About two weeks ago, Peri and I pulled into the docks at the Burlington boathouse just as a squall was making its way across the lake. We had a group of friends cheering at the dock, ready to catch our lines and pop some champagne. It was so special.
I’ll rewind south to Cape May, because that’s where the last blog post ended. If you want to read about the first leg of our trip you can do so here. Where I left off, Peri and I were cracking a beer and cheersing to “vacation mode”. After arriving in Cape May on a Friday, we ended up spending six nights in Cape May, first waiting out the fog and then waiting out unfavorable winds. It stayed foggy into the early week. When it finally started to clear up on Monday/Tuesday the wind went north. The sail from Cape May to New York City is about 24 hours with favorable conditions, and the thought of beating into a headwind all night deterred me from setting sail early in the week. In the meantime, we did some exploring. Cape May is a beautiful area, with lots of gorgeous old homes and stretches of sandy beaches. We went into town a couple of days, walked along the waterfront with our feet in the ocean, had lunch at a nice beachside restaurant, and got lots and lots of ice cream.
We also had to do some engine work. When we left Baltimore I noticed a sound that seemed to be coming from the prop/shaft area. I assumed it was a loose zinc anode, so in Cape May I put on my wetsuit and got in the water to check it out. When I got down there the water was so murky that I barely had any visibility. I grabbed onto the shaft with my feet and pulled myself down, to check out the prop, and wasn’t able to see anything until it was a foot in front of my face. The zinc was pretty chewed up, but it wasn’t loose. The nuts on the shaft were also tight. I got out of the water with scrapes on my hands and feet from barnacles, but no answer to the noise. Next I moved onto the transmission, I found that the oil was low and that Phoenix has a slow transmission leak. We spent the next couple of days refilling and flushing the transmission, but the noise didn’t subside. In the end, my final thought is that there is wear on the cutlass bearing, which will have to be replaced when Phoenix is hauled. For the rest of the trip I checked the transmission fluid every morning, and though there was drips of oil in my oil tray under the engine – there was not a significant loss according to the dipstick reading.
Finally on Thursday the wind was predicted to go south (ish) so we prepared the boat on Wednesday afternoon. We did some extra provisioning in town, then hauled the dinghy and outboard onto the deck, and lashed everything down in preparation for a bumpy ride. Then, we went to bed early to get a good night’s sleep before the overnight passage the following day.
On Thursday morning we hauled up anchor around 0830. There was a trawler that had anchored very close to us, so unfortunately we had to wake the captain to warm up his engines in case he was on top of our anchor. He was close, but we were able to get it up without him moving.
Pulling out of the Cape May Canal we were greeted by a washing machine of water. Once we were beyond the protective jetties we began getting tossed around in the 5 foot swell. With light wind it was not a comfortable ride. We motor sailed into the swell for a couple of miles before turning northeast and taking it on our quarter/beam. I took first watch and Peri went down to her bunk to get some rest. After about an hour the wind (thankfully) picked up. The swell was still somewhat annoying but we were able to pick up speed and stay somewhat stable with the wind. Throughout the sail north the swell slowly subsided. The wind came from every direction throughout the 24 hours. Luckily for us, when it was on the nose it was light so we were able to motor into it. We went through a couple of different sail plans depending on the wind. At times we had just the Main up and in tight to dampen the swell. Other times we had just the Genoa when we had a good breeze directly behind us and off our quarter. A couple of hours before sunset we had a sweet breeze from the east so we had both sails up and were clipping along so nicely. At sunset we doused the Main so that when the wind went behind us as it was forecasted to do we could sail Genoa only without having to go on deck in the dark to take the Main down. Peri took sunset watch and by the time I came back up the wind had indeed gone south so I was very happy with my decision.
There’s nothing quite like sailing at night. People often assume (myself included) that it’s scary and much harder than sailing during the day. And while you do have to be highly alert at night, it’s really just peaceful. I find that I have more space to think. There’s more wonder in the dark, and more awareness. The moon rose and gave us a soft white glow. We had a couple of boats pass us far off to the west, and we had a couple of sailboats alongside us whose lights we could track through the night.
