September 29, 2010
A beautiful sunny morning. We’re ready to get going and put the masts up! Kris and Gary did a little last minute tinkering on the boat as we waited our turn for the crane. Carol and I busied ourselves with cleaning and completing the laundry.
Preparing for the grand feat of stepping the masts. All this extra junk must go…either up or off the boat!
She’s waiting to sail once again.
We keep seeing things from Ohio on this trip! Here the crane was from our home state. An Ohio crane lifting up Ohio masts.
Another boat from Vermont pulled in at the gas dock behind us. They were eager to get their mast up as well.
What Spinny was doing to help step the masts – staying out of the way (and taking a nap to boot). Later I got her energy back up as I gave her a good hose bath and a brush. The water was cold (I felt bad) but the weather was warm, so we dried off and warmed up with a good game of fetch. Spinny made a few more friends at the Marina this way, several of whom tossed her toy for her a couple of times. Now she’s soft and silky and smells like oatmeal!
It was difficult to step the masts with the genoa and staysail hanging from the main, but the boys got it done!
The genoa and the staysail are in place. Now they’re just trying to get the line for the crane detached from the mast!
We had to wait for the tide to come back in and lift the boat out of the mud before we could continue. The boat needed to be turned around so that the mizzen could be stepped. This got done all on good time. After a refill on gas and a good pump out, we were cleaned up, filled up, and masted up, ready to go!
A view of the mountains as we traveled down the Hudson.
Another light house in the river. Soon it will be time for it to shine it’s light and guide the boats still traveling in the night.
Kris and I worked on tightening the stay cables to straighten the masts out. Kris thinks he’s Captain Morgan here. Might need to straighten out the radar now…
A bridge across the canal, all lit up and ready for the night. We are pulling into Kingston soon, looking for the red and green lights of the markers to guide our way.
Kingston! We’ve made it! It was a warm and beautiful night. We’d just made it under the first Kingston bridge and into the Kingston Marina when this photo was taken. The bridge had a 56ft clearance and we stood 52ft tall. That was an exciting 30 seconds of my life as we approached the bridge. Gary shown the spotlight on the mast and the bridge as Kris drove toward it slowly. We all watched, breath held as the mast came to the edge of the bridge. It’s hard to tell distance when looking up. For a few seconds, I was sure that we were going to smack into the bridge bottom, but we made it, safe and sound. As we docked at the marina, a man sitting at a nearby park bench filled the air with the soft sounds of a harmonica. (Much more atmospheric than Gary singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall, as he’s doing now).
