Well I have found that in order to do this blog I need to have a wifi connection and while marinas all say they have good wifi coverage the reality is not. Most of the time you have to hang out in the laundry room or sit on a curb outside the  office. Anyway it is hard to keep up on a daily basis so here is a synopsis of whats happened so far.
   On the trip down from Fort Ti it rained almost the whole way. We stopped at the Fort Edward yacht basin and the Purdy's came over and brought us home for dinner.
   We left Monday morning at 7:30 and made good time. The current was strong from all the rain and it boosted us along. We made Troy around 5:00 and tied up to the town dock. We walked around Troy and memory lane as this is where we met many years ago.
   Some canal notes. I have found that the auto pilot is not precise enough to steer the narrow channels and so we ended up hand steering for the most part. There was very little traffic to start but we ended up  having to wait for the last 3 locks.  Took on 8.6 gallons of diesel at Troy.
   We left Troy at 8:30 and rode a favorable current all the way until Athens/Hudson where we slowed considerably. There were storms threatening but we arrived at Catskill Creek at 3:30 and tied up under the mast crane. Here we met Skip Taylor and another 2 couples who were on their trawlers for a year voyage. They had done the Great Loop and were headed to Lake Champlain to finish up. This is a very nice place and they were very competent in getting the mast back up. We spent an extra day here turning her back into a sailboat. It also rained all day so it was a good lay day.
  We left Catskill at 7:15 with a favorable tide. We were doing close to 6 knots over the ground. The wind piped up NW so I rolled out some jenny and we really took off. We hit 8 knots at times. We were going so well when we hit Pookipsie that we kept going and we flew right past Newburgh also. The wind was now in the 20-25 knot range. Once we turned the corner into Storm King Mountain I expected the seas to calm. Unfortunately the wind was straight down the reach and the waves were 4 feet or more. We finally rounded the corner at West point and the seas calmed. We tied up to the wall at Garrison yacht club. It was a little exposed but we managed all right. There are no services here other than a bathroom. We did 53 nm in 10 hours!!! For a small out of the way place it was incredibly busy all night. Between the tugs and barges and the ubiquitous trains  it never really calmed down.
   We left at 6:30 again with a favorable tide and we ran great. Again I ran out some jenny and we took off. We made the GW bridge by 1:00 and then the tide turned. It wasn't so bad as the flood current is small this time of month. The Hudson in this section of NY is a caldron of wakes and water taxis. I left the sail up because it helped to settle the boat. We got to Liberty Landing Marina around 3:30. We had a bit of trouble getting into the slip  but everybody was patient with us and we finally got settled down. This is an amazingly posh ( read expensive) place but this weekend the Whitbread 60's from the Clipper around the world race were arriving. There were 10 or 12 of the massive boats with all their crew. They had everything strung out to dry. Heading out to the sound tomorrow so here's hoping I have Hells Gate figured out. 43 nm in 8 hours.