No Schedule…Impossible

One of the best parts of this lifestyle is supposed to be living with ‘no schedule’, but the reality of no schedule isn’t always realistic.  If you have plans, you have schedules!  Our goal of exploring Georgian Bay and Lake Michigan this summer requires us to backmap our trip to make sure we are out of Chicago by the first week in September.  No one wants to be trapped in Chicago, on a boat, for winter! However, due to the short summer season the Erie Canal/ Lock system didn’t open until May 23…so clearly an earliest ‘in’ date + a latest ‘out’ date = a schedule! Additionally, Keith and I had a marina reservation and airline tickets to fly out of Albany, NY to Atlanta, GA on May 10 to attend our grandson’s graduation/ Navy send off party.  That definitely constitutes a schedule!

Sooo, everything was progressing just fine until a doctor threw a wrench in the system by ‘strongly advising’ additional testing before we left Maryland.  Since MD is our home state, we schedule all of our annual medical appointments for one week.  During that week we try to squeeze in numerous appointments while attempting to visit all of our family and friends in the area.  Our intention was to take care of all appointments and visits the week of May 16, and continue north on May 23.  Long story short…we stayed an extra 10 days for heart monitoring and an echocardiogram, to ultimately be told that my heart looks great!  Of course it was wonderful to get the all clear on health issues, and to get a few extra visits with my Dad, but now we are seriously behind schedule. 

The #1 question being…can we make it to Albany, NY in 8 days?  We could actually cover that number of miles in 6 travel days, but two of those days need to be in the ocean along the coast of New Jersey…so, if the weather was not going to cooperate it would be a ‘no go’!

Finally, we got a break, and the two days we transited the coast of New Jersey were the calmest ocean days we have seen in a long time!

We anchored with the backlight of a beautiful sunset along the skyline of Atlantic City, NJ

And bright and early the next morning we left with the sunrise.

By the time we got to New York the wind and seas were building, but we were able to slip behind Coney Island for another calm night at anchor. The remainder of our trip, to Albany, was up the (relatively protected) Hudson River so the wind can blow all it wants now!

Cruising through NY offers plenty of sights to see.  At first glance, I thought NY might be trying some new homeless encampment project, or possibly the jails were overflowing. I have seen similar setups in New Orleans during Mardi Gras (not from the inside)!  To my surprise, I was wrong on both counts.  This is actually a ‘glamping’ (the term is supposed to mean glamorous camping😳) retreat.  Sorry, but I visualized something very different!

“Collective Retreat at Governors Island - Enjoy luxury camping at a peaceful oasis near the hills of historic Governors Island. Enjoy luxury accommodations, gourmet culinary experiences and signature activities. Wake Up Inspired.”

That quote comes directly from their website, where you too can book a retreat for a measly $1300 for three nights, or you could splurge for the $2500 upgraded version.

It’s always wonderful to cruise past Lady Liberty!

Usually, when we reach Manhattan we take a right and follow East River out to Long Island Sound, but this time we are going left up the Hudson. It’s all new from this point on!

The Shushing Girl.  I gave her that name, the real name is ‘Water’s Soul’, but when I Googled ‘Shushing Girl’ she popped right up, so clearly I am not alone.  She is on the Jersey City side of the Hudson, so do you think she is shushing New York?

We are always interested in the architecture.  This ‘floating’ balcony caught my eye.

Oh no…I’ll pass!

This next discovery was quite impressive…

Little Island at Pier 55.  This is a 2.5 acre island park built entirely in/on giant concrete planters coming out of the water.  The construction costs are reported to have topped $250 million, yes, that’s a lot of zeros, but it’s pretty darn cool!

We did not take this picture, but here’s a birds eye view…

Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

And quickly, the city was left behind, and the landscape turned into rolling green hills with a LOT of trains running along the bank, and disappearing into tunnels.

It was a surprise to see how quickly the topography changed.  This was my view while preparing lunch.

The Catskill Mountains are beautiful.

Sorry for the poor quality of this picture, but it was a very hazy day and the sun never seems to be where we want it to be for optimum lighting!  Anyway, this is West Point.  The buildings are impressive, but the fact that we watched a two mile long train disappear under the campus was a bit disconcerting!  

Again, we didn’t take this next picture, but it gives you a much better view…

Unbelievable!   (The Tunnel under West Point Military Academy is a photograph by William E Rogers)

We dropped the anchor, at Cornwall, just in time to enjoy the end of a riverfront festival. Dinner from a Vietnamese food truck was phenomenal followed by a relaxing evening on the bow.

A perfect evening for a little drone flying.

At this point, we are two days ahead of ‘schedule’.  Finally, we can slow down and enjoy the views of the northeast portion of the Appalachian Mountains.

Spoiler alert…we did make it to Troy/Albany in time for our flight. In fact, I am writing this post from a hotel in Atlanta.  Our next post will include the AMAZING city of Troy…what a delightful surprise!