We're a sailboat!

Monday 21 August we cast off from Albany Yacht Club at 0630 hrs so that the ebb tide would help us down to Catskill, N.Y. where Hop O Nose marina is located.  I discovered that my electronic charts include tide and current tables and graphs. Bob and I have also found some Tide apps that predict the timing of the tides and currents.  I wasn't quite sure of how to interpret the current chart on the chart plotter (this is all new for we lake sailors) but found a very clear explanation of the relationship between tides and currents on NOAA's site. We had an uneventful motor down the Hudson, initially quite industrial around Albany, then giving way to beautiful houses and little marinas along the shore. 

Hop O Nose marina had been recommended to us by RCR in Buffalo for raising the mast, and they do so on a first-come first-served basis.  When we arrived late in the morning, there were three boats ahead of us, but Tim and Brian thought they would get our mast up by the end of the day.  But ... as Karen explained in Boat Time, Boat Dollars and Boat Projects, everything on a boat takes much longer than planned, and mast stepping is no exception!  Ultimately we were rescheduled for 0800 hrs Tuesday.  Tuesday dawned bright and HOT! First the mast was lifted off the boat onto a couple of saw horses so that I could reinstall our wind instruments and antenna and finish fitting the shrouds and then, after a last check to make sure all the halyards, lazy jacks etc. were on the right side of the spreaders, up she went! 

Tim and Brian raising Trekker's mast

The forestay, shrouds and backstay were all pinned and we were good to move back to our slip to finish tensioning shrouds, installing the boom and vang, solar panels and leading all our control lines back to their clutches in the cockpit. Brian and Tim helped to install the boom, with much less effort than it took us to get it off!  It's all in getting the angle right!  Tuesday evening we played a couple of games of Euchre with Sheila and Bob (still even between boys and girls), and had a very sound sleep!

Wednesday morning Sheila and Bob very kindly cooked us breakfast to celebrate Karen's and my 37th wedding anniversary and in the evening we went to the Creekside Restaurant. 

Wednesday was dedicated to some final reassembly and cleaning.  What a pleasure to be able to walk around the boat without stepping over lines and straps tying the mast and supports down! In the afternoon Sheila, Karen and I walked into Catskill and enjoyed the Cat'n Around Catskill felines spotted around town.

We've really enjoyed our time in Catskill, and what a relief to have the mast vertical again!