Sonny III goes to Newburgh - Part 1

[DougSea]

Hey all,

I've been practicing my procrastination and so I'm just now getting around to posting the story of my 3rd annual trip to Newburgh New York, on the shores of the great Hudson River. I had done a decent sized writeup, trying to at least pretend that I could compete with Ric's writing skillz but, alas, an error with saving drafts here on the forum and my words vanished into the ether!

I will mention that I undertook this trip just after the 4th of July holiday and it was HOT!! How hot? Read on to the end and I'll tell you!!

This trip was also the driving force behind my AC project. And I am so glad I took that on!

Newburgh is an interesting place. The marina I've stayed at the last 3 years was "Front Street", although it's been renamed and I believe it's now "Riveredge". It sits right in front of what I call "restaurant row" on the water in Newburgh. If you ever get there I highly recommend the "Big Easy Bistro". Great gumbo! (At least as far as this New Englander is concerned!) The area gets a bit dicey a few blocks away but I never have had a problem at the marina. There's no fuel at the marina but just a half mile up the river the Newburgh Yacht Club has self serve pumps that are available during daylight hours. There's also fuel across the river in Beacon, just past the I-84 (Newburgh/Beacon) bridge.

Anyway, on with the trip. This is part one - apparently there's a limit on the number of pictures you can add to one post. Watch for part 2 soon!

001-Start-Greens Ledge.jpg

002-Underway.jpg

003-Execution Rocks Lighthouse.jpg

004-Throgs Neck Bridge-Haze.jpg

005-Throgs Neck Traffic.jpg

006-SUNY Maritime.jpg

007-Whitestone Bridge.jpg

008-Laguardia.jpg

009-Prison Barge.jpg

010-NYC.jpg

011-Triboro Bridge.jpg

012-Harlem River.jpg

013-Willis Ave Work1.jpg

014-Willis Ave Work2.jpg

015-Metro North Bridge.jpg

016-Yankee Stadium.jpg

017-The Boathuse.jpg

018-Yacht Club.jpg

019-Columbia.jpg

020-Spuyten Duyvil.jpg

So, why is the Spuyten Duyvil the star? I'm glad you asked.

Evey other bridge on the trip has plenty of clearance of Sonny to get under. With my mast and all she's about 13' tall. The Spuyten Duyvil is about 3-4 feet off of the water. I haven't made it under it unopened since my old center console days. The Spuyten Duyvil is a railroad swing bridge and it serves the Amtrack trains that leave Penn Station in New York City and head up the river. Generaly if you ask for an opening they'll either open right away or tell you there's a train coming and make you wait.

No big deal.

Except it's hot. Really hot.

So, I pull up to the bridge from the east and hail them. No response. They're like that sometimes. I figure there's a train coming so I start practicing my "back and fill" efforts. I'll be headed up to EIM soon and I have to look good! So, spin the boat around a few times and sure enough a train passes over the bridge. Great. Figure I'll wait a minute and hail them again if they don't just open the bridge.

About this time another boat approaches from the west. He's just a few hundred yards away behind this massive steel fence, floating on the Hudson. He hails them and asks for an opening. They respond:

"Yeah Captain, the bridge is out of service for the day due to weather."

He responds rather incredulously that it's a 20+ mile ride around Manhattan and what exactly do they mean "Out of Service"!?! I am of course thinking the very same thing.

"Well Capn, it's too hot. The bridge has expanded and if I open it it will jam and I won't be able to close it again."

And that my friends is just how HOT it was!!

(Part 2 - the detour - coming soon to a forum near you!!)

[jcollins]

Thanks for the post Doug. It was very hot in July this year. I'm looking forward to part 2.

[RobS]

Thanks for sharing. I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that part 2 will include pictures of Manhattan, the East Side and the West Side. Looking forward to it.

Boy you sure had those waters all to your self !


BTW - I got accepted to SUNY Maritime at Fort Schuyler but decided to go to a "less structured" college with a higher girl to boy ratio

[RobS]

So I guess this is the view you were hoping for:

It's Open!.jpg

After reading your post I did some reading on the Harlem River Bridges and it's not that uncommon for the bridges to be deemed inoperable due to heat.

I went to Manhattan College School of Engineering. I signed up for crew and they practiced in the Harlem River. After signing up I got the practice schedule. 5AM at the river, like 4 or more days a week. I promptly removed myself from the team, I said, "Sorry, I have a conflict." They said "At 5AM?" I said yeah "Conflict with my social life."

BTW, no bodies floating in the River? An Albin on Law & Order, that would be a first. Olivia in a bikini, that might be nice

Where's Part II ?

[jcollins]

BTW, no bodies floating in the River?

We kept our first boat near Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Went down early one morning and found a body. That's when we moved.

[DougSea]

So I guess this is the view you were hoping for:

It's Open!.jpg

After reading your post I did some reading on the Harlem River Bridges and it's not that uncommon for the bridges to be deemed inoperable due to heat.

...

Where's Part II ?

Yup, that was the view I wanted! I was standing there at the helm, my goal just a few hundred feet away...denied!

When I was up in Newburgh I got into a conversation with a guy who used to work in the bridge division of the MTA. He told me that bridges often got stuck on really hot days and, depending on the situation, they would have the FDNY come hose them down to cool them off and free them up.

Part two's coming...you have to build "buzz" for it!