Mahi Mahi- June 9/10/11 ; Marlboro to Kingston New York.

This will be a long post covering 3 days of our expidention, so read it when you are bored and have nothing better to do.

Today (June 9) was the day we had been waiting for – will the Erie Canal Locks #16/17 open up soon ?

Guess what – they made an announcement, that the announcement would be delayed.

We were very sad to leave our friends from Marlboro Yacht Club, but we have to try to keep pressing on northward. So we called several marinas in Kingston NY. With all the Loopers starting to get bunched up, we were luckily to get 1 night at the Kingston City Dock & 2 nights at the Hudson River Maritime Museum Dock.

Prior to departure from Marlboro Yacht Club, in addition to all the great services they supply, they also have a great self/ serve Pump Out Machine 😃. It is simply my favorite thing to do in all of boating.

Our ride up the Hudson River was Rainy & very Hazy, visibility was only about a mile. During the ride we came across this beauty. The Esopus Meadows Lighthouse.

A few Google clicks later = The Esopus Meadows Lighthouse is a historic lighthouse located on the Hudson River in Ulster Park, New York. It is notable as the last surviving wooden lighthouse on the Hudson River. The current structure was built in 1871, replacing a stone lighthouse built in 1837. The lighthouse was originally designed to guide ships navigating the shallow Esopus Meadows flats. The US Coast Guard took over operations in 1939 but closed the lighthouse in 1965 after installing an automated navigation aid.

We arrived in Kingston NY about 3:30pm, got all settled in at the marina, and then went for a short stroll of the quaint little town.

On the waterfront next to the marina, they have an extensive Wood Shop & actually run a Wooden Boat School, to teach young kids the art of making wooden boats. It appears that this town places significant value in teaching their kids about boats & boating.

Our Harbormaster Jim, also takes the kids out for a boat ride on a solar powered vessel named Solaris, then takes them for a history lesson in the museum. Check out all the solar panels on top of the boat.

Everyday, we observed a tour boat taking kids for an afternoon ride. The Rip Van Winkle, originally an oil service boat, converted to a tour boat in 1982.

At our last marina, the Marlboro Yacht Club, we met a couple from Virginia – Ted and Beth Puchalski. When we arrived at the Kingston Historical Museum Marina, we again ran into Ted & Beth, so we asked them if they wanted to join us for dinner. We had a great dinner at a Mexican joint (Taco Tuesday) & then went back to their boat for some drinks.

After 2 days of rain on Monday & Tuesday, we woke up today (Wed-June 11) to a beautiful blue sky and SUNSHINE. Today we will visit the Hudson River Maritime Museum. It was too bad that the museum was not open on the past 2 rainy days, but we’ll take what we get.

The Hudson River Maritime Museum
The museum is somewhat small, but houses a significant amount of history on both the Hudson River & the Erie Canal.

For the small size of the museum, there were several rooms with different themes of history.

There was an entire room that contained MANY models of Historic Miniature Wooden Boats. The room was dedicated to the elderly model maker, a gentlemen named Charlie Niles. The ornate attention to detail in the minature models was impressive. Charlie passed away in 2015 at the age of 93.

There was a room dedicated to New York Governor DeWitt Clinton, and his endeavours to create the Erie Canal & link it to The Hudson River.
Clinton was largely responsible for the construction of the Erie Canal.
He was persuaded by Canal proponent Jesse Hawley to support construction of a canal from the eastern shore of Lake Erie to the upper Hudson River.
When first built, the Erie Canal cut transportation costs by a whopping 95%. The contribution of the canal to the state of the New York is incalculable.

Upon completion of the canal, it was fact that DeWitt Clinton & dignitaries led the opening ceremonies for the Erie Canal and rode a ship named the “Seneca Chief” from Buffalo New York to New York City, with two flasks of Lake Erie fresh water. They poured the two flasks of Lake Erie fresh water into the New York Harbor, symbolically connecting the two bodies of water forever.

There was a room dedicated to The Erie Canal – videos of how the locks work, and even photos of the early days when horses would be used to pull boats thru the locks (all sailing vessels at that time). The Erie Canal is about 360 miles long and controls the waterway between Lake Erie & the Hudson River. Lake Erie is about 500ft higher than the Hudson River in elevation, and has 35 locks which control the elevation difference. The Canal was opened 1825, and is about to celebrate its 200th anniversary !!!

There was a lot of area in the museum covering Steamships that once traveled the Hudson River. The most famous being The Mary Powell.
The steamboat “Mary Powell”, built in 1861, sailed on the waters of the Hudson River over a period of 55 years. She was one of the fastest steamboats of her time, was pleasing in appearance, and reliable. She became known as the “Queen of the Hudson”, proving daily trips up/down the Hudson River between Albany & NYC. The vessel was named after the wife of a NY businessman & steamboat owner Thomas Powell.

There were also a few displays showing several steam engines & how a steam engine works.

There were rooms dedicated to ;

• Restoring the Hudson from Pollution and renewed fish populations.
• Hurricanes & Flooding Histories of the Hudson & tributaries like Rondout.
• Jobs created by The Hudson River – Cement, Bricks, Fishing

There was a very interesting exhibit on Ice Boat Racing.
The material suggested that even back as far as the 1800’s there were ice racing boats that could do as much as 90-100 mph with only a 25mph wind (4:1 ratio), making them the fastest vehicles on earth in 1800s.
There are records of an 83-year-old guy named Chuck Nevitt, who doesn’t look like the fastest man on earth, but many believe that in February 1947 Nevitt set a record as the world’s fastest naturally powered human during a remarkable iceboat sail across the flat, black ice of Lake Winnebago.
Stopwatch-clutching spectators gazed slack-jawed as the Coast Guard veteran piloted his 42-foot Flying Dutchmen between two buoys set two miles apart. It took 53 seconds, and that included a tack he made in the middle of the course that added about a quarter-mile to the distance.
“They figured somewhere in there I was doing 150 mph. Maybe 155,” Nevitt said.
That would definitely shorten the time required to complete The Great Loop.

Google searches indicate the Guinness record as 143mph by a boat named Debutante in 1938 ???

Finally – Do you know how the terms Port & Starboard sides of the ship were created ?

Well I think that’s enough history for now, back to our trip with the Mahi.

Unfortunately we got more bad news today about the Erie Canal Locks. They still have not made an announcement regarding locks 16/17. And due to high rains over the last couple of days, there are now some additional locks closed. We believe the additional locks will reopen with a couple days of dry weather, buy are still most concerned about locks 16/17.

The NY Canal System has promised another update “Later this week”.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading this very long post.

Mike, Deena, Jerry.

But wait, there’s more – as I was gettin ready to hit the button to release this post, I was sitting on the back of the Mahi & was treated to the high school sculling team out for a practice run.