June 27 – Wednesday
7:30 departure bound for New Baltimore. Hot and humid, again but a favorable current gave us 8 kts. At 1400-1600 RPM which minimizes fuel burn a bit lower than our normal 3 gallons per hour. This section of the Hudson is narrower with lots of islands and pleasant properties and towns to view. We saw several eagles and a variety of other water birds. Fish jumped frequently and one was very slender and maybe 2’ long which I later learned was a sturgeon.
We decided to go to a marina again and wait out the approaching cold front with it’s accompanying thunderstorms. We found a very good marina this time – Shady Harbor, where we arrived at 12:00 noon. Great facility with nice ship’s store, pool and restaurant. First order of business was 2 ice cream sandwiches then Polly did some laundry and we basically just hung-out waiting for the storms to get here. They did, about 6:00 which meant the steaks planned for supper had to be pan sautéed (with garlic and mushrooms), not BBQ grilled. Just as the storm began and cooking had just been started we noticed that the boat seemed to be swinging as it does when anchored and winds come up. We were tied to a dock so should not have been seeing a moving panorama pass by the cabin window – the bow line had come loose. Fire drill time! The bow of the boat had swung about 45 degrees away from the dock but we were being held by the stern and spring lines so I (RCB) jumped ashore to secure a longer line to the dock while Polly made it fast to the boat and after getting back aboard, we used the bow thruster to push the bow toward the dock as we also took in the new longer line. OK – back to the steaks.
The steaks called for a couple glasses of our best red box wine and after dinner we hooked up the TV for a little channel surfing before lights out.