Odalisque - Cruising

GLEN COVE, NEW YORK TO NYACK, NEW YORK

"Launch" — Friday June 10, 2005
We had done quite a bit of planning to figure out when we wanted to sail down the East River and up the Hudson using the Eldridge Tide and Pilot book (not to mention the NOAA website). The East River current would start going south in the afternoon on Saturday around 1330 and we wanted to catch it. It would be the same on Sunday only a little less than an hour later and so on. So it was important for us to try to get in the water today.

We launched the boat Friday afternoon. As Matt had joined the Nyack Boat Club we were granted a transient mooring at the Sea Cliff Yacht Club for $35. Things were starting to fall into place: I could go ashore and eat, sleep and prepare for tomorrows journey down the East River where we already had a slip reserved for Saturday night ($104) at Liberty Landing Marina.

"Sailing down Hell Gate" — Saturday June 11, 2005
Jean Marien and his lovely wife Mary Ellen met us at my mother’s house in Sea Cliff around 10. Matt showed up a little later. I had called for us to leave at 10 am so we could make our way to the East River around 1300 when the current changed in our favor. An hour or so later would just mean more current. We all converged on Sea Cliff Yacht Club with sandwiches (thanks to Jean), water, film, beer and ice. We set off from Hempstead Harbor around 11:30 under power with hazy air and little to no wind. Once we rounded Execution Rock we found some SW wind and tacked all the way to Roosevelt Island. The confluence of the Harlem River and the East Rivers at Hell Gate was a bit of confused water but we managed to get past it still under sail. Once in the East River alongside Manhattan Island the wind was in our teeth so we motored past the UN to the Williamsburgh, Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges in a light rain as we heard a thunder clap or two and all donned foul weather jackets. As we passed the Battery we could see another rainstorm coming our way at around 1730. So captain Jean sent us south towards the Narrows and avoided most of the rain from the cyclonic thunderstorm. We then headed back up NY Harbor for Liberty Landing Marina where their dock staff was preparing to go home. We found slip #71 thanks to Jean’s smooth piloting of Odalisque and opted for slip #69 instead. The earlier rain had soaked the place leaving behind some unpleasant odors in the marina, which gradually cleared up. We had a nice dinner at the restaurant before heading back on board for the night. The noise from a nearby restaurant kept us all awake until nearly 2 am and it is a wonder that any of our fellow boaters heard our guitar and violin improvisations over the din, but a few did. The best way to use this marina is to pull in after 1800 and leave before 0600 when the dock staff are nowhere to be found. That way there is no fee. But it was a Saturday night and I wanted to know that we had a slip for Odalisque for my peace of mind.

"Sailing from the Battery to Nyack, NY" — Sunday June 12, 2005
After a brief sleep on a cockpit berth I felt cold so I moved to the empty starboard salon berth across from Matt, leaving Jean in the port cockpit berth. In the morning I found a body in the V berth (Jean) and a body (Matt) out on the cockpit berth. We had each changed our sleeping locations during the night. I guess that various emanations from each of us during the night disturbed one another’s slumber. Such is life

It was going to be a hot day with forecast winds SW 10 – 15, which we hoped would pan out for our 25 mile journey upriver to Nyack. I used the Eldridge book to figure out the better times to leave the Battery heading upriver as the current generally goes down river for 7 hours (and 1 knot faster) and upriver for 5. I had read that it is best to sail with the current on the Hudson if at all possible.

Jessica arrived at 0930 by water taxi where I met her and escorted her back to Odalisque on a sunny day with pretty clouds. Around 1030 I backed her out of her finger slip with a little less panache than Jean had demonstrated the night before but we managed to get into the channel.

By now we had developed some raport or ritual while sailing together. Both Matt and I had let Jean do most of the tiller work and we had been handling the jib sheets going down the East River the day before. I had quite enjoyed this arrangement as I could look at the passing shoreline more than the skipper who had to look ahead and behind.
We took turns on the tiller while Matt used his 5 cameras and I used my disposable camera as we passed the midtown skyline (I own a Nikon SLR but it was safely at home besides I knew that this event would be photochronicled).
On the wider, lower Hudson the current seems to be much less than the East River at full flow. We were not making the time I had hoped for as the Hudson has eddies of up and down river currents. Some moments it was with us and some moments it was against us. We could tell by using the GPS to get our over ground speed versus the speed shown by the ships knotmeter. And as we had just launched, the ships hull was smooth and clean and the little sensor propeller was nicely matching the speed shown by our GPS. Sometimes the current in the middle of the river is downstream while the edges are going upriver and visa versa.

It was way cool to pass under the George Washington Bridge rather than over it. We sailed 99% of the time up to Nyack except for a few sections along the high Palisades where the wind evaporated and I turned over the A4, which was purring if a little smoky in the trailing exhaust.

It was hot and we were mostly on a down wind leg so the wind was not as cooling as an upwind tack. Along one stretch of the Palisades Jean set Jessica up with a berth in the salon so she could get out of the sun and he then retired to the bow for some quiet time. I knew that us 47 year olds were tired and sunburned as even I needed a quick lie down in the shade. A Canadian 32’ catamaran flying only a copper colored asymmetrical spinnaker passed us between the GWB and Yonkers. Above the GWB the west side is the most impressive with forested slopes and the dark red rocks of the Jersey Palisades. As you approach the Tappan Zee Bridge from the south the cliffs give way to gently sloping hills coming right down to the river allowing the SW wind to be much more established. I was speaking to Noah as we passed under the TZB putting us in striking distance of Nyack Boat Club. Most of us took a dip to cool off (and sober up in my case) after we had tied up to our mooring. The water was comfortably warm and refreshing. I guess that the nuclear reactor upriver at Indian Point helps to heat up this section of the river.

One of the neighboring moorings was a little too close to us so we had to devise a plan to pluck it up and move it some 20 feet so we motored to the club dock and left Jean and Jessica with Odalisque while we took a tin boat and a cow out to our mooring to move it. The current is always important with that awkward set up but we managed to catch our buoy and even raise the 350 lb mushroom anchor off the bottom and move it even though we had never done this before. The cow has a manual crane with plenty of flotation; a floating 12’ by 12’ chunk of dock attached to a motor boat by lines. We then had to return the clubs motor boat and cow and bring Odalisque back to her new mooring for the summer. I sensed that the old girl was kind of happy to be back in mostly fresh water but it was probably due to the fact that the ships 30 gallon fresh water supply was empty and she was more bouncy because of that. Odalisque looks really nice with her new red sail cover that compliments her varnished teak accents and red bootstripe.

Matt and I called the NBC launch and we departed for shore. I feel that you have to love your boat on some level and that all the love (engine maintenance, fiberglass repairs, sails and attention to rigging) you give it, it gives back to you. Your boat is a reflection of you and all of your neuroses just as sure as the cleanliness of your home or your car's trunk or your tea leaves can tell you. Does it look good? Does it smell good? Does it feel good? Does it sound good? Do you like it? Do you like yourself? And if your boat sinks then that is a sad day unless you are on it, then it is a bad day.