Marlboro Yacht Club - at their dock

How's this for a view going through Hell Gate?!

There was a lot of "should we" or "shouldn't we" about moving today. The forecast wasn't very good with rain and thunderstorms in the mix. So we looked, mulled, looked again the then finally decided to go ahead and give it a try. About an hour after leaving our mooring the rains came in just as we were entering Hell Gate! The storm was not forecast as "severe" but there was lots of rain and wind anyway. It's always interesting going through the East River and Hell Gate in pouring rain. We could see on the NOAA radar that it was clear behind the rain so we pressed on.

Then the storm passed and the sun came out and it was HOT. We were headed north and the wind was out of the south so the net effect was zero breeze in the cockpit! The temperature steadily climbed and it topped out at 98 today! As we progressed north, I kept an eye on the NOAA radar and saw a line of severe thunderstorms headed our way. There was even a tornado watch in effect for parts of the leading edge of the front. I ran the NOAA radar display forward and estimated when it would arrive over the river and concluded that we would not make it to PYC before the storm line hit. Then the search started for somewhere to duck in for the night. Marlboro Yacht Club in on the Hudson just north of Newburgh and it has a face dock for easy access no matter the direction of the tide. Best of all, PYC has reciprocity for docking so it didn't cost us anything other than $5 for a 30 amp outlet.

We were helped in by a member and had no trouble docking. With a secure tie up, we watched as the storm came through. At one point you could not see across the river! Lots of lightening, winds and rain came down. We were on the west bank of the river at Marlboro with a high hill behind us and so were were even more secure since the storm came from the west.

So now we're at Marlboro and will move on to PYC in the morning during an opening in the storms. Next on the agenda is hauling Fleetwing for bottom painting, waxing and teak refinishing to ready her for the ICW trip south starting 9/15.