August 11 – Saturday
Our plans for an extra early departure were once again met with fog but this time we gave in to it just a bit. Here on the upper Hudson there is a lot more of the “edges” to run into than on the wide parts of Lake Champlain. By 08:00 it seemed a bit better due to a slight breeze that was moving things around a bit, so we left the dock. I made a security broadcast on channel 13, for any commercial traffic that might be near. Immediately we got a response from a tug pushing a cement barge north bound about a quarter mile south of the marina, so we arranged a passing and all was fine. The visibility improved very quickly as we moved on and the fog began to look like puffs of grey flowers growing from the surface of the river.
The weather quickly became very nice as the fog burned off and we settled in to the long day ahead. We were bound for an anchorage near Potato Rock in Haverstraw Bay (near Ossining prison) on the east side of the river. We stopped at that spot on the way north and it served well. The day floated by with us wearing jeans and sweat shirts early then shorts and T-shirts later. On the trip north we made this particular leg over 2 days, with a stop in Kingston but we decided to endure a 10 hour day since the weather was so good and we wanted to take advantage of it. We passed under the various bridges, Kingston – Rhinecliff, Mid Hudson, Newburgh-Beacon etc. and on past West Point (still impressive) and this time there was a small ship moored there, a landing craft type. Finally the Tappan Zee Bridge loomed into sight and our anchorage was about 5 miles north of the bridge so we knew we were close to our home for the night.
We were anchored with 50 other week-end boaters and had a quick supper of hot dogs on the grill and lettuce & tomato salad. Showers then bed.