2004 THOUSAND ISLAND CRUISE

Come August we decided to fit in a little 10 day solo cruise on the St. Lawrence in the Thousand Island area. We trailered Cloud Nine to Keewaydin State Park which is just west of Alexandria Bay, New York. 

Our route is the red dotted line

This is the center of action on the US side of the Thousand Islands. Keewaydin State Park is a bit off the beaten path and has a great ramp with good side docks for launching & retrieving a boat. If you pay to stay at the docks for one night, you may leave your truck/trailer parked for the length of your cruise at no additional cost. The park is centrally located with great cruising to the west, north and east. 

Sarahjoy and Tammi

Our plan was to have niece Sarahjoy join us for most of the cruise and also meet up with my cousin Beth, who lives in Syracuse.

Sarahjoy navigates

There are so many choices of islands and attractions in this area that it is difficult to settle on a plan of action. Alexandria Bay, however, has too much boat traffic for our taste so we headed right out to the islands.
Picnic Island is probably my favorite. 

 

 Our experience and expertise with anchoring was limited in 2004. We kept intending to anchor for the night by one of the islands, but got cold feet and found dockage instead. One afternoon we were cruising from island to island trying to find a dock with space for us. There was a nice looking little dock off the island to our starboard, but it looked pretty full…..and then a dinghy came whizzing out to us with a wave. The skipper called that they too had a Rosborough RF246 and wanted us to come join them at the dock. What a welcome invitation that was! 

Sarahjoy was once again impressed by the small world of Rosborough owners. Previously she had asked us, “How come people keep coming up and wanting to talk about your boat?” We replied, “Yeah, we used to be surprised by that too, but now we’re getting used to it.”

Raft-up with Crossover

We had a great night getting acquainted with our new friends, swimming and kayaking around the island.

Tammi & Ballew enjoy the sofa version of the dinette

 

Cockpit supper with Kingston Farmer's Market goodies

We were eager to introduce Sarahjoy to Kingston, Ontario since we like that city so much. She had researched Kingston online and discovered that they had an interesting climbing gym that is located in an old industrial building with a tall chimney that you can climb from the inside.  The Boiler Room Climbing Gym. Fun to discover something completely new in Kingston!

Gananoque dinghy ride

Another destination was The Thousand Island Playhouse in Gananoque, Ontario. The idea of docking overnight at the playhouse and taking in a performance had caught our imagination. The dock, however, is open to wakes from the St. Lawrence and with our recent lesson learned on the Hudson River, we wanted to avoid this. So we pulled into Berman Marine instead which was just a short walk from the Playhouse.

 Just a word about the dinghy in these photos: We went through a lot of different small inflatibles in the early days with Cloud Nine. We needed something small enough to fit on the salon roof and light enough for us to put up there by hand. But it also needed to have back support for Craig and be able to safely transport us all ashore for Ballew's needs. This was our 2nd dinghy try - and cute as it was, it didn't seem safe unless water was flat calm.  What we needed was a roof extension for over the cockpit (instead of our existing biminy) and a davit. At the end of this cruise Craig phoned Rosborough and ordered up the roof extension.

Boldt Castle on Hart Island

Back to our cruise:

Boldt Castle on Hart Island is another must see. Back in the early ‘90s Craig and I had toured the ruined mansion while on a camping trip. Work had just begun to restore and complete the building. It was fun in 2004 to see the progress ten years had brought. Hart Island is also a convenient place to clear US Customs.

While we were in the Hart Island area we boated for a day with my cousin Beth and her friend, Jen and had dinner at the Thousand Island Club on Wellesley Island. I guess the boat traffic in this area must have gotten to me because I didn’t take any photos of the visit!

Soon thereafter Sarahjoy departed and Craig, Ballew and I were suddenly on our own and unsure of what to do with our remaining time. While in Kingston we had learned of a weekend Poker Run with zillions of cigarette boats. We had to give up our dockage in Kingston because the Run would begin and end there, so returning to Kingston was out. On impulse we decided to boat to the eastern end of the Thousand Islands and visit Brockport, Ontario. The cruise through the islands was delightful and the harbor at Brockville inviting - but - they would only let us stay overnight if we promised to be gone in the morning. The Poker Run would be filling the Brockville harbor for the lunch stop. We duly promised to be gone early, having no desire to be part of that chaos, and then strolled through town, shopping at an shoe store with an incredible inventory and then back to Cloud Nine for a quiet night. 

