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| George Washington Bridge |
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| Tappan Zee Bridge |
Many boats were on the water enjoying the lovely weather. Our destination for the day was Bear Mountain State Park, a very scenic area and the start of the Hudson Highlands. Bear Mountain Bridge crosses the Hudson at this location, the world’s longest when it was constructed in 1924 and the first vehicular bridge to cross the Hudson. It carries the Georgia to Maine Appalachian Trail. A family of Mute Swans swam over to welcome us when we arrived.
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| Bear Mountain Bridge |
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| Our Very Scenic Anchorage |
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| Notice the Third Baby on Mom's Back |
Passenger trains run close to the shore on the eastern side of the Hudson River while freight trains run along the western shore. Our anchorage was fairly close to the western shore, we watched as trains passed our location, the freight trains sounding their horns at frequent intervals as they passed. Fortunately, there were few trains during the night. Our good weather was not to hold, we awoke to cloudy skies.
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| Highland Falls |
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| The United States Military Academy |
Continuing up river, we passed Highland Falls and West Point, fortified in 1779 it is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States and home of the United States Military Academy (the nation’s oldest service academy). It is here in an area called “World’s End” that the river reaches its greatest depth of 216 feet. It is also here that a chain was stretched across the river in an attempt to keep the British from traveling further up river during the Revolutionary War. The attempt failed.
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| Bannerman's Island |
We passed Bannerman’s Island with the ruins of a Scottish castle and munitions arsenal built by Francis Bannerman still standing prominently on the island. Just after we passed the village of Newburgh the rains returned making visibility difficult.
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| View Through the Windshield |
We tied up at Norrie Point State Park near Staasburg, NY, a beautiful setting with new floating docks.
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| View From the Marina, St. Alfonsus Seminary |
In the morning when the rain stopped, we rented a car from Enterprise and, yes, they drove from Poughkeepsie to pick us up. The old Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge built in 1889 has been turned into a pedestrian walkway. The longest cantilevered and truss span bridge in the world was reborn in 2009 as ‘Walkway Over the Hudson State Historic Park” and is now the longest elevated pedestrian bridge in the world. We took the opportunity to walk across and see this beautiful area from a different vantage point.
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| View to the North |
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| Looking Back |
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| View to the South |
We made reservations at the Culinary Institute of America and enjoyed dinner in their lovely Northern Italian restaurant, Catarina de' Medici. It was a memorable evening.
There are four true light houses along the Hudson, built for a lighthouse keeper and his family, they were occupied until the lights were automated beginning in the 1950s.
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| Esopus Meadows Light |
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| Kingston Light |
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| Saugerties Light |
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| Hudson Athens Light |
Stopping in Catskill Creek we encountered a village that time has truly forgotten. They have not yet recovered from Irene nearly two years ago and the recent heavy rains have not helped their situation.
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| Catskill Creek |
Departing early in the morning from Catskill we were attempting to get to Albany to wait out yet another storm. We called ahead to confirm our reservations and found that Albany Yacht Club was full because boats could not leave. The Erie Canal was closed due to high water. We are currently docked at the Castleton Boat Club, just south of Albany, waiting for repairs to be made to the locks on the Erie Canal which resulted from the high water and excessive rainfall they have experienced recently. We will continue our journey when the locks reopen for navigation.
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| After the Storm at Castleton-on-Hudson |
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