The night at Hook Mt was very quiet and calm. The morning dawned with sunshine and a north breeze. As we set out, we noticed whitecaps around the bend where the protection of Hook Mt ended, hummmm. Following the iron clad rule, never broken in a thousand years of sailing history, you will always find a north wind when heading north!! Thus it was so today. The Morning Lies predicted north winds 5 to 10 but instead we got north winds 15 to 25 kts! With the current flowing north, it was wind against tide which results in steep, close together waves that crash against the boat giving a jarring motion every few waves. In fact, the roughest ride we had over the last three months was today coming up the Hudson! I resorted to crossing the river at an angle like a skier going down a slope in a zigzag fashion to avoid taking the waves head-on. With the tide behind us we were still averaging 7.5 to 8.0 kts but we often crashed through the waves. The full enclosure did us good in protecting us from the resulting spray when the bow crashed through a wave sending spray up over the dodger but against the windshield, keeping us dry.
We made it to PYC in good time but could not dock due to the violent winds so we took a mooring and waited for the winds and current to abate. Around 4:30 both conditions were met and we headed to our dock for a successful landing. I took Ann out to dinner and now we're headed for bed on the boat. Tomorrow we'll unload and head for our land home and dream of our vacation next year! The photo is of our boat at our PYC dock tonight, peaceful. I hope you've enjoyed the blog, I've enjoyed writing it and the next installment will be in 2009 when we head to Maine again!! Goodbye and good sailing to all!
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