August 10 – Friday
It is our Granddaughter Libby’s birthday, she is 6, and we will phone her later in the day. Missing events like this are the downside of cruising.
The rain came in the night, just like the forecast said it would and continued through most of the day, just like the forecast. We stayed tied to the dock at Shady Harbor. Breakfast (the first) was hot oatmeal laced with fresh blueberries Polly found at a farmer’s market in Whitehall. We spent the day doing some tidying up, cleaning the fenders we used in the locks and I (RCB) also made a repair to the support of one of the settee seat hatches. The wood glue Polly bought in Westport came in handy, again. Polly also did some editing and labeling of the 106 pictures she took during the previous two days. The temperature dropped quite a bit during the morning so we actually turned on the heating side of the A/C unit which also took the moisture off of the cabin windows.
We had accumulated a list of grocery needs and I walked to the marina office to see if there might be a store close by. Our new Monk owner friend, Don was also at the office looking for a store so Chris, the marina manager, insisted on driving us to the nearest town and a Price Chopper grocery. Pushing one of those big store carts through the aisles, I had loaded 6 items into it before I had even one of the items from the list crossed off. One of the off-list items was a couple of super looking cinnamon rolls that served as our second breakfast when I returned to the boat. Finally the list was filled and I checked out to find Chris waiting in the loading zone. He helped both of us load our numerous bags and then drove to the wine store so Don could re-supply his wine cellar. Chris even helped me tote some bags right to the boat.
Chris Minetti is the manager of Shady Harbor Marina (New Baltimore, NY) but it is a family operation. Dad, Charles took over the business just a year ago and he and Chris’ younger brother are also always around making sure things are to the boating customers’ satisfaction. The general staff people are courteous and helpful and they have the full range of marine services. The Minettis have been boaters and cruisers for a long time and understand what it takes to make transients feel at home and welcome. They deserve the success they are having – we made a point of stopping here because of the way we were handled on our north bound stay.
The rain stopped about 3 or 4 o’clock and I got into the dink and scrubbed off some of the worse crud from FLIGHT’s hull at the waterline. The last group of locks had some foamy stuff accumulated on the surface of the water that stained the boat. We had a simple supper aboard and watched a bit of T-V since cable service is supplied by the marina (Shady Harbor also has free and fast Wi-Fi wireless internet connection as well), and then went to bed. We will get away early in the morning in order to make good distance toward New York Harbor. We plan to be at Atlantic Highlands, NJ on Sunday afternoon.