011-Ruts on Halfmoon Bay

I love the name, Halfmoon Bay, it’s so romantic sounding. But this bay on the Hudson is also referred to as Haverstraw, the nearby town, which sounds so pedestrian. But everyone’s boat is floated a bit differently. I like traveling; sailing the wind, navigating, and watching the shore slide by. Lucy likes quiet moments at the end of the day and shore excursions exploring “ruts.” A “trigger” word for Lucy’s infatuation with wagon wheel ruts during the western migration. Brian is activities based; he likes experiences like riding jet skis, snorkeling, driving the tender, sailing under full sailing with lots of wind. Like anything else, it’s always compromises for the family who’s boat floats. Brian got his moment at anchor on Halfmoon Bay where he swung on the halyard, paddled his paddle board, swam, drove the tender fast, and even dropped a fishing line over the side. We ended the day playing board games after one of Lucy’s Meals-On-Boats (MOB). As we headed off to our cabins for the night, Brian said “this was a great day, thanks dad.” Brian ended my day by floating my boat!

Brian swings on the spinnaker halyard.

He had to paddle to keep up with the boat at anchor, there was a significant river current.

Brian swinging off the halyard into the water with style.

Lucy and Brian take a shower in the rain

Comments

051 - Med Style Anchoring – It’s so European

It’s complicated but it really lets you pack them in. Having done it now 3 times now, I hope I’m done with it. For us it’s complicated by the tender hanging off the stern and our stern anchor rode being 300 ft long in the bottom of a lazarette under a pile of other items. All the rode has to come out into the cockpit for attaching to a tree on the shore. It makes for a messy operation. Let’s see if I can explain. To anchor med style, you have to be able to backup well, which being a sailboat puts us at a distinct disadvantage (can you hear me saying powerboat would be better here too, but I won’t say it). You also ignore the winds as you will back into a parking spot between other boats anchoring the same way. You “simply” pick a spot, throw out the bow anchor in front of it, back into the slot and tie a rope to something substantial on the shore, and put out bumpers for your neighbors. That’s all you have to do. So we pick...

034 - USS Niagara

What a beautiful working replica of this historic ship. It is used today as a training ship and offers 10day expeditions for youth to learn the ways of sailing a Brigg. It is about as exact as you can expect. I loved their use manila rope, linseed oil, and other items that gives it the smell of an old ship – I don’t know what it is but it’s very familiar. Below decks were tight, it only had a 5ft ceiling in the galley area – how anyone could operate in that space long term was beyond me but the professional crew does. Galley stove and 5ft ceiling - how do they do it? Watching it sail was like stepping back it time. It passed us on the breakwater silently, tall, and majestic. It was easy to imagine the awe seeing this come into an isolated harbor like Presque Island 200 years ago. Something so big and complicated carrying so many men and cannon would change the balance of power with its arrival. It would intimidate the st...

047 - This Isn’t The Chesapeake Bay

We’re in a different place! The waters of Lake Huron are a Caribbean turquoise, so much so that had you told me I was there I would have believed you.

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