July 28 & 29, 2022 Troy New York

As we neared Troy, NY still on the Hudson, the scenery became industrialized and we started seeing debris in the river. We weren't too far from the beginning of the NY State Barge Canal. We docked at the Troy City Marina. We didn't know what to expect of this marina. Reviews were difficult to find & mixed. We were unable to make contact prior to our arrival. The phone number in the Active Captain App was discontinued. When we pulled up to the wall right on the Hudson, there was a sign with a phone # to call Matt. We did that and Matt answered and told us to tie up to the wall.  We were the only boat. The small office was up top of the wall and the bathrooms were a trailer even farther away and there were tons of spiders. 

We stopped here for multiple reasons. First, we needed to put our mast down in order to transit through the Canal system, mainly for the bridges not the locks. Second, we wanted to see our good friends Pat & Chris who live nearby. Third, my cousin Diane and her daughter also live in the area and we were hoping to see them. Fourthly, our TV was broken and we hoped to buy a new one while we were in a bigger city.  Chris & Pat were our heroes. They helped put our mast down, then Chris drove Doug 30 minutes to a Best Buy to get a new TV. As long as they were out-our 2 guys were sweet enough to do our provisioning at the grocery store while Pat and I strolled through some interesting shops and enjoyed a nice lunch at a cool tea shoppe walking in the historic downtown near the boat. 

My cousin Diane was not in town so sadly we didn't see her but her daughter Lori and her husband John came to see us for cocktails at a nice place close to the boat. We ended up chatting and catching up for over 2 hours and still hadn't eaten dinner. Glad we had the time to get reacquainted. 

July 25-28, 2022 Hudson River cruising

A beautiful view of NYC

The view of NYC as we cruised past was quite impressive. We were glad to leave the hustle & bustle of the city and continue north through a pretty section of the Hudson River.   No one, until they cruise this part of the River, past NYC, realizes how mountainous and lush it is. Doug loves the fact that trains rush by weaving along the shoreline right at the waters edge and disappearing in & out of tunnels. 

Our first night, we anchored in Haverstrom Cove across from Half Moon Bay where we've anchored before. We chose Haverstrom because a severe thunderstorm was predicted over night and we were much more protected. Luckily the storm never materialized. 

While cruising along this stretch of the Hudson, we passed the Peekskills and Catskill Mountains. The highest peak we passed in the Catskills was 1400 feet. The scenery continues to get prettier with lots of trees, cliffs and rolling hills. The River is wide here but you can still see both shores. The whole river is pretty much navigable. We didn't see many pleasure boats but some barges and freighters. As we passed West Point Academy, we watched some trainees practicing repelling from a helicopter. We did see some fellow Krogen friends, who we didn't realize were also cruising in the area. We passed by KK Last Mistake as they were pulling into Poughkeeepsie Yacht Club. We chatted on the VHF. 

We docked at The Maritime Museum on Roundout River, just off the Hudson. We were hoping to visit the museum since we were on a face dock right in front of it but the place was closed. Instead, we walked 2 miles to a Walgreens. Doug has been having some erratic bowel issues since we left Ortega in May, we are trying to treat. 

The imposing Bannerman Castle

This section of the river has some truly scenic Lighthouses.We continued north and anchored just off the main river in a dead end creek all by ourselves. It was a beautiful calm bug free evening. Also to Doug's delight, a high speed 4 car passenger train whizzed by a few times.  We are happy living in this moment.

July 22-25,2022 New York City

Cruising through New York Harbor is always exciting and a bit stressful. Exciting, is going under the Verrazano Bridge & seeing Lady Liberty up close from the water; stressful, is dodging all the ferries and barges. Doug was able to take us much closer to the Statue of Liberty this trip. Last time, years ago, there was restricted access and a safety perimeter around her. 

We splurged & docked for the first time @ Liberty Landing Marina on the west side of the Hudson River across from Manhattan. We chose this expensive place because they advertise that they have a ferry that takes their visitors to midtown Manhattan free of charge. Well, I guess we didn't read the new fine print. Due to the fallout from COVID, they don't have enough Captains & crew so they aren't running the ferry on weekends! Really, weekends are when they should run it! We had purchased tickets for the Broadway show, Book of Mormon on Sunday so we needed to figure out how we were going to get there. 