Cloud Nine at Brockport, Ontario

 Come morning, however, Craig had changed his mind about leaving. His thought was that getting to see the Poker Run might be fun. We had carpenter’s style ear protectors onboard, so we would be able to stand the din from all the engines. After persuading me, he set off to see if the Harbormaster would let us crowd Cloud Nine into some corner of the harbor and stay for the spectacle. The Harbormaster was in a co-operative mood and said we could tie up at the boat ramp. This put us in a front row seat! 

Our 'speed boat'

Naturally, Craig launched the dinghy so he could putt right up and SEE the boats. 

And what a circus it was! One after another these flamboyant boats came zooming into the harbor, with lots of attitude, throwing up huge wakes. But THEN they had to pull it together and dock (in the churned up water). Lots and lots of boats all doing this at once. Big boats, Bigger boats, Loud boats, Jet engine boats, boats with sudden engine problems, boats with iffy steering… being a spectator was priceless!  

Everything settled down for awhile while they had lunch and we strolled around and got to see what their cooling engines looked like with the hoods up. 

After lunch came the real excitement. The boats exited the harbor and then bunched up in groups out in the St. Lawrence. We spectators stood on the high wall that separates the harbor from the big water. There were no announcements or explanation of what was going to go on out there, but it seemed that the smaller boats were going to take off first, followed by bigger ones and eventually those bombs with the double jet engines. The first heat generated quite a bit of wake action on the wall. I got to thinking about what might happen as the bigger boats got going. Decided to take my camera and retreat a bit. Good thing I did because when the jet engined boats took off a tsunami occurred! The Saint Lawrence rose up, moved toward us, rolled up and over that harbor wall and completely soaked the multitude standing there. What a sight!

 What an adventurous ending to our Thousand Island Cruise!

2004 HUDSON RIVER CRUISE

Cloud Nine and Golden Daze reunited in Whitehall, NY in July of 2004 to cruise south to Manhattan via the Champlain Canal and Hudson River. This year we intentionally planned to stop at Waterford during the Steamboat Round-Up event and my niece Beth and her boyfriend planned to met up with us there via motorcycle.   

Cloud Nine arrives at Steamboat Round-Up, Waterford, NY

No sooner had they arrived that we were invited for a ride on African Queen - a not-to-be missed opportunity! Mid-ride Capt. Bill mentioned that these wood-fired steamboat engines have a habit of blowing up….at which point he fired off his aft mounted cannon. A heart-stopping moment!

Beth arrives

You might enjoy these photos of African Queen:
African Queen steamboat

The fun begins!

Adele tries out Dave's Harley

Did I mention that the day was HOT and we were sweaty messes?

Cloud Nine tied up to a tug

Ballew relaxes in the V-berth and the coolness provided by our window mounted AC

Half Moon docked in Albany

It’s always hard to tear yourself away from Steamboat Round-Up but eventually we did and headed down the Hudson bound for Kingston. We had wanted to go to the boatyard where they are restoring dredged up Hudson River boats but found the place closed up for the July 4^th weekend.

Lighthouse at Roundout Creek, Kingston, NY

Kingston docks

 The trip south was amazing because at every turn we seemed to pass a place we knew of or had heard of or was just generally famous. We pulled into the Tarry Town Marina, on the east side of the river, for two nights because of its location to the NYC commuter trains. I wanted to visit the Hudson River Marina in Yonkers which isn’t accessible by boat. This really worked out! The train station is quite close to the marina - which is a rarity.

The Hudson River Museum http://www.hrm.org/aboutus.html has a model of the Hudson River that we found particularly helpful in planning our route south.

The final day south started with boating under the Tappan Zee Bridge. To boat under a bridge that you know from driving over it in a car is quite an experience. You really get to SEE the bridge. And from this point on it was ‘Look at this’ and ‘Look at that!’ all the way down the river.  The Palisades, the Harlem River, the George Washington Bridge, Grant’s Tomb, the Empire State Building...

West Point

Pollopel Island with Bannerman Castle

....and on the west side, the Colgate Clock in Jersey City, NJ. The Colgate Clock signals the turn to Liberty Landing Marina, where we planned to stay for the week while we played tourist.