As the sun rose we were just coming into view of the city, but all we could see was fog. Luckily as we got closer the fog backed off and we were able to enter the harbor with full visibility. We got to the Verrazano Narrows Bridge at 0900, just over 24 hours after leaving Cape May. New York Harbor was very exciting, passing the Statue of Liberty and sailing up the Hudson along Manhattan. The traffic is the most challenging aspect of the harbor. We dodged ferries and tankers. As we were passing an anchored cargo carrier we were marveling at the size of the chain links on the anchor chain, and all of a sudden that anchor chain began to get hauled up! We upped the throttle and got away from there as fast as possible.
Our destination was Haverstraw, which is about 30 miles north of the city. We dropped anchor at 1530, making the full trip 165 miles in 31 hours. After dropping anchor we made Annie’s Mac n Cheese, showered and got in bed. I was asleep by 1830, but Peri had trouble sleeping in calm waters since she was so used to the swell – I think she belongs on the ocean.
The following morning we were up at 5 and were greeted by more fog! I swore I would never again take clear visibility for granted. We left at 0600 and motored slowly north up the Hudson, just outside of the channel. Around 0900 the fog finally lifted and we were able to pick up speed. Around 1100 it got warm enough to change into our bathing suits and soak up some of the sun. And around 1300 it got so hot that we strung up a sheet over the cockpit to hide from the glaring rays. I love waking up that early and being able to witness such a change in weather in one day.
The Hudson river is absolutely beautiful in this stretch from Haverstraw to Poughkeepsie. As we passed West Point we marveled at the twisty turns of the river, the steep hills leading straight down into the water, even as we got closer to shore we were still in a hundred feet of water.
We arrived in Poughkeepsie around 1615 that afternoon, and shortly after tying the dock lines we went off in search of a supermarket. A little over a mile away we were blessed with a few minutes of air conditioning while we shopped. We couldn’t find an ice cream shop near us, so we got popsicles at the supermarket and enjoyed them on our walk home. That night we had quesadillas and enjoyed another early night.
The following morning we were off of the dock by 0430. It was still fairly dark, but there wasn’t much traffic on the river. Thankfully, we had clear visibility with no fog. The sunrise was beautiful. We sipped our coffee as Phoenix motored north and the sky turned pink.
Just before noon we arrived in Catskill and dropped anchor. Within 15 minutes the anchor was set, the dinghy was dropped in the water, and the boat was put away with the anchor alarm on. We were very excited as we rowed into shore because in downtown Catskill there’s a store called Cat on the Corner that is full of cat themed paraphernalia! After stowing the dinghy behind the marina fuel dock we walked into town and had a blast at the cat store. We bought some gifts, some stuff for ourselves, and of course some catnip for Roger. Once we were finished there we got our obligatory ice cream next door – decidedly the best ice cream of the trip – and then headed back to the river.
The row back to Phoenix was aggressive. We were fighting a strong current so I rowed hard across the river (across the current) before we turned up-current and rowed together dragon boat style and finally made it to Phoenix. The afternoon was spent getting the boat ready for unstepping the mast the following day.
The next morning we motored into the dock and spent the day finishing our prep work. This includes removing the sails, removing the spars (boom and staysail boom), removing any lines attached to the mast, and unplugging all of the wires from inside the mast. We were the last boat under the crane for the day, and the crew at Riverview Marine Services did an amazing job taking our mast down. Once she was laid on the deck we tied her down tight so she was nice and secure. We took one more walk into Catskill to find a liquor store, and of course get more ice cream, before coming back to the marina. That night, finally, exactly two weeks after leaving the docks in Baltimore, we took our first real shower. It was pure luxury.
