Hudson River Cruise

Thursday, October 9th, Albany to Troy and boarding of the American Liberty -- Bright sunny day.  

We have "arrived" and it is so good.  We are cruising on the Hudson River.  After breakfast in Albany, we rode to Troy using Lyft and arrived at 11 am.  We were welcomed on board the American Liberty immediately, our staterooms were available shortly thereafter, and lunch was offered after unpacking.  What's not to like?  The biggest decisions we have to make are what to do (excursions, etc.), which deck to sit on to watch the scenery slide by, and what to eat.  Avoiding overeating may be the more challenging decision - food and drinks of all kinds are available pretty much all of the time in the three public spaces.  There is "cookie time" twice a day, there are cocktails before dinner, with lots of snacks, there is coffee available all-day, and there are 3 meals a day.  So, here we go....

Today's cruise went from Troy to Catskill (starting at 2:30 and lasting until 7 pm).  I spent all of this time sitting on the upper deck watching the scenery (and enjoying some snacks).  Betsy was with me for most of this, though she attended the introductory lecture focussed on the Hudson River.  Some background facts she learned:

• The Hudson is a glacier-carved river that is mostly straight with steep sides in some places.  When the ice reached the resistant granite of what is now West Point, the river channel narrowed and twisted.
• The river is 315  miles in length; we are traveling about 1/2 of it.  It averages 0.75 miles wide, at its widest point it spans 3.5 miles (above the New Jersey border); it averages 45 feet deep, but can be as deep as 150 feet.
• The headwaters are in a pair of lakes just south of Mt. Marcy (NY highpoint) in the northeast Adirondacks.
• It is tidal as far as Troy, where it is blocked by a lock;  it is brackish up to West Point in certain seasons.
• The first European explorer was Verrazano, working for the French, who traveled from Cape Fear, NC as far as the Hudson River.  Henry Hudson came next, working for the Dutch East India Company and seeking  a pathway to China, traveled up as far as Albany.  Then he went up the Canadian coast and his crew off-loaded him, his son and his first mate, based on his prior record of losing two ship crews in frozen terrain.
• The Dutch, who settled along the river, took possession of 'Manahatta' from the Lenape Indians who used the island as a hunting ground/source of food.  The Indians constructed a diagonal path across the island which the Dutch exclaimed as a nice "broad" way.  The Dutch built a small fort at the southern end, marked by a "wall" as in Wall Street and 3 small guns, as in Battery Park.  The British took over the territory, being mission driven, and the Dutch were okay with this since they more interested in trading.
• The river was a key resource in the US Revolutionary War.  Both Benedict Arnold (American) and General Borgoyne (English) perceived the strategic significance of controlling the river.  Arnold got a massive chain installed across the river at West Point to keep British ships from coming upriver.  Borgoyne fought downriver from Canada to Fort Ticonderoga.  The British ships never met up, which gave the American side an advantage.

Here ends the first history lesson; there may be more as we cruise downriver.

Here are some photos I took as we boarded, and while I sat on the back deck.

The American Liberty and the gangplank.

The main gathering space - the Chesapeake Lounge.

Stateroom 205, port side.

Ditto.

Our stateroom bathroom.

Downtown Troy, NY (where Catherine went to college at Russell Sage).

A sister ship (the American Legend) that passed by us heading north.

The rear view of the large statue of the Nipper dog on top of a warehouse, in commemoration of RCA, the inspiration for the 17 small statues scattered around Albany (see previous post).

A swing railroad bridge that opened for us.

Closing.

The "turntable" for the swing bridge.

More bridges.

Tug and barge.

Tug, next to a gravel depot and maybe other stuff.  Lots of material haulers use the river for transport.  They off-load at Albany because the Troy lock prevents them from going further upriver.

The only wildlife sighting -- a bald eagle.

The Hudson-Athens Lighthouse -- taken from the internet.  This was the only landmark pointed out by the ship's captain before arriving at Catskill.

This is the photo of the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse as we saw it, wrapped in scaffolding.

We enjoyed dinner ('stuffed' shrimp) with wine and desserts before calling it a night.