9/8/17 – 9/12/17: After saying good-bye to our friends and turning up the Rondout Creek, the 56 foot bridge in Kingston was our last obstacle before reaching Rondout Yacht Basin. This is where our sailing season ends and Shanti will be hauled out and stored for the winter.

When our mast was down we measured the overall height from the waterline to the top of our VHF antenna to be 53 feet. The bridge clearance at high tide, according to the charts, was 56 feet. We arrived at low tide, which should have given us an additional 4 feet of clearance, but we couldn’t help asking ourselves a bunch of questions. Was the bridge height measured accurately? Did we measure our mast accurately? Would low tide give us enough water depth to make it to the marina? Were we crazy for trying this? Needless to say, we were a little nervous, and coasted up to the bridge very, very slowly in case we had to hit reverse quickly. But we didn’t touch, and made it under without incident.

The marina was just past the bridge on the left side of the creek, and we had at least 9 feet of water the whole way. We were greeted at the fuel dock by Michael, who pumped us out and saw us to our slip. He gave us a tour of the marina as well as some helpful information about the area. We settled in knowing we would have a busy few days ahead of us.

First up was the rental car. We had our first experience using Lyft (similar to Uber). The driver was nice, but the Google directions took us to an old IBM office complex, not to the rental car store. It took an extra ten minutes or so to find the office. We got a “full size” Ford Fusion. We think “full size” is a bit of a stretch for this car, but we were able to squeeze everything needed into it. Second thing was securing a climate controlled storage unit for the things we didn’t want to store on the boat (cushions, liquids, towels / linens, blankets, electronics, etc…). The rest of our time was mainly devoted to packing, cleaning, trips to the storage unit and also Walmart, and various tasks like winterizing the engine, head, and freshwater system.

The town of Kingston sits among several mountainous areas. Everywhere we drove, we saw them in the distance, and the roads in Kingston were sometimes carved through them, too. The road to / from the marina sat at the bottom of a huge hill, and the road was windy and at spots had barely enough room for two cars. All in all it was a very scenic area. The town itself seemed a little run down. There were lots of houses and buildings in need of repair. It was a culturally diverse town, and there were lots of ethnic restaurants within the various neighborhoods. There was one stretch of road that had all the big box stores and fast food restaurant you could want.

We finished everything on Tuesday afternoon. The marina was waiting for a new strap for the travel lift hoist, so we couldn’t be hauled out until that came. We are trusting the marina do that in our absence. Once she’s hauled, she’ll be shrink-wrapped and will sleep for the winter here in Kingston. We are now sitting in a motel room and will begin the trip back home tomorrow. Our sailing season has ended, but our land adventure is just beginning. First stop: the Woodstock Monument marking the site of the famous 1969 rock festival (contrary to popular belief, it is not in Woodstock, NY, but 60 miles away in Bethel, NY).

Stay tuned for further updates…

Pics of Kingston