Jack and Pia's Next Great Adventure

Our last posting began with the statement "it has been an uneventful few weeks...". The last week or so since our last posting has been just the opposite. We were joined in Schenectady on August 20th by friends from home - Mike and Lynne Albert - to make the final 6 locks on the Erie Canal, travel down the Hudson River to New York City. We departed Schenectady on Sunday morning, traveled through a huge thunderstorm (while in a lock) and arrived in Waterford, NY that evening. Mike and Lynne had never done locks before and were fascinated with the procedure as well as the amount of work involved in holding the boat in the lock while water churns below the boat. I do believe they left with an appreciation of the process.

While in Waterford, we first heard of a potential Hurricane named Irene that may make it's way up the coast in the next few days. We continued our trip down the Hudson aware that we could make changes in travel plans as the storm approached. As we now know, Hurricane Irene did make its way up the east coast after hitting eastern NC and was headed directly into NYC. Unfortunately, Mike and Lynne were forced to depart early as we needed to find a safe harbor to ride out the storm. They both thoroughly enjoyed the time they were on the water and felt that this was a unique experience for both of them. I have no doubt this shortened trip only served to strengthen their committment to coastal boating in the near future.

We were successful in securing a slip in Haverstraw Marina 30 miles north of NYC where we stayed until the storm passed. A lot of wind and rain with a lot of rocking in the marina but we made it safely. All of us agreed that we don't want to do that again!

With a few days delay due to Irene, we arrived in NY on Tuesday, stayed at a marina one night and traveled a short distance on Wednesday to anchor behind The Statue of Liberty. Here we met up with John and Sue Winter aboard "Just Relax" - friends and boating partners from The Lake Norman area - who we will travel with the rest of our journey to the Carolinas. We traveled with John and Sue when we began The Great Loop and look forward to spending time with them again.

Our plans are still to be somewhere in the Carolinas at the end of September and find a semi permanent home for "Knot Busy" for the winter. We will continue to keep you informed of our travels through The Chesapeake and into eastern NC and hope Irene was the last storm of this season. Hope you enjoy the pictures of our travels down the Hudson with Mike and Lynne.