Sailing down the Hudson towards New York City (Sailing SV Catsaway) - Ep. 17

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This week the crew of SV Catsaway leaves the comfort of the Erie Canal, and starts their journey down the Hudson River.
The Hudson River is a much larger waterway than the Erie, and we immediately saw an increase of marine traffic. The amount of commercial traffic was especially noteworthy. We had no idea that travelling down the Hudson River would be so beautiful. It’s lined with spectacular nature. One side of the river hosts a commercial train track and the other has a passenger train.
Our first stop on the Hudson was in the Catskills, at Hop-O-Nose Marina. They helped us step our mast; we were excited for Catsaway to become a sailboat again. We also wandered around the town, which was adorable. We also ran into a few cruising friends in the area (a popular area to step masts). Notably, we saw a gentleman that we had met our very first time in Oswego. He kindly took us out to dinner to celebrate us getting our cruising license. We decided to become catamaran boating buddies until New York Harbour.
We had to reluctantly part ways at Half Moon Bay, since our friend was meeting someone in NYC and had to continue his journey immediately. We are still in touch, and are hoping to meet up with him soon.
At Half Moon Bay, we added 60 feet of chain to our existing 10 feet of chain and 200 feet of rode. We knew the currents and sea state at the Hudson would be challenging, and we wanted to ensure that our anchor had good hold.
Unfortunately we had to anchor north of the mooring field at West 79th Street Boat Basin, since the transient moorings were all closed. Since this was the first time we had anchored somewhere that was so unprotected. The Hudson River has 2 knots of current, not to mention the vast amount of marine traffic that zooms by. Since the anchorage is so exposed, we were subject to movement in all directions. We had initially decided to stay on board for 24 hours to ensure that our anchor didn’t slip…. But we made it 48 just in case.
Finally after 48 hours of rocking and rolling, we took our dinghy to shore and experienced a beautiful day in Manhattan. We wandered around Central Park, went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (and borrowed their ridiculously fast WiFi!) and visited Times Square. We also reconnected with Diana’s aunt, and celebrated her birthday with dinner at the Russian Samovar, and Phantom of the Opera.
The next morning we left before daybreak to haul up anchor and leave NYC. Until next time!!
Music Credits:
Enthusiast - Tours
Road Trip - Joakim Karud
Something_Elated - Broke_For_Free

[@johngayford911]

Exciting times - great job well done

[@Catsaway]

John Gayford Thank you very much! :)

[@jasonsinkus5618]

Just drove home in Ottawa’s first real snowfall. Jealous of your sun and waves. Can’t wait for your videos further south!

[@Catsaway]

Jason Sinkus Thanks!! We're racing towards warmer weather - today was quite chilly (nothing compared to Ottawa of course, but when your boat doesn't have heat, it's c-c-cold in the morning!)

[@peterpierson6845]

Progress! And in the Carolinas now. Good on you both. Peter and Mary

[@Catsaway]

Peter Pierson Yes, we're zooming through now! We were planning to coastal hop, but since skirting into the ICW, we've really enjoyed this path. 15-20 knot winds with zero sea state.... Pretty amazing!! :)

[@arthurpryor773]

looks like a great adventure....thanks for sharing.

[@Catsaway]

Arthur Pryor Thank you very much for watching!! :)

[@lentroost6578]

Woke up this morning to -15C (Parry Sound On) and finding your channel on KZbin, your videos are great and I enjoy the tips for crusing the Erie Cannal, planning the same trip next fall solo to the Caribbean. Safe travels !

[@Catsaway]

Len Troost Awesome, you'll have such a great time!! Maybe you'll be heading down the same time we're heading back up :)

[@jimwattson1720]

Liked that one also........thanks.

[@ontheruntonowhere]

It actually is Cats-kill, originally Kaaterskill. New York was settled by the Dutch. 'Kill' is Dutch for creek and NY has a lot of kills.

[@TomJudson]

So enjoyed sharing your trip! I live in Catskill, NY, and for the record it really IS Cats-kill, not Cat-skill. “Kill”’ is Dutch for “creek” and there is in fact a substantial creek here and back in the day there were many mountain lions in the area. A bit of local history for you!

