Trip #4 Brewerton, NY - Glen Cove, NY

Length of Trip: 14 days

Nautical Miles Traveled: 300

Hours of Cruising: 28 hours

Longest Cruising Day:  7 hours, 58 NM: Sylvan Beach, NY - Ilion, NY

Pleasant Surprise: The High Line, New York, NY

Biggest Disappointment: Amsterdam, NY

Favorite Destination: New York, NY

Favorite Meal:  Tavern on the Green, New York, NY

Timi to add

The next morning we were heading out to walk the other side of Central Park and guess what? We spotted Tiffany’s. We have been looking for wedding bands for John, so we thought we’d check it out. We enjoyed shopping for a while, then carried on with a hot pleasant walk through Central Park, enjoyed an icy snowcone (30 calories!) and another splendid lunch at Tavern on the Green.

We cabbed to the 9/11 Memorial which was haunting and beautiful – I could feel the sadness, particularly when reading the NYFD names and departments. It’s nice the way the names are placed as each and every one them is prominent and readable. The force and energy of sheets of water flowing from the edges and running over the slate felt like a cleansing of the grief and violence while the water cascading into the depths reminds us of the loss. I was amazed at the brilliance of the design and it's ability to say so much with just the footprint of a vanished building, water and stone. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to go into the museum, but definitely will next time in New York.

We took the subway back to the hotel, had a nice dinner and then to another Broadway musical, ‘A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder', which was a fun, light-Oscar-wildish style story and of course filled with amazingly talented performers.

We had such a wonderful time! I completely understand why so many people (including me) love New York!

The next morning we hurried out for a long walk in Central Park and had a lovely lunch at Tavern on the Green. We decided it would be a good idea to move to a hotel so we could enjoy New York sans sea sickness. We quickly packed a bag, abandoned ship and checked in to the The Four Seasons followed by an evening out to see the Broadway show 'Matilda'.

Roald Dahl’s Matilda was a very fun show – a little quirky and slightly dark, but an amazing cast and fun story. john and I could pnot believe how talented the young actresses and actors were.  Afterwards we walked through Times Square until we couldn’t handle the throngs of people and strolled back to the hotel stopping at yet an another Italian restaurant on the way for dinner. 

We ‘set sail’ for Poughkeepsie/Hyde Park, NY in a rain storm. The Hudson River Valley continues to get prettier  - the trees and water and slab rock shores looked just like the Hudson River school of painters depicted them. I kept hoping to see Daniel Day Lewis leaping over the rocks in his loin cloth as the Last of the Mohicans (this is where the Mohicans lived also).

Upon arriving in Poughkeepsie, we caught a cab to see the one of the Vanderbilt mansions. It was on a beautiful stretch of rolling hills of trees and grass overlooking the river. The furnishings were the original from the turn of the century, and a good example of the Beaux-Arts architectural style. The interior of the mansion is an archetype of the American Renaissance incorporating a range of European antiques and finely crafted period reproductions. At 50,000 ft.² it was the smallest of the mansions constructed by one of the eight grandchildren of Cornelius (Commodore) Vanderbilt. Our US Park Service tour guide was adept at his job and it was a very interesting tour.

We had lunch at a 50’s style diner, then popped across the road to Springwood, Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s childhood home, birthplace, and ultimate resting place. It was a fabulous tour. John and I particularly loved the presidential library that detailed his life, his travails and challenges, and many achievements that made our country a better place.  As President during both the Great Depression and WW II, FDR was clearly one of the key figures of the 20th Century.

Then we had dinner at the lovely Harry Potteresque (not as ornate, but in similar style) campus of the American Culinary Institute.  They were completely booked but told us to call back around 4:00. As luck would have it, there was a cancellation just before we called allowing us to dine at American Bounty, one of the four restaurants where the CIA students get real world experience both back of house - cooking and front of house - serving.

Sue and John departed for home and we cruised to Kingston, NY on the Hudson to join Jeff and Leann who had taken the train from New York to meet us. The cruise down the Hudson River was the most beautiful of the trip and John says the closer we get to New York the nicer the towns will be, culminating in the mansions of Hyde Park and Tarrytown.  

Kingston was New York's first capital and was burned by the British in 1777 after the Battle of Saratoga. In the 19th century, the city became an important transport hub after the discovery of natural cement in the region, and had both railroad and canal connections.  Today it remains a very picturesque town and the first we have been in on this trip without any vacant storefronts.

