Going north on the Hudson from lower Manhattan, there is no (legal) place to camp until Croton Point Peninsula, 36 miles from the Battery. That’s about twice too far for most human-powered vessels to go on a single tide. Even in the gigs, with our sails up and a big south breeze, it would be a very long day. And anyway, who wants to rush past the Palisades?
Alpine Boat Basin, in the Palisades Insterstate Park, is 18 miles from the Battery--a perfect day’s row. Just north of the marina there’s a WPA-era pavilion flanked by five majestic cedars, a good landing beach, and a picnic area with stone-topped tables set on a narrow shelf next to the river. The park doesn’t normally allow camping there, but in the off season they will sometimes make special arrangements for groups they know. (In general, they seem very receptive to the idea of expanding human-powered boat access throughout the park, so I’d encourage other interested groups to get in contact with them).
We got out of pier 40 on Saturday, Oct. 13 at 10:10 am, a bit late to get the full benefit of the flood. Two people didn’t show up so we went with four to a boat, took the sailing rigs, and hoped the wind would help us out. It came up on cue, right as we were taking a break at the little beach just south of the George Washington Bridge, and we sailed almost all the way to Alpine, arriving at 3 pm.
There was a wedding reception going on in the pavilion, and some of the guests drifted down to inspect our boats. Evenutally the whole wedding party came down and posed for pictures sitting on the rail of one of the gigs--no doubt a good omen for the marriage. At dusk we set out tents up, lit some briquets in the firepit atop the seawall, and dined al fresco with a fabulous view of Yonkers.
After a bit of hiking the next morning, we pulled out at 12:30 pm. The flood had another hour and a half to run, but luckily for us the wind had shifted to the north and we were able to sail the four miles to Engelwood Boat Basin, opposite Spuyten Duyvil on the Jersey side. There are two good landing beaches on the north side of the marina, and a little grill on the south side where we got some decent panini to go.
The wind shifted to the west as we went under the bridge and then really picked up--too much so for our unreefed sailing rigs. We dropped them around 79th street and then clung to the sheltered Jersey shore for the ride south. Looking down the gunbarrel of the Hudson with the Verrazano at the end of the line, great rafted sets of cumulus clouds pushing east across the harbor and that golden October light slanting down--those last hours of the voyage were sublime. At Castle Point we turned southeast and made a quick crossing to pier 40, arriving at 5:20 pm.
alpine cruise
leaving pier 40: catch that flood!
gw bridge in sight
rigging up at the beach just south of the bridge
motor sailing
longboats on the hudson
a fine sailing breeze...
...for a while
the rest of the fleet
the alpine-ists
anne’s pans
the wedding party
best to put the tent up before the reception
a moveable feast
a fiery orator
indigo girls
decisions, decsions
sunrise over yonkers
is there a better campsite on the lower hudson?
with better parking?
suresh slept here!
a lot of diners but not much food
frank dumpster dove for the times
breaking camp
we left it like this
rowers don’t need no stinkin’ bandaids
the sunscreen king
new jersey, or california?
tyler’s arm story: ‘but that’s not the worst part”
how lucky! wind out of the north
au revoir palisades
landing at englewood
looking east at inwood hill park, manhattan
naptime
north cove, englewood
yellow-shafted northern flicker (femaie)
southbound again
viking ship off midgetville
just cruisin’
catch that moment
staying warm
we built that boat!
pier 40 sunset