[@Catsaway]

Wow, thanks so much for sharing! We're glad our kitties didn't get to meet any lions 🙄 Thanks for watching 😊

[@vitegal]

Just sat through Ep. 1 -17 here at work. What an amazing trip your on. I look forward to watching the rest and wish you many more adventures. Melanie

[@Catsaway]

Melanie Austin thanks for watching and following our journey! ☺⛵🐈

[@voltage11230]

Great job guys! Next time you get to NYC try to dock in Great Kills harbor Staten Island. Really old school and calm. Oh yea the outer banks of North Carolina are to die for.

[@Catsaway]

Yeah we might try Great Kills harbour next time - we've heard great things! Thanks for watching and sorry for the late reply - some of these comments slipped through the cracks for some reason. 🐒⛵

[@ec2749]

Cool channel. Keep on making them videos!

[@Catsaway]

TacticalPanda Thank you for the kind words and for watching! ☺⛵🐈

[@nancylam393]

Hoping to get a glimpse of Brenda in NY city. Excellent vlog!

[@Catsaway]

Nancy Lam We were having so much fun talking and eating that we forgot to get a picture :(

[@MajTom-wd2yt]

We've only made it this far with you. Enjoyed Erie Canal, based in Buffalo we're very familiar with it, travel it often. Dear wife is from the Adirondacks so the Little Falls Area is like being middle. You've probably already made the improvement, but you need a dedicated camera with a remote mic and a wind muff. ⛵️⛵️👍

[@Catsaway]

Awesome! We might go back home that way. Any recommendations?

[@ShesTheSkipper]

Love this - we just posted our video about sailing NYC and the East River - it was such a bucketlist day for us! And we learned about currents and posted about it in the video to share what we learned!

[@Catsaway]

Ah the Hudson and it's currents! Always an adventure 😊

[@SailingPauHana]

Why was 79th St boat basin closed? Love the blog btw. Can’t wait to see vids from the tropics 😀

[@Catsaway]

SAILING PAU HANA Thanks for watching! They said the moorings were closed due to the city running electrical wire... They didn't have any more information than that (and apparently it was safe enough for us to anchor lol).

[@andytrotter5497]

Thank you for doing this

[@Catsaway]

Thank you for watching!!

[@tyjohn4779]

Fun video. Curious if you guys left your cat relaxing on the boat when you went into manhattan for the day?

[@Catsaway]

Ty John No, we always put them back in the cabin. I (Diana) am irrationally afraid they'll go overboard when we're away. So far so good! Thanks for watching and sorry for the late reply. ☺⛵

[@LifeatSixKnots]

Looked like stepping the mast went pretty smoothly. Great job! The feeling of having the sails back is so great. I think 60 feet should be good. That being said, we use all 5/16" chain, 225 feet. Rough anchorages are definitely no fun.

[@Catsaway]

Life at Six Knots Yeah, we went back and forth trying to decide how much chain we needed. We don't have a windlass and we weren't super keen on hauling hundreds of feet of chain every day 😆 It's working out so far - hopefully we don't need to anchor somewhere too deep! Thanks for watching 😄

[@LifeatSixKnots]

Yeah. All that chain would be a pain without a windlass. Best of luck! Can't wait to see more.

[@Catsaway]

Life at Six Knots Thanks for watching!! Any chance we'll cross paths?

[@LifeatSixKnots]

It is possible some day. For now we are just cruising the pacific northwest. If you are ever around here, send us a message.

[@julianbatcheler9970]

I’m looking at mooring on the Hudson... I know you can usually pay and use the 79st buoys and use their dinghy dock... but where was it you landed your dinghy and is it free? Thank you Julian

[@3SixtyDanceandFitness]

Love it! Great adventure! What made you want to get this sail boat over some of the others you looked at?

[@Catsaway]

3Sixty Dance and Fitness We wanted a catamaran because they offer bigger living situations, are more stable (generally) and have shallower draft. This last point has been key as we've continued our travels - we've squeaked by some very shallow areas!!! :D Also, a catamaran just seemed to work with our cat pun ;)

[@spinzy7153]

an asain and a cat never a good combination

[@neveraballfe8253]

I love New york its beautiful just crappy politics

[@Catsaway]

We love NYC!!! What an incredible city.