While hanging out on the boat at the dock, Leann and I enjoyed the duck families, and how the parents took such good care of the fuzzy little babies (below deck when you look out the windows, the ducks are on close to the same level as we are and they cruise by the window within arms reach).  We had an enjoyable afternoon walking in the rain and visiting the Hudson River Maritime Museum learning about the Algonquin Indians and steamboats, and dinner at the ‘Ship to Shore’. When we returned to the boat, the ducks were huddled on the dock, ducklings scruffled under their mom's wings and bellies to keep warm. It is the cutest thing ever!

The next morning, John’s blue topsiders went missing. After some expert questioning, we figured out he had placed them on the edge of the dock when he began washing the boat, then proceded to hose down the side. Hmmmmm. A quick peek over the edge of the boat, and there were the shoes, bobbing in the murky water. The concrete dock was a ten feet high, so a long way down to reach for a shoe and for some strange reason we don’t have a net on the boat, so we tried to hook it out with the boat hook that we use to reach for lock lines. It didn’t work, but luckily, there was a metal ladder going down the dock wall, and John scooched the shoes close to it and we were able to retrieve them.

We headed off for Albany, NY and after a long day of locks and slow cruise speeds, we arrived at the Albany Yacht Club. This was a quieter town, and didn’t seem dangerous, but again, falling apart.

We took a short walk to the restaurant recommended by Tom the Harbor Master. While it overlooked the freeway and the silverware might have been better quality if it were plastic instead of sharp thin metal, the food was the best food of the trip. Teagan's, known for it’s ‘scampi’ that didn’t necessarily have scampi in it… they had beef scampi, chicken scampi, and just plain pasta scampi. We refrained from telling them that wine, butter and garlic isn’t the scampi part of scampi, and just ate it happily.

We skipped our walk to be sure to leave ourselves plenty of time to get through the eight locks on our way to Albany.  We cruised the river, went through a few locks, then docked for lunch at a coffee house in St. Johnsville, NY with three choices on the menu.

On the way back to the boat, we stopped in at the Redneck Yacht Club. As we approached, we saw a giant sign reading ‘This is a Tobacco Free Zone, NO SMOKING.’ We opened the door and stepped into the little room  - and there were two old guys sitting behind their desks smoking! It was so full of smoke I had to get out right away. 

The locks were so easy with Captain John’s expertise at holding the boat in position that at lock 17, as it was raining, the lockmaster told us I didn’t need to be on deck guiding the lines through a cleat making sure the boat doesn’t go rogue and bounce against the walls as we had been taught to do last summer. So the next couple locks, after setting up the fenders, I sat in the salon commenting to John that he no longer needed me. But wrong - I am needed! After gliding in to lock 13, I retired to the salon, and suddenly there was a hullaballoo with the lock master telling us we needed someone on the lines. I hopped up, slid on my gloves and shoes, grabbed the hook, hooked a line, and slid it around the cleat. Before the boat began to descend, the L.M. was on the dock next to me so I felt I had to explain myself to the Lock Master. I told him that we weren’t criminals trying to get away with laziness, but we had been told it wasn’t necessary by a previous L.M., which had made me feel silly for being so diligent on my lock duty these last few days. And he laughed and said it was no problem, we just need to be safe.

Late that afternoon we docked in Amsterdam, New York. The first Europeans to settle here were Dutch immigrants in about 1710. The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 was an economic boom to the city, which became an important manufacturing center. It was known for its carpets. 

John Sr. and I went for a walk to peruse the town and look for the restaurants that were suggested to us. Unaware of the town’s history, we noticed an odd combination of beautiful old empty mansions, churches, and quaint 1920’s style main street shops surrounded by dilapidated sidewalks, cracked pavement, and crack houses. We also began to notice the gangbanger types driving by giving us strange looks. It seems the town suffered from a dramatic decline in population over the last century and economic downturn in the last decade. We couldn’t find the restaurants we were looking for so we headed back to the boat. When almost back, I noticed a store front attached to a warehouse-like church with  “Friend’s of Jesus Church and Off-track Betting” painted on the front. The attached store had a giant half lit neon sign indicating it was a Chinese Restaurant. Half kidding, I pointed it out to John, who immediately took control, marched in and ordered some Chow Mein (I threw in an order for broccoli in garlic sauce) from the non-english speaking skinny and old Chinese couple behind the counter.  We brought it to the boat and had a decent dinner on a beautiful evening on the aft deck listening to trains chug by blowing their whistles every twenty minutes.

