ROCKIN’ BOAT & NOT IN A GOOD WAY
June 7-9 2026
It seemed to take us about an hour to actually “leave” New York. That is one big freakin’ city. We headed up the Hudson River, watching the iconic spaces of NY to our starboard side. It was very cool to see Manhattan, Central Park, Harlem, etc. from the water. The Hudson River has much to offer-sights of both NY and NJ, beautiful natural areas, West Point academy and numerous towns. We docked at Half Moon Bay which is near the town of Croton-on-Hudson. I don’t know who named this town, but that is one crappy-ass name. Originally, it was called “Croton Landing” which was named after a 17th century Kitchawanc Native American chief. Then the U.S. Postal Service in 1891 made the “stupid” decision to change it to it’s current name. I don’t think I would want to live here purely because of the name. Ok, that might be too harsh, but damn that name does not roll off of the tongue.
The good news is that this town is near to where a dear friend of mine lives. Sarah Dahlgren has been a family friend for something like 55 years. She and her husband Anthony live in Norwalk, Connecticut which is only a 45 minute drive, so Sarah and her son Spencer were able to have dinner with us. These kinds of experiences are reason enough to do the loop.
Ok, quick note about the title to this blog post, once we got into Half Moon Bay and tied up, we started realizing that there was some serious wave action that was coming through the very lame wood wall they had up on the outside of the marina. It got to the point that we could barely move without having to hold on to something. Add to that it was a warm day and we were told that the lovely pool that was near the marina office was only for the “condo members”. Not cool.
So, it was my 62nd birthday on June 8 and Howie took me to an amazing restaurant to celebrate. My Mom sent me socks, money and a sign that reads, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass it’s about learning to dance in the rain.” I try to live by that mantra, though I may fall short sometimes.
This is actually a pretty calm time at the Croton-on-Hudson marina, but that breaker wall does not function well when the waves get going.
We rented a car while in Croton-on-Hudson and went to visit West Point Academy. Pretty spectacular place, especially the football stadium where Army takes on Navy.
We had a great afternoon hike at the Croton Gorge Park. Beautiful dam and park area down from the dam.
These rock walls were all along the Croton Gorge hike and I am not sure if they are from the Civil War time or if they were put in later.
The site above the Croton dam.