From Newburgh to Coeyman's Landing

Our second day on the Hudson started out just as calm and lovely as the first. When Andy went down with Henry for an afternoon nap, I settled in at the helm with my book. The river is extremely deep, and the auto-pilot gave me the freedom to relax and enjoy the ride.

Unfortunately I didn't realize that the Hudson River was 'Red Right Returning' at this point. For those of you who aren't boaters, that means that you keep the red markers on the right side of your boat, instead of the usual left for red, right for green. This error led to some pretty wild navigation on my part! I was thinking to myself that Andy chose to nap at the trickiest part of the channel! Little did I know that I wasn't even in the channel!

I really should have clued in when I saw a freighter on the other side of a shoal, but in a blonde moment I just figured that there must be a channel on both sides at this point.

Luckily I managed to narrowly avoid disaster, twice, as the depth dropped to six feet in front of an island, and then, when I had finally figured out that I was on the wrong side the depth dropped below five feet when I tried to move over to the channel on the other side!! It was the depth sounder alarm, along with my crazy manouvering to keep from running aground that had Andy bolt out of bed and run up the companionway.

Crazy woman driver! I'm not sure he'll be so quick to take another nap. Oops!

We ended this jaunt of just over 70 miles at the town dock in Coeyman's Landing. The town's people were incredibly friendly, despite the fact that the free dock reported in Skipper Bob's book was in fact only a boat launching dock. Once we were tied up, the locals we talked to told us to stay and not worry about it. One elderly gentleman even drove Andy to the grocery store. Henry and I stayed behind and watched some elderly ladies feeding a flock of ducks. Very relaxing.

Andy went into the bar at the marina next door to inquire about the tides in this area. He had a wonderful time, meeting some great, helpful people, and came away with a Birthday martini for me along with the advice he was seeking.

I don't know what they put in that Chocolate Martini, but my, oh my did it pack a whollop!! Thanks Andy!