- - But first, you don’t go this far down the Hudson and stop before cruising up to Lady Liberty herself! I egged Craig into boating as close as possible and then radioing Golden Daze to come up for a photo op. Is it a thrill to drive your boat up to the Statue of Liberty?  Yup!

Cruising past Ellis Island

And, while we had heard dire warnings about tight security in New York Harbor, we never saw any.

Then we did a U turn and headed back to Liberty Landing Marina. Just as we pulled into the fuel dock to get our dock assignments Golden Daze had a crisis as Don lost all ability to steer her. Thank goodness that hadn’t happened any sooner!! Eventually both of our boats were docked, a mechanic was summoned for Golden Daze and we kicked back in Cloud Nine's cockpit to enjoy our new surroundings.

Relaxing at Liberty Landing

The problem on Golden Daze turned out to be a steering rod that had not been properly secured following work done on the boat. Once the fix was made we ventured forth to enjoy New York City by water. The plan was to leaved our boats at dock and use the Marina ferry to visit Manhattan.  Over the next several days we explored the city by foot, Circle Line Cruise, ferry and exciting Hop On/Hop Off yellow Taxi catamarans. Hop On/Hop Off Water Taxi

Top deck of Water Taxi for us

For Adele and Don too, of course!

One day we rode the Water Taxi up the western tip of the City stopping off to visit the Concorde and the ship Intrepid.

Concorde is really tiny inside

Another day we took the Circle Line Cruise around Manhattan - and noticed that the South Street Seaport looked like a perfect place for us to visit.

Brooklyn Bridge

Fire boat with Colgate tower in background

So the next day we took the Water Taxi over to the South Street Seaport, toured the Peking. Here’s a YouTube video tour of the Peking that you might enjoy: Tour of the Peking, South Street Seaport

Party people boarding Yacht

That evening when we returned to our boats we encountered a number of dressed-up people (way too dressed up for boating, but fun to watch!) making their way to a large yacht docked at Liberty Landing. Not something we see at home!

View of Manhattan from our dock

The last day of our stay we started with breakfast in Greenwich Village and ended with a tour of Ellis Island.

Brunch in Greenwich Village

Ellis Island - Grand Hall

Jersey City Liberty Park Train & Ferry Station

While at Ellis Island and looking toward the Jersey Shore, it occurred to me that my Norwegian grandfather must have worked at the elaborate train station just across from Ellis Island. He resided in Jersey City and was a carpenter on the train in the early part of the 1900s.

And then it was time to cast off from Liberty Landing and head north again. Leaving during rush hour on Monday morning was a goof! For the first several miles up the Hudson commuter ferry boats were hurtling toward Cloud Nine from every point of the compass! Our necks became swivels keeping look-out for oncoming vessels and then doing our best to get out of their way. And then, as we reached the George Washington Bridge, all settled back down and all that insanity fell behind us. 

Homeward bound

 There is steady barge traffic on the river but these boats are easy water companions. You just want to be aware of the wakes they throw, day and night, when you choose a place to overnight. It is best to get your boat up a creek, like Catskill Creek or Roundout. And, if that option isn’t available, be sure to get behind a good strong jetty. One night we docked at a marina on the east side of the river that was a good distance from boat traffic but had no other protection. Wakes from boats we never even saw almost swamped Cloud Nine till we turned her around facing the bow out. Even then we rocked and rolled all night long. Lesson learned! 

Catskill Marina

We had two great overnights on the river:  the Catskill Marina and Coeymans Landing Marina. It was at Coeymans (I think) that we found a hot tub on the office porch. Adele and I were chin deep in no time at all - and it was there and then that the weather changed from sunny and pleasant to torrential rains. Rain that lasted all night. Rain that completely filled the inflatable dinghy on Cloud Nine’s roof and then sent sheets of water cascading down the sedan walls when the boat rocked. Rains that lasted for the next several weeks.  It was truly time to head home!

Cloud Nine at Ft. Edward

Back on the Champlain Canal we had an overnight at Fort Edward along with dinner at the Ft. Edward Diner (cheap, local spot with good food!). 

Relaxing on Golden Daze in Ft. Edward

Locking through in the rain, Champlain Canal

 The next day we arrived back at Whitehall after doing locks in the rain.

Another super trip!