Making Our Way Home Up the Hudson

Last year around this time, we visited New York City by boat for the first time with the intention of continuing on to Michigan to finish the Great Loop. However, once we got to the city, we became enamored with all of the sights and sounds and wanted to explore a little more. The tide was flowing the right direction to continue up the East River under the Brooklyn Bridge, so we made a spur of the moment decision to duck into Long Island Sound for a few nights to see what it was all about. Well, a few nights turned into a few months, and we were beckoned further and further up the coast until eventually we found ourselves all the way in Bar Harbor, Maine! Mystic, CT, Newport, Rhode Island, Martha’s Vineyard, Block Island, Cape Cod, Acadia National Park….there were just so many reasons to keep going “just a little further”. Eventually though, we had gone so far that there just wasn’t enough time to turn around and make it all the way back to Michigan before the weather turned cold, so instead, we went all the way back down the coast to Florida.

After a 3rd wonderful winter spent in the sun, we decided to take another stab at finishing the Great Loop. We left Florida earlier this year (in early April) and timed it just right getting up the coast so that once we arrived in New York, the Erie Canal would be opening, which would allow us full passage back to the Great Lakes.

After a few nights spent anchoring/working at Sandy Hook, NJ and Staten Island, NY, we set out to finally take that trip up the Hudson River and head back to Michigan for the summer!

We can never seem to find a buddy boat to travel the same pace as we do since we have to stop during the week to work and then tend to travel hard on the weekends, so yet again, we crossed in front of the Statue of Liberty all by our lonesome.  This time though, we had done our research and found that there is a live web cam in the harbor that shows various angles of the city and Lady Liberty. We set up our phones to screen-record the live broadcast as we cruised in front of the statue, and to our delight, it worked perfectly and we finally got a video/photo of our boat in front of the Statue of Liberty!

Trouvaille in front of the Statue of Liberty!

Cruising by Ellis Island was a neat feeling. Knowing that this is where many of the original immigrants arrived to our country while we were arriving ourselves by boat made us feel very connected to the history of this island.

Ellis Island

From this point on, everything was new to us. We had never been to this side of Manhattan and had never taken the boat up the Hudson beyond where One World Trade Center stands. We cruised past Little Island, which is a really unique park in the city made up of several platforms held up by cement pillars of varying heights. It looks like something out of Alice in Wonderland or something. There is an amphitheater there and it is just a very cool green space on the water.

We saw the Golf Club at Chelsea Pier, which is a caged in driving range right on the Hudson River that I recognized from a scene filmed there in the movie “Serendipity” with Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack. There was a massive yacht parked at the end of the driving range and while it was outside of the protective net, I still don’t think I’d want my multimillion dollar yacht parked in front of a bunch of people hitting golf balls all day haha!

Golf Club at Chelsea Pier in Manhattan

We quickly realized that while we have visited Manhattan several times and have experienced many of the main attractions, there was still so much we hadn’t even scratched the surface on. A person could spend years in New York City and still find new things to see and do each day. This time, we did not stop in the Big Apple but decided to continue on up the Hudson into new territory.

Almost immediately upon leaving the city, the elevation changed drastically and cliffs started appearing on the Western coast of the Hudson River.  As we traveled further and further, the scenery kept getting prettier and prettier! I had zero idea this area was so naturally beautiful and mountainous!

Quickly, the skyscrapers were replaced by mansions and exquisite estates perched high atop the cliffs above. Some of the old mansions, such as the Lyndhurst mansion, looked like castles and reminded us of when we visited Ireland. This area has so much history and heritage and cruising through it all on our boat was such a beautiful way to leisurely take it all in.

We stopped for the night in Nyack, NY and positioned ourselves with a gorgeous view of Hook Mountain and anchored behind the mooring field!  It was so nice to see some elevation change again and that night we had a beautiful sunset!

Nyack, NY and Hook Mountain