Day 1: Albany to Saugerties, NY.
August 27, 2000

The first day the boat was placed in the water at an Albany city park right under I-787 overpass. One must pass under a railroad bridge within 500 yards of the boat ramp, but the Nonotuck had short enough mast height to pass without need to await bridge opening.

The first day on the river revealed waters that were dull and murky in color, but not necessarily polluted. The passage appeared more like a large canal than a stretch of one of the most important rivers in America. Perhaps this is why the river appeared so. Barge and commercial ship traffic passes all the way up to Albany and Troy from the sea. One can further lock up the river into the Lake Champlain system and beyond into Canada, or turn west just above Albany for the Erie Canal to gain access to the Great Lakes.

The river is straight through most of its travels to the sea and this is a nice feature if you are a commercial ship, or tug and barge captain. Also surprising was the river was still effected by ocean tides, even 140+ miles up from the sea. Anchoring must be done with care even this far up river since the tide changes river depth a good 4 feet through the day.

If you were a stick floating down the river, you would move approximately 12 miles down during the day, but would also move 8 miles back up the river due to incoming tides. Net gain is 4 miles to seaward with each day, due to, and depending on river flow.

My primary concern during the first day of travel was to test how far my fuel would go during the course of a day of motoring. I expected to largely motor down the Hudson, so any fair winds for sailing would be considered a bonus. Since I usually sail S/V Nonotuck on ocean waters with little engine use, I was actually uncertain just how far I could go on a tank of fuel.

The first day confirmed that the little 6 hp Evinrude would take me quite a ways when left at low to moderate throttle. I would be able to use one 6 gallon tank and one 3 gallon tank during the day's motoring. Then switch to a second 6 gallon tank and begin looking for fuel. I would only need to fuel up once during a long day of motoring, and even continue a bit into the following day if nothing was easily available. It was a great relief not to be concerned with always looking for fuel.

The river flows along and you mostly go with it. Sometimes faster and sometimes slower. I made good progress, but as darkness approached, it was time to start thinking about what to do for the night. Spend the night at a marina or anchor out? Decided I'd anchor out, even though the town of Saugerties was near by.

A note of concern was cruising guide warnings about the "riffles" in the river just above and a few miles down from Saugerties. If weather was contrary, the river could be dangerious because of the shallows. The weather wasn't bad, but I didn't really want to pass such a stretch of unknown river in the dark. I decided to anchor up at a location just a bit below Saugerties, on the inside of Cruger Island.

A very nice spot out of any potential south wind and a bit above a section of riffles. The only problem was the railroad passing just 100 yards away. It was an extremely active railway! Trains were passing with thunderous noise and a whistle blow at some railroad crossing a bit up river of me. The little Nonotuck literally vibrated as the train passed. Trains would pass nearly all night! They served good use though. They kept me awake, poking my head out the hatch to see if the anchor had dragged and I was any closer to shore. I couldn't aford too much drag since I was in about 4 feet of water a near low tide.

The following morning I would find that I had passed over most of the worrysome river riffles on my way to my anchorage without even knowing it. Perhaps sometimes a cruising guide gives you more information than you really should concern yourself with. Better to be safe than sorry I suppose.