27 May 15

After a pleasant night’s sleep, we decided to move on up the river and departed the marina just after 09:00. Out in Haverstraw Bay there was a nice breeze, so we decided to sail; full jib and main. About 10:15, the wind was consistently at our back, so I thought it would be nice to get the spinnaker up, which we did. We had to jibe at every bend in the river, and, being a bit rusty, we managed to get the spinnaker wrapped twice round the forestay (not quite sure how the second wrap occurred). But we managed to get the twists out and were sailing along fine in 10 to 15 kn of wind, when the seat back at the helm station jumped off the safety line and went overboard. It floated, so we immediately went into “man overboard” drill, dropped the spinnaker and main and motored back along our track until we found it. The Admiral deployed to the transom like a trooper and I backed up to the “victim”, who was recovered aboard with no apparent distress. After that excitement, we motored on past West Point (U.S. Military Academy) and dropped anchor at 13:45 in a wide spot in the river adjacent to Cornwall, NY, just opposite Banneman’s Castle (on Pollepel Island); total distance traveled - about 16 N-miles. The cruise up the river was very picturesque; West Point is particularly striking. Just as we got the hook down, replicas of the “Nina” and “Pinta” (Columbus) motored past on their way upriver to Newburgh. We are anchored about 400 yards from shore and the railroad runs right along the river bank, so every few minutes, we are serenaded by whistle blasts and the screech of steel wheels on iron rails. During the run up, I finally tracked down the source of the oil leak; the rubber cap on the oil removal tube (looks like the dip-stick tube, but is just covered with a rubber cap) has cracked and is leaking a drop a minute. I spent part of the afternoon ordering one; $1 part, plus $12 to ship it to Hop-O-Nose Marina. Our parts (for the manual bilge pump) from Defender showed up at Half-Moon Marina this afternoon after we left, so now I have to get them forwarded again; ugh!! About 17:00, the weather alerts all went off, announcing the approach of a major line of thunderstorms from the west. We battened down the hatches, put all the electronics in the microwave, started the engine and let out another 30’ of chain and donned our life jackets. A nasty, long line of clouds came at us at a great rate (35 - 50 mph, according to the radio), the wind went round to the west and gusted up to 25 kn, and it began to rain heavily. We had a couple of lightning strikes within half a mile or so, but nothing closer. After about 45 minutes, it was pretty much over, although we had light, intermittent rain for the next hour or so. But not enough to stop us firing up the grill and cooking dinner. Another fine storm survived.

A video of the last two days adventures (including the run through New York City) is available at the following site.

http://youtu.be/6phovqbSV-0 

41-26.897’N, 074-00.268’W