Day 1: Jersey City to Croton-on-Hudson

Day 1: Jersey City to Croton-on-Hudson

August 10, 2021: I begin my trip.


I won’t go into detail here about my long trip from Wenatchee, WA to Newark, NJ, although I might cover that in my regular blog. Instead, I want to concentrate (briefly, hopefully) on my first day aboard Nano.

Meeting Up

On Tuesday morning, after breakfast at a real diner with my brother, Norb, we headed out to Liberty Landing Marina in Jersey City. This is one of two marinas on a small body of water called the Morris Canal Basin that runs between Jersey City’s downtown area and Liberty State Park. Liberty Landing is on the south side of that channel; Liberty Harbor is on the north side.

Capt Paul, Dianne, and Nano had spent the night in Port Washington, off the north shore of Long Island’s Nassau County. The plan was to get an early start and motor to Liberty Landing to pick me up around 9 AM. We were there by 8:30 AM and had plenty of time to spare.

I stepped into the marina’s office, which is in an old, docked light ship, to find out where they were most likely to pull in. The fuel dock, Dock D, I was told. So we walked over there. My brother lit a cigar and I went into the marina store to see what kind of things they sold. In so many ways, a marina reminds me of an airport — this one had the boating equivalent to a pilot shop. There were charts and commonly needed parts, oil and other fluids, and a lot of the things a boater might need or want. I came out with a freebie magazine about boating on the Hudson — the kind of thing full of ads with just enough editorial content to make it a magazine instead of a big fat advertisement.

I checked the Nebo app. I’d been tracking Nano since early that morning (and apparently failed to take any screenshots) and she was getting very close. Sure enough, as we watched, she came down the channel and made a turn at the fuel dock to pull in for fuel.

Dianne was reading a line to throw out to the fuel dock guy. I called out hello. She pointed at me. “Maria?”

“That’s me,” I replied.

Nano in Jersey City
Nano coming into the dock for fuel. Capt Paul is at the helm; First Mate Dianne is prepping to throw a line.

What followed was some more boat maneuvering, me dropping a line that Dianne tossed to me — way to make a good first impression, Maria! — and Nano’s engine finally shutting down. Capt Paul came out a while later. I made quick introductions to my brother and let him get to the job at hand: fueling the boat.

With permission, I gave my brother a tour of Nano. This was the first time I’d ever been inside a 2017 27′ Ranger Tug and I couldn’t believe how different it was from the newer version of the boat. While Nano had a big cabin and tiny sleeping area up front, the newer 27′ Ranger has a more generously sized sleeping area and smaller, but more efficiently laid out main cabin. While Nano’s head was in the back of the main cabin, the newer boat’s head is down below (and may be smaller), with a clothes storage area and counter across from it. I can’t be sure, but I suspect the newer boat’s cockpit is smaller — something had to shink.

Back out on the dock, Capt Paul was finishing up. My brother and I said our goodbyes with a big hug and I climbed aboard. Then we cast off and headed out into the Hudson River.

Leaving Jersey City
We pulled out of the channel and into the Hudson River, directly across the river from Lower Manhattan. The weather was overcast but bright and there wasn’t much wind.

My 2021 Great Loop Adventure was finally beginning.

A Trip Up Memory Lane

When I was a kid living in Northeastern Bergen County, my parents had a small motorboat that we’d put in at a boat ramp under the George Washington Bridge and then motor around on the Hudson River. Often, we’d take it down to the Statue of Liberty and back or around Manhattan Island. Other times, we’d go up the river as far as the Tappan Zee Bridge or Bear Mountain Bridge or West Point or even sometimes a little beyond that. We’d fish and, if we went upriver at least as far as the Tappan Zee, swim. Sometimes my aunt, uncle, and cousins would join us with their boat, but not very often.

One of the reasons I wanted to join this trip in New York was to be able to cruise through much of the same area I’d cruised with my family as a child. And that first day on Nano was all about that.

Of course, we cruised the Hudson as a family back in the late 1960s and early 1970s. A lot had changed since then. Jersey City had become a real city of its own, with skyscrapers that simply didn’t exist when I was a kid. New York had also changed. There were many more tall buildings and lots more real development along the Manhattan shoreline. Motoring past all this was mostly new to me, although I was able to point out several points of interest along the way that I knew as a New Yorker but couldn’t remember from those childhood boating trips.

George Washington Bridge Lighthouse
The little red lighthouse on the Manhattan side of the George Washington Bridge.

