Steak & Lobster Bake Weekend on the Hudson River

Day 50 - 52 ... June 9-11, 2017 ... 20.1 miles traveled in 3 Hours ... Catskill, NY to Ravena Coeymans Yacht Club, Selkirk, NY
What luck ... 3 Looper boats pulled into Catskill Marina by us for 2 days. Great, fun folks all from Florida and traveling the Loop together. They told us about a weekend Steak & Lobster Bake at a yacht club up river. The deal sounded to good to be true, but what the heck. We quickly decided this was a great way to slow ourselves down and not race up to the Erie canal which had closed for days as the current was deemed unsafe for boats. With no one moving there ... no reason for us to go quite yet. We will let the crowds move on, free up dock space for us and let the water calm down. Well, that's the plan anyway.
Before we left Catskill ... Some trawlers/power boats needed to lower their radar masts to fit under upcoming bridges.

Radar mast lowered back so the boat fits under upcoming bridges
Both the Erie & the Champlain routes have low bridges
Erie ... 21' (which we fit under & where we are going)
Champlain ... 17'6" (not going that way)

Mast lowered on neighbor boat (left); ours is still up (right)

Here's what a sailboat looks like with their mast lowered & stored on the boat.
Quite odd.

LOOPERS to the RESCUE  -  Along the way ... the 3 boats in front of us (friends traveling the loop together) spot a boat in distress. The boat had hit something and was taking on water. They all, Firestorm, Bad Habit & Kia Mae, circle to help. A plan is devised and Jim from Kia Mae drops his dinghy so he can tow the boat to shore. With that much help, there isn't anything we more we can do. We motor on knowing the 3 faster than us boats will catch up to us.

The Hudson is still beautiful ... even on a deary day

Our 3 Looper boat friends and a sailboat with mast down on deck

LOTS of debris to watch out for in the water

Finally, the festivities begin. The Steak & Lobster Bake weekend covers dockage (electric, water & wifi), plus DJ Friday night, Band Saturday night and all meals from Friday dinner to Sunday Breakfast. TONS of other games going on; mostly for the kids. 

Lab Partners center of pic at RCYC

Our view for the night; weather turned nice finally

Cally enjoyed all the people and all the attention, too

Fire pit both nights

Our traveling friends by the fire pit, Cally, too. Though she
looks like the donkey from Winnie the Pooh

Steak & Lobster Bake!!

Some of the crowd ... 330 for Saturday dinner

Band Sat night

This was a really fun weekend. So much food, too much. So many new friends. Everyone from the club we meet wanted to know if we were having a good time, if we needed anything, etc. Couldn't have felt more welcome. Plus, a good time spent with new Looper friends from Kia Mae, Fire Storm & Bad Habit!!

Kids fishing tournament

Band played to midnight ... we were back on the boat by 10 or so

RCYC
Note, the RV's to the right ... not everyone comes by boat

And, there came a moment I did need something. Relying on the kindness of strangers is not easy. I would rather be the doer. Remember back in the last post I talked about getting prescription refills for the first time while on the Loop?? Guess who forgot to even freaking pick them up when she was at WalMart???? Yep, me. 😕 So, I needed a ride BACK to Catskill to retrieve the waiting meds. The Vice Commodore, John, took me in the Commodore's new truck the hour+ round trip (a lot faster than by boat) to pick up meds. Now, not only did he take the time to do that, but it was after the kids fishing tournament, after the pony rides/petting zoo and before he had to prep the steaks for the night's dinner. AMAZING. I felt like such an idiot, but John was gracious and happy to help ... calling it "paying it forward" from a time someone loaned him a car when he was in a pinch some years ago.
Even with my mistake, it was a wonderful weekend. AND ... no cooking and no dishes!! Felt like a real vacation. The down time was fun for all.
The show didn't end there ... a boat ran aground on top of the sea wall that protects the docks we are on from the passing boat waves. There was an astronomical high tide because of the full moon and the sea wall was under water. HOWEVER, it is marked on charts (paper & electronic) and has danger buoys out, too.

the white boat is hard aground on the concrete /rock sea wall

A small boat came by quickly to help pull him off. The problem was he was pulling him the wrong way. Remember the people on the white boat can't see they are on the far side of the wall from us. So pulling him towards us only pulls him over more sea wall, not off.

Kim on Kia Mae watching the show with the rest of us

Fire boat pulling the wrong way

The members say a boat grounds on the wall once a weekend in the summer; they are used to it, know the wall and know how to help folks. They know the ripples in the water and know what they mean in relationship to the wall. Also, one of our buddy boats is/was a Sea Tow Captain for a decade or more. All ashore knew the boat needed to be pulled off from the far side of the wall. The boat just spins on top of the wall. Neither the boat in distress or the small boat helping would listen to them.

