Early morning calm on the Hudson
More reflections on a still morning
The usual dawn start had us arriving at Riverview Marine by 0930 Saturday morning. When I'd called to arrange for dockage and having the mast stepped, Susan told me we'd get in line, and would be taken by who was ready first. There was a line! A big 47' cat had just been done and was putting the sails on, another boat was in the process of getting the mast stepped and a huge green ketch (2 masts), Reflections, was waiting at the fuel dock for their turn. It was great seeing Mike busy - he said he thought the Canadian $ was down, but wouldn't know it given the number and size of Canadian boats heading south.
By 1030 we were ready. About 1130 we helped cast off the lines to the boat by the crane and moved over to get our mast stepped. Reflections indicated we should go ahead, and we didn't question his logic (good thing!). By 1230 the mast was up and after getting the stays attached, we moved to a slip to finish the work. With little wind, we got the sails on, the battens in and the main cover and jack lines up and adjusted. By then it was after 1700 so we decided to wait until morning to deal with the solar panel and bimini.
Late in the afternoon, Reflections moved over to the crane and had one of their masts placed on shore for them to work on antennas and the radar. A Canadian couple on Marsea, a motor sailor arrived during the afternoon and tied up in the slip next to us awaiting their turn. Work on Reflections was not progressing very quickly (couldn't figure out why they hadn't done some of it beforehand and didn't seem to work very hard) , and we were thankful they let us go ahead of them. The folks on Marsea were patient, but ready to get stepped and wondering how long Reflection would take give the lack of progress.
We walked into town to check out some of the new restaurants that had opened recently for dinner. Unbeknownst to us, the music we'd been hearing during the afternoon was part of a dance performance raising money for AIDS down at the building at the entrance of the creek. The street had been filled with cars and by the time we'd chosen where to eat, the performance was over and folks were streaming through town, some stopping for a bit to eat. The wait time was over 30 minutes, more than we wanted to wait, so we walked down to Port of Call, the waterfront restaurant (5 min wait) just past the marina for dinner. Leonard reconnected the mast wiring after we got back since it's easier to check lights after dark. Everything worked! Time to call it a day.
With a good 1/2 day's work yet to do, we were started by 0800. I helped shift the bimini supports and hoist the solar panel into position before leaving Leonard working on reconnecting wires and walking to Price Chopper to pick up a few things. It's just under 2 miles one way, a reasonable hike if I don't overload the back pack.
One of the not-so-painted ladies in Catskill
I made a detour on the way back to check out the little local health food store who frequently has fresh, local produce. She'd been closed the evening before with no hours listed, so I gambled she'd be open. She was, and I picked up a few things, and discovered the now, very small, local farmer's market in town by the new information center as I headed back to the boat. Catskill used to have a great Saturday Farmer's Market down at the creek entrance, but after having the location changed multiple times over several years, had alienated the vendors. There were only a handful of vendors, but I learned Cedar Grove, the Thomas Cole House was hosting an event and would be open to visitors, something I been hopping to see, and would have time to do since we decided to stay another night..
Back at the marina, Reflections had one mast part way up - with a lot of discussion going on. Both masts were deck stepped, so it shouldn't have been such a difficult job. The folks on Marsea we waiting their turn with a bit less patience. He had mentioned that Hop-O-Nose, the competition, doesn't work weekends, so they had little choice but to wait.
Cedar Grove, Thomas Cole's home
The often painted view (sans roofs) from the south porch at
Cedar Grove
We finished up the chores Leonard had started, ate lunch and headed up to check out Cedar Grove, Thomas Cole's home. Thomas Cole is credited as the founding artist of the Hudson River School of Art, a group of artists who produced beautiful paintings of scenes along the Hudson River. Many years ago, on another boat trip, we saw an exhibit of the Hudson School paintings at the Smithsonian in Washington, and were fascinated with the beautiful play of light depicted in the works.
Thomas Cole was also an early environmentalist, calling attention and writing about the wanton destruction of the environment by people felling trees with little thought as to what they were doing, and the arrival of the train. He worked to preserve some of the land in the Catskills that is still undeveloped and preserved today. The changes he saw would have been all too visible from the porch on his house which had beautiful views of the Catskills that he frequently painted. The site included his studio, the house and gardens and a 'new' studio that he only used briefly before dying at 47. That studio had been torn down,after his death, but has been reconstructed and will be open to the public next spring.
Rip Van Winkle Bridge - Olana is the house at the top of the
hill to the right of the bridge
Looking S toward the entrance of Catskill Creek.
Antares is just west of the storage tanks
The current exhibit consisted of works by contemporary artists and was shown in conjunction with an exhibit at Olana, Frederic Church's estate across the river (another artist from the Hudson River School). Realizing how close we were to the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, we walked over to see the river from above, and part way across bridge - it was getting late, and we had chores yet to be done on the boat. It would have been interesting to hike over to Olana and checked out the house and grounds (more extensive than the Cole property), maybe in the spring. It is surprising to realize how much of Catskill we've discovered over the years, regularly finding something we've not seen before.
Olana, Frederic Church's home on the east side of the Hudson
At the marina, Reflections, with still only one mast up, had
moved so Marsea could get stepped, and another large Canadian
vessel, Champagne Madam, was waiting at the fuel dock.
Busy place! We hustled over to the far end of fuel dock
to top off diesel and get a pump out so we could depart early
in the morning. Still to be done were picking up the
dinghy, scrubbing the dingy bottom (it's been towed it since
leaving LCYC to allow enough room on the deck for easy
locking) and decks, and cleaning up the mess below.
I decided to run a quick load of wash.
Unfortunately the washer had been unbalanced during the final
spin, and when I went put things in the dryer, I found a
couple of inches of water standing in the tub. Not good
- I rewashed the clothes, keeping a close eye on the
spin cycles and eventually we had clean and dry clothes.
It was another long, interesting day!
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