The next morning we had a nice walk and afterwards I did yoga on deck while John and Sue attended church, and John went to town to restock some supplies. We then embarked on a cruise to on glassy water to Sylvan Beach, NY. Sylvan Beach is on the east shore of Onieda Lake adjacent to the Erie Canal. Before European exploration began, the area was used by Native Americans, mostly for its supply of fish. In 1820, it became a shipping port. Now it has a couple of restaurants, some nice beaches, and an abandoned amusement park.

When we checked in to the Marina, the guy in the office (in fact the only person at all anywhere) seemed a bit slow and not particularly friendly. His name was Jimmy. We pried information from him – how far are the restaurants and which are the best and, as it was revealed it was 1 ½ miles to town, were there any taxis? He recommended the Crazy Clam, and no, there weren’t any taxis. That was a little problem as that was too far a walk for some crew members.

While we pondered what we were going to do to get some dinner, John decided to lower the swim step in to the water and launch the tender so he could clean the teak. Earlier, he had asked Sue and I to remind him to put the plug back in the little rubber dingy as he had removed it to keep rain water from collecting in it. Well, he didn’t tell us he was going to do it, so we couldn’t remind him, and you guessed it, as soon as the tender touched down on the river, it quickly started filling with water. With his quick reflexes, he managed to keep it afloat, and both Johns and I went for a pleasant mini cruise up and down river watching a mama duck with fourteen adorable fuzzball ducklings swim alongside us, and spotting blue herons and hawks.

When dinner time rolled around, we still had no answer for how to get to town. Sue suggested we ask Jimmy if he would drive us. I was unsure as I thought if he were willing to do it, he would have offered earlier, but to my surprise, he said yes. He only had room for two in the cab of the Marina truck, so John and I walked and met them in town.

We ate the Crazy Clam where the waitress assured Sue they had Glenfiddich which Sue promptly ordered. Sue thought it didn’t taste right, so she went to the bartender to see if he had accidently poured Glenlivit, and he said they only had Dewar’s. Hmmmm. When the waitress returned, she was adamant that they served Glenfiddich – they even had a button on the order screen that said “Glenfiddich” which she had pushed. We didn't bother to correct her as it wouldn't have done any good and went on to have an otherwise uneventful dinner.

And then guess who offered to come pick John and Sue up and take them back to the boat? Jimmy! John and I walked back, stopping to get ice cream along the way. As we approached the harbor, I noticed a man on a motor bike was looking at us intently from a stop-sign across the street, not going anywhere even thought there was no traffic. It struck me as a little odd and I was wondering why he was watching us. It was beginning to creep me out, when from under the shiny red helmet he said, “I got your parents tucked on the boat, nice and safe.” It was our kind and responsible friend Jimmy who had turned out to be a really sweet guy.

John, Sue, John and I touched down in Syracuse, New York after a quick and easy flight across the country.

A large cab driver with a thick New York accent drove us to the grocery store for a few supplies. We arrived at Winter Harbor where the Latitude Adjustment had hibernated for the winter. Winter Harbor is the tidiest boat yard we’ve seen (making John very happy), with fresh black tarmac, groomed lawns, and clean boats on a sleepy little stretch of tree-lined river. It’s obvious that the owner, Tom, takes pride in the way he keeps things. All was well on the boat, except we had forgotten to get ice which with this group is a big problem.

After unloading our luggage I was returning the marina cart when I saw a man approaching in a golf cart. I greeted him with, “Oh yay! You’re here with the ice!”, and to my surprise, he replied, “Oh yeah, we got ice at the gas dock.” Of course, it was the Harbor Master Tom, who kept such good care of everything, including our ice needs! Five minutes later I was marching back to the boat in my totally unsuitable leopard print platforms carrying two bags of ice. Everyone cheered and we all agreed that this was an auspicious beginning to our first cruise of the year.

After unpacking and a cool drink, it was time to head to town for dinner. Tom offered us the use of two cars he keeps for harbor guests. We dined at Barado's, a little Italian restaurant (with the best carrot cake I’ve ever tasted), with a very amiable waitress. When she learned where we were from, she told us she had lived in LG for ten years and worked at the Oak Meadows Veterinary clinic!

We are spending our first few days on the Erie Canal. In 1800, it took 2.5 weeks to travel overland from New York to Cleveland, Ohio. Originally running about 363 miles (584 km) from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, the canal was built to create a navigable water route from New York City and the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. As it was faster than carts pulled by draft animals it cut transport costs by about 95% and helped New York eclipse Philadelphia as the largest city and port on the Eastern Seaboard.