Friday, May 29, 2009

Yesterday when Gale was moving the boat after the mast was down, the shift cable broke and was stuck in forward gear. Lucky for us, the marina guys were around and able to help him get the boat back to the dock. Of course, that meant that he had another project to attend to before we could leave Catskill, NY. He was able to determine that a snap ring had jarred loose and needed to be put back. In the process of fixing it, the ring was dropped and could not be retrieved. After a nice 3-mile walk to the NAPA store and back for Gale and Lucy, Gale was able to fix the shift cable but not before ruining one replacement snap ring, dropping another where it could not be found, and then finally being able to get the last one he had inserted and in place!
We were anxious to get off the dock at Hop-O-Nose Marina and continue up the Hudson. We left Lucy’s “lawn” behind here and hoped that she wouldn’t have any difficulty continuing to use the same spot on the boat as her bathroom. By 3:20 pm we were fueled up and on our way. We motored for a little over an hour and traveled only about 6 miles, but found a great spot to anchor just past the Athens / Hudson Lighthouse. We were west of Middle Ground Flats and just north of Murderers Creek which leads to Sleepy Hollow Lake. After securing Blue Heron for the night, we let the dinghy down and took a little ride along the shore and up Murderers Creek. We took photos of a sailboat used for sunset cruises, some very old, abandoned barges and an old highway bridge which didn’t even span the creek anymore. Maureen had visions of dreaming about Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman!