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From: Stefan Mochnacki (no email)
Date: Tue Jun 20 2006 - 00:02:58 EDT
On Mon, Jun 19, 2006 at 11:08:30PM -0400, wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> My work is completed on the boat, it's about time.
> In 10 days I will be sailing "Princess Thalia" single-handed from Annapolis
> to Lake Ontario.
> I will keep a proper look-out, so don't start on that again, please.LOL
> I am planning to motor through CD Canal and down the bay, up to Hudson
> river.
> Any information on current and entering times from your own experience will
> be greatly
> appreciated.
>
I've done Norfolk - NY once and up the Hudson twice. You'll probably motor
all the way. Watch out for ferocious thunderstorms on the Hudson this time
of year. Cape May's a nice place to stay if a Nor'easter pipes up.
Get a good set of tide tables (there's a famous annual book whose name I
forget ... too many beers watching the Stanley Cup final :-( ) The trick is
to ride the flood tide as far as you can. If your boat is big and fast, you
could do NY - Castleton in a day (at Castleton is where you'll want to unstep
the mast, though you can pay them to do it at, for example, Catskill). In
2000, we did Tarrytown to Catskill in a day in a not very fast 29 footer (by
Catskill, the tide had turned).
You can think of the bottom of the Hudson being jerked back and forth by
the ocean tide. This propagates as a wave up the Hudson, with the same
roughly 12-hour period. The tidal range at the locks in Troy is the same as
at New York city: four feet. The wave goes up at some 7 or 8 knots or so, so
a fast sailboat under power can ride the flood tide all the way, gaining up
to four knots that way.
The river has good aids, so if you need to start in the dark wee hours it's
not a problem.
Single-handed means you may want to think about your stop overs. Arriving at
a dock off the river should be OK, or even tying up to an exposed dock (e.g.
Castleton). You DON'T want to be tying up to a mooring unless it's slack
water (been there, flubbed that...), and anchoring by yourself with the
current running would be very tricky. Tarrytown is a good sheltered
jumping-off point if you want to ride the wave. There's also a good anchorage
on the west side around there. There are good tying up places just below the
Troy docks, since you probably want to enter the canals when they open.
When you unstep, make sure you secure the mast well above deck, because Lake
Oneida can be rough. At Castleton, at the back of the boating club there's a
supply of wood and old trestles. These have been left by previous sailors,
and if the date on them has expired, you can take them. There's usually
plenty of loose wood.
I presume you have fenderboards and lines organized. A couple of years ago,
I did the Welland Canal with a very experienced Alberg 30 skipper, and it
was a revelation. He had "fenders" made of tough sacks stuffed with straw
(he has a farm), so a fender board was not needed; he had a long board to
use as a lever for pushing off the wall. He also had the boat ingeniously
rigged with good-sized snatch blocks fore and aft for the lines, and had the
crew stand on the outboard side while working the lines so that the
spreaders leaned away from the lock wall. This worked very well with three
people (one helming, two on lines). Of course, the New York canals are much
less demanding than the Welland going up.
Cheers,
Stefan
(writing from Halifax)
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