Cata-Cola

Sunday September 9, 2012

Even though we had only spent two and a half days in Waterford it felt weird to be on the move again. Our next destination is Catskills, NY where we’ll get our mast put back up and where our standing rigging will be coming in tomorrow. Passing through the last two locks there were still a few tugs remaining and a pretty big crowd as well. They also must have thought that locking was really interesting because each time we entered one a crowd would gather to watch. The people standing right by us would ask where we were from and where we were going, and I think we disappointed one big U of M fan since we don’t follow sports at all. Then when leaving the lock all the people at the far end would wave to us and I’d wave back, somehow reverting to the Ms America cupped hand rotating wave which must have been left over from my very short lived pagent career ( I participated in one when I was sixteen. Came in third runner up, woohoo!!). Then before we knew it we were done with the canal and deposited into the Hudson River.

 The trip down to Catskill was only 40 miles and would take 6-8 hours. We passed through Troy and Albany but after that any kind of scenery fell away and we were left with the same views we had on the canal. The good thing is that the Hudson is much wider than the canal and you could set the autopilot and distract yourself for a few minutes before changing it a few degrees here or there. I should have been smart and used this time to do some writing on my laptop and make sure the site would be caught up as soon as I had wifi again, but reading from my nook sounded so much more tempting and I went with the latter. I apologize for being so far behind, but I also blame Jodi Piccoult for writing books that are so damn good.

The hours passed and I was content sitting behind the wheel and reading when the dark clouds in the distance kept coming closer and closer and finally blocked the sun. One thing I have noticed about this state, and I don’t know how or why it’s different than Michigan, but if you’re in the sun you’re burning up and if you’re in the shade you’re freezing. As soon as the clouds settled over us I was back into jeans and a fleece. Twenty minutes later there were a few drops of rain here and there, and ten minutes after that the winds were blowing heavy raindrops into my face. Navigating around the Hudson Athens lighthouse I could barely see in front of me and almost as soon as it came it was gone. Watching the mist rise from the water and trees we could start to make out some very large houses on the hills. Our charts showed that we were passing through Hudson and right after we went under the Rip Van Winkle bridge ahead of us we’d be at our stop.

Since it was six o’clock on a Sunday there was no one at Riverview Marina when we pulled up, but Matt having talked to them earlier said we should pull up in front of the blue and yellow crane and they would be there in the morning to help us. Tying off we took a little walk into town to see what Catskill had to offer. There was a nice little main street with lots of shops, many of them already closed due to the time of night. While strolling the street we’d see these sculptures at each corner, a cat in a standing or sitting position, and each decorated to a different artist’s liking. There was one dressed in mid-evil armor, one as part of a Harley Davidson motorcycle, and our favorite, one as a Coca-Cola dispenser. But this clever artist had changed the name from Coca-Cola to Cata-Cola. The head remained that of a normal cat but the body was painted red with a dispenser for bottles of ‘Cat Coke’ in the front. Matt, being a Coca-cola addict and deprived of it for quite awhile, was having a field day looking at it and rambling how we needed to start collecting Coca-Cola memorabilia. At that I pulled him away to the equally appetizing Chinese restaurant a few doors down, tempting him with sesame chicken. It seemed to do the trick and a few minutes later we were walking down the street with an order in our hands. Now we get to spend the rest of the night relaxing and hoping that our rigging comes in early enough tomorrow so we can get work done and not take up prime real estate at the marina.