Although this part of the world was not affected by hurricane Ian there is a strong low sitting of the coast that has everyone pinned down. There is a band of strong north winds stretching from Boston almost to Cape Henry Virginia that has not moved in 3 days and doesn’t show any signs of weakening for a few more. We’ve been anchored in Croton on Hudson since Friday and it looks like we’ll be here at least 2 more days. It’s cool and cloudy but we are in a well protected bay, even though the winds sometimes gust to 25 knots the water is flat. A far cry from the 25 -40 knots with waves from 12 - 18 feet south of Sandy Hook. We could get a little closer to NYC but with the amount of boats heading south this year, there has to be a hell of a traffic jam somewhere.


In the meantime we have eased into life aboard Dagny and find numerous chores to occupy our time. It’s quite relaxing to be able to turn a 30 minute job into a 2 hour one and not stress about it. Much to the chagrin of my brother, our local library in Lancaster has a great online library that we can access at anytime from anywhere, so there’s never a shortage of reading material on board either. However, I think it’s time to dust of the scrabble game and see if I’ve learned anything during those long Covid winters.

Despite the so so weather we dinghied ashore yesterday and went for a good walk around town. Croton is a very busy commuter hub for NYC, between the numerous trains and heavy vehicle traffic we realized how quickly we’re adapting to the peace and quiet of the boat.

Rain had been threatening all afternoon keeping the recreational boaters ashore, however about 20 minutes after getting back on board we kept hearing voices. When I went to investigate I found 2 well lubricated guys in a 19 runabout circling Dagny. When they saw me they kept stressing what a beautiful boat we had and they insisted on giving us a beer. I was a little concerned that their boat handling skills were as impaired as they were. Luckily the dinghy was still in the water so I climbed aboard and stung it away from the stern, figuring it would act as a good fender for Dagny. After a couple of attempts they passed me two king cans of Budlight and thanked me profusely for taking their beer. They then thanked us for visiting and roared off to shore. Just another example of great people we meet on the water. I was always taught, never look a gift horse in the mouth, so yes I drank the Budlight.

Today’s picture is of a rigger working on a schooner at the Kingston Maritime Muesum