Ralph, allow a month if you can, there's a lot to see up here. New York Harbor used to be my home waters before I moved north and I used to routinely run 15 miles up the Hackensack River at night to get home. It was never a problem, the city lights reflect off the sky and it never truely gets dark there. Up here on the canals, when it gets dark it is "black cat in a coal bin" time. You see nothing at all. It is not safe to run after dark up here, and I imagine that applies to most of the Hudson River too. There are a lot of good anchorages on the Hudson, my faves are Croton Point in the north end of Tappan Zee, and Duck Cove in the northern Hudson. Some very good towns to overnight in. My fave is Kingston and there is a very nice restaurant/bar "Mariner's Harbor Restaurant" within crawling distance of the town pier. Larry maintains a nice list of locations ... what's the link, Larry? Fred Tug 44 ---------------------------------------- From: "Ralph Yost" <ralph@alphacompservices.com> Sent: Monday, March 12, 2012 9:12 PM To: lrzeitlin@aol.com, great-loop@lists.trawlering.com Subject: Re: GL: Rideau Canal Hi Larry' We are thinking alike. We are not in any hurry to get to the Rideau. We do want to take the normal leisurely rate of travel to go up the Hudson. Our boat is a Defever 41 that travels at 7 kts. 8-10 hour days of travel seem to be enough for us now. I agree about New York Harbor. I went to college at Pratt Institute and used to watch the harbor at night. Having run lots of boats at night in my local Atlantic City area and up and down the coast, I always felt really confident and comfortable running at night. That is, until I observed the New York Harbor. Way too many background lights and opportunities for problems that are better off avoided. We do look forward to enjoying the Hudson. I have your guide and will be reading into it as we approach our departure from Atlantic City NJ in May. R.