After a long afternoon nap on Sunday and a full night’s sleep to catch up from the Atlantic passage, we weighed anchor and set a course rounding the Statue of Liberty and heading north up the Hudson River past the financial district and the Manhattan waterfront.

It is time to bid au revoir to this most impressive statue.

Manhattan from the harbor

The wind and waves were behind us, but the strong tidal and river currents were against us. We were held to 6 mph for the first two hours of our cruise upriver.

We encountered many things as we navigated through the world’s busiest harbor…

My favorite wind chime: a bell buoy,

A family of geese,

Sailors,

Speeding taxi drivers,

Cruise ships,

Bustling ferries,

The brave,

And the foolhardy.

Eventually we moved past the commercial areas and entered the more bucolic part of the Hudson River with trees growing to the shores.  We were looking forward to a few days of rest, boatkeeping, and enjoying some of the river’s many treasures, using a marina as our base.

Finally the tide went slack and then reversed to flow upriver.  Our speed increased to 7.5 mph.  When the upriver tide gained enough speed to overcome the river current flowing downstream, our speed began to pick up and we were cruising north at over 9 mph.  Our goal was to reach a marina in Croton on Hudson which is located on the east bank approximately 40 miles north of Manhattan.  At 1600 we reached the Tappan Zee and at 1730 we docked at Half Moon Bay Marina.

Half Moon was the name of the ship that Henry Hudson sailed as he explored the river. Half Moon Bay is named after her.