Fire boat trying to help

The line snaps as the original small boat trying to help pulls and the distress boat doesn't move. The helping boat called it quits and left. Our boats were to big to go help and be able to maneuver adequately and our dinghys were too small to be of any help.  Sea Tow and Boat US (paid towing insurance companies; most boaters are a member) are too far away; the tide is going out and the boat won't be able to be pulled with the tide out; he will be high and dry. Members think this guy has 20-30 minutes before he can't get off.
Finally a fire boat pulls up to help, but still tries to pull him off the wrong way. It doesn't work. Then, this odd looking push boat with a small crane pulls up. The push boat pushes the boat in distress while the fire boat pulls and in the correct direction to get him in deeper water quicker.

Push boat arriving to help

Push boat pushes and the fire boat pulls and he get off the wall
See how far he is out of the water now compared to before

Waiting Out Weather & Canal Re-Opening in Catskill, NY

Days 44 -48  ... June 3 - June 8, 2017 ... Catskill Marina, Catskill, NY
We arrived in the afternoon on Friday, June 2nd, at Catskill Marina; Quickly decided to stay a week. We needed to place an Amazon order for delivery, we needed a delivery of things from Annapolis Rip's brother had collected and been holding for us, provision food for the next 10 days or so AND ... time to get some prescription refills. In addition to all these things, there was a lot of rain in the forecast. NOTHING is fast on a boat or when you travel from town to town. Getting docs to call orders in to a new town is not quick or easy as phones must go back and forth and then follow up to  Walmart to see if the order came in and IF they have your drugs. One drug had to be ordered ... so good thing we are staying for a few days. This is the first stop we knew we would be there long enough for an Amazon delivery ... including food for Cally and more poop bags!! Cally wont run out of the food she is used to for another month, but makes me feel good to know it is on board already.

Our view of the tented picnic area with grills and fire pit

View out the river to the Hudson

Marina office ... nice and small!

View to the Showers/Laundry ... VERY close!

Rip grilling ribs for dinner tonight

Ribs ... finally a nice night!!

We are enjoying this cute, almost spotless marina and the quaint town within walking distance. There are several restaurants in town, an ice cream shop, coffee shops and more.

Nice town with lots of stuff

Old fashioned Main Street - NO malls here.

Ice Cream Shop by the River is only .4 of a mile away!!

Cone E Island Ice Cream ... has a tiny State of Liberty!!

The town has CATS decorated by different organizations lining the 8 blocks or so of  Main Street ... Cats ... Catskill ... get it?

Cally is not impressed

Neat mosaic cat

TOO weird for my taste

The marina is run by a really nice couple who live aboard their sailboat. There is a huge fire pit and tented picnic area with gas grills to use. Other loopers are catching up to us and passing on by. We have things to do and to be delivered so we will wait it out.

Included in the delivery from Ham Tyler, our Looper Class of '17 T-Shirts
These T-Shirts have been shipped 3 times to get to us ... they are the most expensive T-Shirts we own
But, I do like it, a lot!!

With the rain in the forecast and water levels already high; The Erie Canal closed Tuesday for approximately 2 days and the Oswego Canal closed Wednesday. Both are closed because the current is too fast with all the water from the rains coming down from higher lakes, creeks and streams feeding into the narrow rivers and canals that make up the Erie and Oswego canals. So, for the safety of boaters, they close the portions of the canals to traffic. Any boaters within the closed area have to stay put where they are or, if in the waterway itself, move to a marina or or town wall until they can move again. With all the folks ahead of us not going anywhere ... we are in no hurry to our next planned stop, because they are full already. We need folks to move on before we can move in.

Meanwhile, we are enjoying meeting other boaters and Loopers here. 2 Boats came in after us, then a group of 3 boats came in together for 2 days. Mikee Likes It, Miss Bailey, and Bajan Speed. Today they left and 3 more Looper boats pulled in their place.

Rain finally stopped ... time to play

Larry, Myron & Rip
Lab Partners peeking out from behind the tree

There is even a tour boat that comes into the creek ... funny to see a tour boat in a small creek like this one.

Tour boat from the Hudson comes into our creek

Not much room between the shoreline and our transom

Not far from us is a working marina that does a lot of un-stepping and stepping of masts for sailboats. Just north of here are bridges that we can fit under, but sailboats can not. So, the have their mast taken down (un-stepped) and stored on the sailboat to transit either the Erie Canal or the Champlain Canal. Some sailboats have come in to have their masts put back in place (stepped) to continue south and actually sail again.

Boat 3rd from left is in the process of having their mast dropped
There is a crane on land to lower the mast

Boat to left & boat 2 from the left have their masts down now.
Look close and see a cradle is built on each boat to keep the mast up off the deck

To slow us down even further ... we just made plans to stop at a yacht club between us and the Erie Canal (Troy/Waterford NY) that is having a weekend festival including LOBSTER!! The new Loopers aboard Kia Mae and Firestorm told us about it. So, off we will go on Friday with them. Stay tuned.