We had another early start the next morning, leaving at 0430 again. Our goal was to get all the way to Schuylerville, NY, which was 63 miles and 5 locks north. This was the most miles (aside from the jaunt up from Cape May) that we’d attempted in one day. We made it to the Troy federal lock by noon and were able to just make it to Lock 1 around 1310. Locks 1 and 2 were operating on a schedule this year because they were doing something called “double draining”. In an effort to keep an invasive species, the “round goby” out of Lake Champlain they filled and drained the first two locks twice in an attempt to flush out any gobys that were trying to get upstream.
After the first two locks, 3 and 4 went quickly. The longest stretch between locks along the whole canal is the 14 miles between 4 and 5. We were able to make it to the lower lock wall at Lock 5 by 1930 where our friend Dave was waiting to catch our lines. Dave lives right along the canal and had graciously invited us over for dinner. Our mouths were watering as Dave and his wife served us the most delicious meal that we had the entire trip. He grilled up some steak, and we had baked potatoes and stuffed mushrooms and an amazing green salad. It was so great to chat with Dave, it made us both feel so much closer to home. With full bellies we returned to Phoenix for a good night sleep.
The locks open at 0700, so at 0701 I hailed the operator and he began to prep the chamber for us. After motoring in we pulled up to the wall and grabbed hold of the lines that run down the side of the concrete. The operator closed the doors behind us and the lock began to fill with water. Getting raised up in a lock is more challenging because the turbulence pushes and pulls you away from the wall more, so Peri and I were fighting to keep the boat somewhat even. Once the chamber was full, the operator opened the other doors and we were on our way north again.
The plan was originally to make it just to Whitehall, but with the wind forecasted to pick up significantly the following day I made the decision to push through all the way to Chipman Point. When Lock 12 opened and we officially motored into Lake Champlain Peri and I were both filled with lots of emotion. We felt like we were home. We got to the marina and popped a bottle of champagne with our dinner to celebrate.
We were supposed to get our mast stepped the next day, but the wind came up too much. Instead, Phoenix got a good scrubbing, we got some rest and went for a walk, and we prepped the boat for stepping the next day. The following morning Chip (who runs the marina) put up our mast just before the wind started to pick up again. We made sure everything was secure, but didn’t bother reattaching the booms or sails yet. We motored for a while to let the mast settle in her place before unfurling the genoa to pick up some speed. We moored in Kingsland Bay for the night, filled with excitement to almost be home.
The following day was a Saturday. The forecast called for thunderstorms around 11, so we got up early to put the mainsail and staysail back on and dropped the mooring line around 0730. There was some wind, so we motor-sailed a bit before it dropped off completely. Just as we were coming up on Juniper Island, about 4 nm outside of Burlington, the radar started to show big storms over Colchester. I was hoping the storms would stay up there and we would sneak in south of them, but after passing Juniper we saw a huge breeze-line barreling towards us. The storms popped up quick over the Adirondacks, as they tend to do in the summer.
We always say that Lake Champlain has many different moods. She really showed us the power of her mood swings that day when she went from glassy water to whitecaps within 5 minutes. We kept a sliver of the genoa unfurled for a little bump in speed, but pulled it in before entering the Harbor. Peri danced around, so thrilled for our dramatic entrance. As we were passing Perkins Pier, somehow over the rumble of the engine and the roar of the wind I heard “Ahoy! Phoenix!”. I look over to see Mathias, my friend, sailing mentor and Phoenix’s previous owner waving his hat on shore. We were home.
We pulled into the docks at the Burlington Boathouse to our sailing family waving and cheering. Even the captain of the Spirit of Ethan Allen gave us a few honks of his horn. Our friends had a pile of beer and champagne and donuts, and were ready to celebrate with us in the rain. Peri and I each popped a bottle of Champagne – one of which was given to me by a friend in Baltimore as a going away gift. We gave some to Phoenix and then drank some ourselves. We poured everyone a glass and cheersed, the sailors driving the boats later giving theirs to miss Champlain. It was a beautiful feeling to finally arrive home, and to celebrate with some of the most amazing people we know.
