It seems to me a whole lot of time I am waiting for something. Presently, I am waiting for the 1st of May, when the season starts at the New York Canal System and the locks open up so that we can start transiting the 35 locks of the canal system which takes us to Lake Erie. We have traveled as far north as we could for the time being. Last Wednesday we took one of the eight mooring balls belonging to the Castleton Boat Club on the Hudson River. This is the place where we are going to lower our mast by using their mast crane. This little club is a great place for transiting boats and I'll tell you why.

The use of the do it yourself mast crane, which is operated with a remote control right from the deck of your boat or from the floating dock to step or un-step your mast, cost only $50.00. Down the river in Catskill you dish out a minimum of $125 for a mast up to 40ft and plus, plus for all the extras like removal of furling, or disconnecting of the wiring, which can jack up the price quickly to $250 and more by having it done by them. Over 40ft mast height the price goes up and up! Here the charge is the same for a large or a small mast. Benno and I can do the un-stepping ourselves and have raised our mast here in this club when we were coming down from Canada in 2005 with Diesel Duck. Also many years ago, we stepped and un-stepped the 50' mast of our sailboat "Najade" here. If you think you need help with this task, consider buddy boating to help each other, as we have assisted a large ketch with his masts.

The club offers the moorings for $5/a day. This includes free Wifi (strong signal, five bars to the mooring field) and the use of their very clean washrooms with hot showers. There is a large bin for your trash on the property. The clubhouse/bar and restaurant welcomes you to visit. Guys, tap beer cost only $1.00! On weekends they have lunch specials. On Sunday we had tasty open faced roast beef sandwiches with mashed potatoes and corn. Included was coffee and blueberry or cherry cheesecake for $4.00/per person. Eat your heart out, this meal will cost you more than 12 bucks down the river for sure. Saturday's lunch of half a roasted chicken with various side dishes for $6.50 we missed, because we'd been offered a ride into town to do a little shopping from one of the members. The club also sells diesel and gasoline at market price.





Directly behind the clubhouse on Main Street, there is a Laundromat with modern front and double loaders ($2.25/load) and large dryers ($0.25), or, if you prefer the top load washers, there is another Laundromat five houses down, west on the same road. At the end of the block there is Stewart’s, a large deli type variety store with snack bar and ATM. In the opposite direction, east on Main Street, there is a post office and a library.