Soon, we left the skyscrapers of lower and midtown Manhattan behind us and continued up the Manhattan coast. We approached the George Washington Bridge and I used binoculars to spot the old boat ramp, which was still there just downriver from the bridge. We passed close to the little red lighthouse at the base of the bridge’s Manhattan side — I remember asking my dad to motor over there so we could see it once when we were kids.

We were cruising at about 12 knots (according to the nav software), moving with the tide. The Hudson River is tidal all the way up to Albany (and maybe beyond) and it was nice to go with the tide and get a little speed bump from Mother Nature. The weather stayed overcast but not very windy and there was very little boat traffic once we got away from the ferries in midtown. We passed a few barges heading downriver and a cabin cruiser much later on.

The next points of interest after the George Washington Bridge were the two bridges at the mouth of the Spuyten Duyvil River. That’s the waterway that separates the Bronx from Manhattan. I remembered the swing railroad bridge at the mouth of the river from all the times we passed it.

Spuyten Duyvil Bridge
The Spuyten Duyvil Railroad swing bridge and the Henry Hudson Bridge beyond it. The Bronx is on the left; Manhattan is on the right.

On the New Jersey side of the river were the towering Palisades Cliffs with an occasional marina along the water: Edgewater before the cliffs began, Englewood Cliffs, Alpine, and then Piermont after the cliffs ended. Most of the Palisades are within Palisades Interstate Park and are not developed much more than they were when I was a kid. But downriver and upriver from the park, development was massive.

We stayed on the east side of the river. Capt Paul had his autopilot set up, but it was not engaged. The lower Hudson River is extremely wide and slow-moving; it reminds me a lot of the Columbia along the border of Washington and Oregon. We eventually reached the new Tappan Zee Bridge — I’m sorry, but you’ll never get me to use its new name; a bridge over the Tappan Zee will always be the Tappan Zee Bridge — crossed under its high suspension section, and kept going. I remembered swimming off the boat with my family on the west side of this huge body of water or zee — which is Dutch for sea.

TappanZee
The new Tappan Zee Bridge in our wake.

We were getting close to our destination for the night: Half Moon Bay near the town of Croton-on-Hudson. Capt Paul had made reservations at a marina there. We passed Tarrytown, Sleepy Hollow (made famous by author Washington Irving), and Ossining (home of “Sing Sing” prison) on the east side and Nyack on the west. Finally, we went around the point at Croton Bay and had Half Moon Bay Marina in our sights.

We had come 31 nautical miles in 2 hours and 34 minutes.

Nebo Log Day 1
Our Nebo track log for the first day of my trip. You can track me on the Nebo app; just search for Nano Paul G to find our boat.

Half Moon Bay

At first, we weren’t sure how to get into the marina — there’s an odd wooden sea wall around it — but we quickly figured it out. Soon there was someone on the radio guiding us to a slip. Capt Paul backed in and two men were there to grab lines and tie us off. Soon we had power plugged in and were getting the scoop on where everything was.

Although Marina Manager Steve and his helper were extremely friendly and helpful and the marina seemed well-kept, we were a little disappointed. The marina had neither fuel nor laundry facilities. (Dianne was already 10 days into her trip and really needed to wash some clothes.) Town was about 3/4 miles away on foot, which wouldn’t have been so bad if it hadn’t become very hot and humid as we traveled north.

Since it was lunchtime and we were hungry, we set off on foot into town. Steve had recommended a Greek restaurant in a small strip mall — Piato Greek Kitchen — and that’s where we wound up. We all had great lunches and I highly recommend the place if you’re ever in Croton-on-Hudson, NY.

We wound up renting a car at the Enterprise car rental place near there and it’s a good thing we did, considering the drive we had to do the next day. But I’ll save that for tomorrow’s blog post.

Back at the boat we just took it easy. I had to unpack and set myself up in the tiny front cabin I was sharing with Dianne. I was glad to be able to put my clothes away under my bunk. It was very hot in the boat — I didn’t learn until much later that it had air conditioning — but as weather moved in and a breeze picked up, it cooled. Capt Paul popped a DVD about Kingston into the TV and we watched it; I sat out in the cockpit at the table and watched from there. It got dark.

We turned in around 9 PM, listening to geese and ducks as the boat gently rocked in its slip.

2 Comments

  1. The book inspired by the lighthouse next to your family boat launch played a large part in the growth of my childhood mind. I read it before I could read by playing a 45 record of a dramatic reading of the book. The pictures tell the story. Later I could read the book all on my own before I went to school. I knew it was the GW bridge, but had never seen a real life picture. You unlocked 50 year old memories.

    • I’m so glad you enjoyed seeing the lighthouse. We would see it from across the river every time we launched the boat, but only went to see it up-close once. It was fun going through the area I’d boated on as a child.

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