North Cove Marina, New York, NY to the Catskill Marina, Catskill, NY.
We left New York in hazy sunshine after another Starbucks breakfast. The river was quite calm, but there was much debris to dodge all day, including some very big logs. We saw the sloop Clearwater as we passed West Point, and passed to the east of Polipel Island (slowly because it was quite shallow) to get a great view of the armory. After passing Poughkeepsie (no town dock!) we stopped at the Hyde Park Marina for gas and lunch at the Culinary Institute of America. The CIA is just a couple of miles from the marina, and we took a cab there and back. We had an excellent light lunch at the Caterina d’Medici restaurant. When we got back to the boat the sky had clouded over and become very threatening, and we learned that there was a tornado watch in effect! We left anyway and were caught in a huge thunderstorm halfway to Catskill, with very high westerly winds, torrential rain, zero visibility, and LOTS of lightning all around us. We hugged the western lee shore so the waves were not a problem, but the wind continuously tried to turn the boat, and we lost our CYC pennant, mast and all, and the US pennant was speared through by the top of its mast! Had we stayed at the marina we would have been exposed to the full brunt of the waves at the dock on the eastern weather shore. Mary was great, not scared at all and helping me with the chart to stay in deep water. When we arrived at the Catskill Marina the weather had cleared to light rain which soon stopped and we walked into town to visit Thomas Cole’s house (Cedar Grove) and then have margaritas and dinner at the Corca D’oro.