Anchoring Chaos and Chelsea Yacht Club

Saugerties to Chelsea Yacht Club – 35 nautical miles

We awoke in a calm and picture-perfect village anchorage but the moment of peace was soon shattered when the anchor alarm on Ana’s phone started screeching. I looked out to see that some unusually strong wind gusts had somehow dislodged our aft anchor and we had almost completely turned around and were heading for the shallows. The only thing keeping us from grounding was the NO WAKE buoy, which was lodged somewhere beneath our boat.

 

I dropped the dinghy, revved it up, and rammed it into the side of our boat to push them back into place. Poor Ben had been out for a morning row and had to shift into Olympic gear as he saw the boats swinging around and us out there losing our minds. I managed to push the boats out enough so the buoy popped back up, then had Ana start the engine to try and to hold the boats steady while I hauled up the anchor and tried to reposition it while also doing the Superman pull with the attached anchor line to help pull the boats in place, which was difficult with all the wind. I got the anchor partially repositioned and the boats out of danger zone, then we decided to just leave the anchorage as it was already 8:30 and it was a little embarrassing having to see all the gape-mouthed fishermen on the banks pointing and laughing at the circus in front of them.

 

The initial plan today was to sail to the next major town of Kingston, but after arriving and anchoring, we didn’t much like the exposed anchorage and heavy winds so we decided to keep on going and find somewhere to stay further down the river. The tide had just turned which would give us a 1 -2 knot boost, plus the strong northerly winds were good for sailing and we could make some miles. So we sailed. The river here was much busier – freighters, barges, tugs, bass boats, trawlers, and many sailboats packed the river, some going south like us, others headed north. By 2:30 we were still looking over the charts and guidebooks, trying to find a decent anchorage for the night when we saw something strange in the distance. As we approached, we realized it was a field of mostly unoccupied mooring balls, in front of the Chelsea Yacht Club. At that moment Ana received a text from Kate and Ben, who were several miles behind us, telling us to watch for this place as the mooring was free to travelers. Ana called the club and they reluctantly assigned us a mooring ball – reluctantly because they normally accepted up to 36 foot boats and our fattie was 7 feet too long, so they were worried the concrete mooring would drag. Sure enough, after tying up, the club marshal came by and told us we were too big and staying here would be at our own risk. We took the risk, but sat in the cockpit for the next hour or two to make sure we were staying in place despite the high winds and currents.

 

Kate and Ben arrived and not too long after that Jeff also arrived, after sailing a very, very long day so we gave him a hand getting tied up then invited him over for dinner. But he ended up not being able to make it, so we had a quiet dinner of butter chicken, dal, rice, and warmed up, through slightly stale naan bread, then relaxed for the rest of the evening.