Our nighttime view of the city

We got our bikes out and rode into Jersey City to the grocery store. Lots of traffic but we used the sidewalks. English was not the main language at the grocery store. The next day, we grabbed an Uber to get around the Morris Canal Basin to catch a subway, which wasn't fun-there were still signs & announcements that masks were required but only about a quarter of the passengers were wearing them-we were part of that group. We got on @ Grove St and exited at 9th St and walked to Greenwich Village.  We had arranged to meet Claire Z at a French Restaurant she chose for us. It was fun seeing sweet pretty Claire. We got all caught up on her life and future plans. She lives on the lower East Side and works near the new World Trade Center. Claire recommended we go walk the High Line which is a park like trail which follows the old raised railway, so it's a narrow, elevated, paved, and nicely landscaped trail that passes through a few buildings courtyards. These buildings have food trucks and places to sit. It's unique and fun. The High Line ends @ Hudson Yard where there is a 4 story mall and the Edge Building with a walkout platform which is the highest open air sky deck in the world. There is also a unique structure called The Vessel which is 16 stories and 150 feet tall with connected staircases. It was only open for a short period of time because multiple suicide attempts were made from the top of the structure. I bought Ray Ban Ferrari sunglasses @ the Ray Ban store in the mall. We returned the same way, subway and Uber.

the raised railway park 

The Edge Building w/ the high-rise platform

On Sunday, we rode another Uber to the same subway station as the day before. Time Square and the Broadway District in NYC was very disappointing to us-it's dirty, crowded and with many homeless. It was very hot, in the 90's and one homeless man knelt alongside us and begged me to give him something or he was "going to die"-I had a water from Starbucks so I gave him that and he did drink it. We met Sue & Don @ Lily's Craft Kitchen and we insisted on sitting outside due to the Pandemic. We were in shade but it still was a bit uncomfortable. Sue brought us our mail; I had it sent to her house in Delaware. They had traveled in by train. Doug & I walked to the Eugene O'Neil Theatre to see the Book of Mormon. We had great front row seats on the Mezzanine. The musical play was very funny with adult content for sure. We rode the subway back to Jersey city and again used Uber. We don't care to visit NYC again anytime soon. 

Our view as we were leaving NYC

Sue & Don went to a different Broadway Show
but they showed up in our pic! (they are so 
tech savvy)

July 16-21, 2022 C&D Canal, Cape May, Atlantic City, Atlantic Highlands

 Left Baltimore without any further issues. The Chesapeake Bay is huge and today very calm. It's cooler out and does rain by evening. We docked for the night @ Summit North Marina in the C&D canal. It's a large marina but only half full. It is not being maintained and the structure is rotting away-it's a shame. We were entertained by a band playing at the restaurant up on the hill. The band was good enough to give me the need to dance so that's what I did, in the dark alone on our back deck. 

Next day, we cruised out into another big bay, The Delaware Bay. A few Dolphins were out to entertain us. We cruised to Cape May and anchored in front of the Coast Guard Station. We've been here before and it's always fun to listen to the recruits training and chanting. This time it went on for hours. 

Out into the Atlantic we go-I love it but Doug needed to wear his wrist bans due to the 2-4 foot swells on our quarter stern. We pulled into the Farley State Marina in Atlantic City-we should have just anchored across the way but we had heard the anchorage had shoaled. The docks are not maintained, and the facilities are scary. Surprisingly, the Golden Nugget Casino wasn't too bad-it's had some refurbishing in the last few years. We lost $15 in the slots & they at least had a few machines that we recognized. There is an outdoor patio and bar overlooking the marina, where we got carry out bar food for dinner. They too had a live band playing for the evening that we could hear on the boat but the music wasn't our favorite. 

We didn't want to stay there another night so early in the morning, we left the dock and to our chagrin, the inlet water was rough. We had gotten lax in our prepping the boat for cruising and we suffered those consequences on this stretch. The clock in the PH fell down the stairs and left a few dings along the way-ugh. The pantry doors were jostling in place, making a lot of noise. Luckily, once we were through the shallows things calmed down. There were 2-3 foot swells once out in the ocean and they were closer together but it calmed as we continued on. We arrived to Sandy Hook by Happy Hour. Today was the last time, we think, Day Dreams will be cruising any ocean, at least while we own her. Melancholy had set in for me-I have loved our time living aboard, being gypsies and cruising this coastline. I took videos to document this moment in our lives. We turned into Sandy Hook, our first time in this area. We anchored @ Atlantic Highlands behind the break wall with 5 other sailboats. We squeezed in and decided we were too close and started pulling up to move when the sailboat indicated we should stay put because they were leaving. It hit 90 degrees today but we have been lucky with a nice breeze helping keep us comfortable. We stayed here 2 nights and had planned on going a shore. We took the dinghy in and we walked around the Marina & decided 93 degrees without a breeze was too uncomfortable to walk to town so we went back to the boat and cooled off with the deck shower. The small beaches around the harbor weren't that nice, so we didn't swim. 

