The friendly people at Chelsea Yacht Club

August 23, up at 06:00, on the river by 06:20…our speed started out at 7.0knts…to get an idea of the currents we are dealing with….the throttle wasn't adjusted and at each time interval listed below was our Speed Over Ground (SOG) as calculated by the GPS system (so very accurate). This is different than the boat speed through the water that is determined by a little wheel that spins on the hull below the water.

Time   SOG

07:00 6.8knts

07:30 6.7knts

08:00 6.5knts

08:15 6.2knts

08:30 5.8knts

08:45 5.4knts

09:00 5.0knts

09:15 4.7knts

09:30 4.3knts

09:45 4.2knts

10:00 4.0knts

We made good distance in the first 3 hours. We had planned and made arrangements to stop in Poughkeepsie, NY tied to a dock ($2/foot for the night), then cancelled that reservation as we were making good time; then arranged for Marlboro Yacht Club on a mooring ball (a floating ball that is connected to a cement block so we don’t have to drop our own anchor), then cancelled that to go further down river to Chelsea Yacht Club where we were allowed to anchor north or south of the their mooring field (CYC has about 75 boats on mooring balls). We anchored in 25ft of water by 14:30 and we both had a nap. We were told members at Chelsea YC are very friendly and they proved that…a taxi boat from the club came to welcome us to use their facilities, people from land waived us to come ashore. Just after we ate our dinner we had decided to hail the water taxi on VHF Channel 68 to go ashore, but the water taxi showed up with hailing them to pick us up...they love visitors!

We (Andrew, Dennis, Arlene, Terry, John, Kathy, Greg and Beth) sat around a fire, had some good laughs and got to know each other over the next couple hours before the water taxi would make its last run for the night. They made us honorary lifetime members of North Point Nitwits; their swearing in: Being of good standing and questionable Mental Health, you are here by granted membership in the Elite group of people know by all as the “North Point NITWITS”. You are entitled to all rights and privileges granted to our exclusive members. You are required to attend at least one meeting per year, and don’t forget to bring the BEER!