Fri/Sat July 9/10: Kingston to Donovan's Shady Harbor Marina + a day in Shady Harbor

 In which we admire Rick's balls ...

The weather was cloudy, but not pouring - so that's always a plus.  We passed this lighthouse on the way out of Kingston Harbor.  It was too rainy yesterday to get a picture. Notice the high water and green duckweed behind it - we haven't seen duckweed since the Dismal Swamp, low those many moons ago.  And we have NOT missed it.  Duckweed = clogged filters.

 

As always, we were amazed at the depth of the Hudson.  At times it has been deeper than 140', which is deeper then we saw in open ocean.  It's very restful to not have to worry about shallow water. On the east bank the commuter trains go by on a regular basis, on the west side the occasional VERY long commercial train will pass.  All have excitable horns...

In the Gilded Age of boat travel THE THING, apparently, was the Night Boat from NYC to Albany. Here are a couple of older brochures about that:

We were headed to what is a 'must stop' for loopers on the Hudson, Donovan's Shady Harbor Marina. The husband and wife team who own this marina work hard, and are great marketers to and supporters of the loop.  They have turned Shady Harbor into a destination marina.  There is terrific service, bathhouse and cheap laundry ($1.50 vs $4.75/load), a cute little store (where I almost bought $70 cushions that I have zero need for), a pool and a VERY popular restaurant.  So popular that we were unable to even order take-out.  We have noticed that the lack of service help has made this increasingly true on weekend nights, everywhere we go.

On the way to Shady Harbor 

 

As we were stopped at the fuel dock to get some diesel I saw a disembodied arm waving to me across the marina.  Sure enough, our slip was right by..... you guessed it - our Nebo Stalkers, Sue and Phil!  There were several other loopers stopped at Shady Harbor.  Including the self-named Captain Crusty, who we had not seen since Cape May.  He was never going to be someone we hung with since, the first time we ever met him, he announced to the group 'I don't have a gun on my boat - I have an arsenal'...  That, plus heavy drinking, just sounds like an unnecessary risk.  But it is sort of impressive that he has done the loop more than 5 times.

These two days were devoted to chores.  Laundry needed to be done, since heat/humidity/rain does a number on the undies.  Groceries and liquor needed to be purchased.  And we HAD to go to a hardware store - because, of course we did.  (Actually we went for me this time - I needed work gloves for the locks coming up.)

Rick took this as he was admiring his baby! Look - it's an actual nice day, with NO RAIN!

I must stop here to tell you about Rick's balls.  Here you see them on the bow of the boat.  Four of these were purchased this winter, to get us ready for the big locks we will soon see.  He spent today blowing up and playing with his balls (it's never going to get old), and working out how they could best (hang low) over the side of the boat.  We will need both sides of the boat protected as we won't know which side we will tie up to in each lock until the moment of entry.  (Please note that any mention of 'balls' has been met with great protest by my co-captain - and he has not approved this message).

We had doctails with Phil and Sue at sundown.  Or, rather, we told them they could come along if Lulu came.  We love Lulu!

And she is right at home on the boat.  I tried to get her to 'jump ship'.

It was a fun time - maybe too fun a time, per the FBN?

Not only a great name, but a fellow MainShip!