Stats for June 21, 2019

Origin: 79th Street Boat Basin, Manhattan

Destination: Half Moon Bay, Croton-on-Hudson

Distance: 35.6 miles

Speed: 8.1 mph

Time on the Move: 4 hours and 28 minutes

We woke up to another overcast, gloomy day in New York City. We were exhausted and wet and it was time to leave. I can’t wait to go back to New York City again someday and see beautiful weather! What a different trip it will be! But we can’t complain because we have had stellar weather for most of our trip and we certainly made the most of it.

We weren’t quite sure where we were headed when we left New York. Many of our looper friends stayed at Half Moon Bay Marina, but we had an anchorage in mind that was right next to a park. The wind was kicking the waves up pretty good coming down the river, so we wanted a spot with good protection. The weather cleared up over the next few hours, but the waves did not, so we decided to head for the anchorage in hopes of checking out the park. We wove our way into the bay next to the park very carefully because we read some reviews that there was debris near the entrance to the bay. We made it in, anchored, and were happy with the protection from the rough water. However, we couldn’t find a spot to dock the dinghy to go ashore. Then, I called to ask and found out it is a private park. A PRIVATE PARK?! You have to pay $22 per person to go there!! What?! New York is crazy.

So we ended up pulling anchor and heading across the river to Half Moon Bay with most of the other loopers. The waves and wind were not our friend in docking, but we got it on the 2nd try and then we quickly off-loaded the bikes for a ride. There was a bike path right by the marina, so we thought we’d check it out.

The bike ride was a pretty good time. Usually one or two of the children are complaining or crying or screaming bloody murder, but we didn’t experience much of that this time. Unfortunately our trail abruptly ended, and we were forced to turn around, but it was a good ride nonetheless.

Mike and I were lucky enough to sneak out for a sunset walk along the river that just kept getting better and better.

The next morning seemed much calmer though the winds were supposed to pick up again later in the day. We started off with Mike and the boys taking another bike ride. Then we decided to take a field trip to the famous Croton Dam before we headed out of town. Easier said than done, however, because apparently reliable Uber drivers are hard to find around here. We waited about 45 minutes when the wait was supposed to be 10 minutes before we finally gave up and called a cab.

Luckily the dam was worth the trouble of getting there. There is a beautiful park adjacent to the dam and a walkway to go over the top of the spillway. This New Croton Dam was built between 1892 and 1906 when it replaced the Old Croton Dam built in 1842 to supply water to the residents of New York City. The structure was the tallest dam in the world when it was created. It is supposedly the third largest handmade stone structure in the world, behind the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Great Wall of China. That’s pretty impressive!!

After walking around the dam and checking out the sights for a few hours, we decided to head back towards the boat for some lunch before heading on our merry way. But wouldn’t you know it, more Uber troubles. Our driver just mysteriously stopped moving and we waited for.ev.er before we finally looked up another driver. It was an hour long ordeal just trying to get 10 minutes down the road. If the roads weren’t so fast and twisty and turny we would have just walked, but again, the second driver was the magic charm.

We had some lunch and walked back to the marina to get out of dodge. The next round of loopers were getting close to arriving at the marina, so it was definitely time for us to go. The wind had picked up, but we made it past the breakwalls of the marina with little trouble and we were on our way, heading further north up the Hudson.

Thanks for reading and following along!!