July 14-16, 2022 Baltimore, MD

 We had a short cruise today from our anchorage to Baltimore. We've been here once before for a Krogen Boat show with Garry & Jacque on our boats. The inner harbor is right downtown and that's where we docked. We chose Oasis Harbor East Marina due to it's proximity to the Aquarium. On shore are many high rises and the Four Seasons is adjacent to the the Marina. The facilities are not that great and not secure at all. Whole Foods is a short walk away. 

Our friends, Mike and Maria on KK-Tuscan Sun are docked in a different Marina in another area of the harbor. We met them for dinner in Fells Point. We sat outside and had fun catching up. Fells Point has brick streets, bars, restaurants and brown stones. It was busy with people and live music filled the air. We liked the feel of the area. We walked back along the water. 

When we returned from dinner, our AC in the stateroom had shut down and was blinking the error code PS-Hi, meaning lack of water. We had been warned about Baltimore Harbor having a lot of garbage and debris in the water and they even have this machine that cruises around picking up trash out of the water. Come to find out, we had a plastic bag stuck in our intake. We had to have a diver come & remove it which took a total of 5 minutes with a charge of $100 but it was worth it to have it fixed. Although we did not turn either AC's on while we were docked there for fear of something else getting sucked in. At the same time, our TV decided to sympathize with the AC and it stopped working. When it rains, it pours. Luckily we could fix the AC which was higher on the priority list. 

We visited the National Aquarium which was about a 10 minute walk, located right in the Harbor. The building is impressive and the interior is too. There are many floors and it is well designed to show off their large collection of marine life. Many of the areas had low ceilings and it was very crowded. I felt it was not the safest place regarding the transmission of COVID-we were masked but most weren't masked.

We met Mike & Maria (Tuscan Sun) and Bob & Ria (KKWay to Go) and we all walked to Little Italy. It took some time to find the perfect restaurant but we finally did. We sat outside on the sidewalk and we all enjoyed fine meals. Always good to reconnect with our fellow Krogen friends. 

July 9-13, 2022 Anchorages on Potomac & Chesapeake, Spring Cove Marina

Oyster boat

We said Good-bye to Washington DC but we didn't get away unscathed from the big city. Our credit card was compromised while we were there so it needed to be canceled. Not an easy thing to get the replacement when you are moving everyday. 

We stopped after a few hours on the Potomac and threw the anchor in a small bay with sand cliffs. We spotted a Manta Ray-a surprise in the Potomac. We had a relaxing calm night. Our next day, weather was gray so we didn't see any other boats. We anchored in the St Marys River near a forest of trees. We were serenaded all night by lots of frogs, at least it sounded like lots of frogs. All of a sudden, on Day 5-after not having pain from my tooth extraction, I developed an ache in the incision. I had just finished the prescribed antibiotic so I continued using my own stash of antibiotics. 

We left the Potomac and cruised into the Chesapeake Bay. It was a gorgeous weather & wind day. We decided to dock for one night at Spring Cove Marina in Solomon, MD. We had been there 2 years before and liked the Marina. We borrowed their bikes and rode to the CVS to get a script for a mouth rinse and of course, couldn't pass up an ice cream place. Our counter fridge decided to act up so we had to deploy the couch fridge. Our TV decided to sympathize and stopped working too. When it rains, it pours! When we left Solomons, we stopped for Diesel @ Harringtons and paid $5.10/gallon, a new record, I think. We got 373 gallons-always hurts a bit but luckily we only fill up once a year. Doug spotted a Dolphin and a Turtle today on the Chesapeake-we didn't know that Dolphins came up this far. We feel lucky to have seen so much wildlife. 

We anchored in an old favorite the next night: Magothy River by a Horse Farm. It's in the 90's today so we feel sorry for those poor horses out in the sun & heat. Doug has made a very wise purchase of 2 Ryobi portable Fans-we each have one and we carry them around with us and they keep us cool so we don't have to run the generator for the A/C.