Hudson River Horrors!

This video doesn’t really show how bad it was; it was so rough!
                               Saved by Alpine Marina!
                            A pavilion at Alpine Marina.
                               Looking out the pavilion.
                                          The pavilion.





The Palisades.  It was starting to get sporty. 


Since Liberty Landing was so expensive, we decided to only stay one night.  Our plan was to cruise on up the Hudson and stay at Cortlandt Yacht Club. It was $2.75 per foot but that seemed cheap compared to Liberty Landing.  However, the Hudson had other plans for us.

There’s quite a bit of boat traffic in New York Harbor - lots of ferries, zipping across carrying passengers to and from the city.  Those ferries travel around 30 mph!  There’s also big cargo ships. We didn’t want to dally in the harbor and had to be the lookout, from all sides of Boomerang, for the other boats in the area. 

We left Liberty Landing a little after 8:00 am. We had planned it so that we would be cruising the Hudson with incoming tide so the current would just push us up the river, but the winds happened to be a little stronger than we thought. We were cruising, still taking lots of pictures and videos as we were leaving the never ending city of New York  It seemed to go on forever!

As soon as we went under the the George Washington Bridge, the wind seemed to kick up. We thought it was getting a bit sporty but it kept getting worse. Water started splashing over the bow and it wasn’t letting up. We decided we needed to tuck into a marina somewhere soon.  The closest marina was Englewood Boat House, so I called and asked if we could dock until the storm passed. I explained that we were having a difficult time on the Hudson and needed a place quickly.  The guy on the phone said, “Sure, you can come in but it will cost you $150.00.” I told him we were just a 25’ pocket trawler and he basically said it didn’t matter.  We decided to power through.  

Not too far from Englewood Boat House was Alpine Marina. I called and explained our situation and he told us to come in and tie up to outside dock. He would be back in about an hour to help us get into a slip.

Trying to tie up to the outside dock on the Hudson was nuts. The dock was bucking so hard and the boat was rocking and bucking from side to side, as well as from bow to stern.  You could even see bottom of the boat from time to time. We could barely hold onto her and couldn’t get her tied off. (I wish I could have gotten a video of how awful it was, but we were just trying to hold onto the boat!) Two of the fender straps broke but luckily we were able to retrieve them. At one point, Jeff said, “I don’t know if you should be in the boat or off the boat.”  It was very scary and one of those moments where you feel pretty helpless. 

Finally, Jeff decided we could not secure to the wall - not safely. So we got into the boat and pulled into the marina and found a slip.  We tied up and the dock master came and told us to get off the boat and get to land.  He didn’t want us hanging out on the docks - it was that bad.

Our friends, Rachel and Malcolm, came into the marina as well. The Hudson River was just too rough right now.  

Alpine Marina ended up being a nice spot.  The grounds were lovely and we had a bbq outside.  There were some hiking trails too. We were so grateful that they let us tuck in for the evening. 


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