good night’s sleep and were up and off the anchor by 8:00am to begin out run up the Hudson. I love the Hudson River. It’s scenic, beautiful, and interesting. It’s tidal, so if you time it right, you can ride the flooding tide a long way up the river. We were under way with a bit of a head tide, knowing it would turn soon and the wave would help push us to our destination. Not unlike the Delaware Bay, the tides on the Hudson came with their own winds, which really helped us with our speed, making 7+ knots of progress the whole way. We were moving so fast, we would sale out of the wave and slow down until it caught back up to us and push us further. We’ve discovered that the engine burns some oil, so we stopped at a yard to get some, tied to their dock, got showers, had New York Italian dinner in town (which was interesting), and stayed the night.
We discovered the yard didn’t have the oil we needed, and the tides/weather were running strongly in our favor, so we left early, right before sun up. We were hoping to get in early and wrap up this portion of the adventure, as we both scheduled flights home in a couple days. One last day on the Hudson would put us into Catskill Creek, where we could wrap up this segment of this adventure.
We got in to Catskill early and got settled in. I made arrangements with Hop-O-Nose Marina to leave the boat there for a couple weeks. We had lunch, packed up the boat, and enjoyed a quiet following day exploring town, eating NY pizza, and fraternizing with the locals. Then, off to Albany for our flights home, having made 354 miles in 7 days.