Preparing to Demast

Yesterday we motored from the quaint Poughkeepsie Yacht Club to Hop-O-Nose Marina in Catskill. Hop-O-Nose comes highly recommended as a place to drop the masts, which we will need to do to transit the Erie Canal.
Arriving around 4:30, we were quickly greeted by the very friendly and casual Sean, who showed us to the wood they had available to make the stands on which our masts will rest for the next 225 miles.
Greg quickly found appropriate lengths and we carried them back to the dock. As Greg got to work preparing the boat, the girls and I walked the 2 kilometers to grocery shop.

Funny story here: we called for a cab back with our purchases, and I was a bit surprised to see an old police cruiser pull up as our taxi. Dark windows, spotlights, the whole bit. The driver said she had one more customer to pick up and then would get us on our way. We go to the local dollar store and collect a pretty rough looking twenty-something girl who sits in the front seat. Now we drive back to the marina and Greg is walking toward the road looking to see if we are maybe walking back and he can help us. I say "oh look, there's Greg' of course, he can't see us in the back through the tinted windows, only the girl in the passenger seat. The taxi driver slows, rolls down her window and says 'you looking for your wife?' Greg pauses at the sight of the unmarked patrol car and cautiously says 'yes'. The taxi driver, fully aware of the comedy in the situation unfolding keeps a straight face and bluntly says 'she's in the back of my car.'. Greg has no response, just an unbelieving gaze. My eventual laughter from the back eases his concern only slightly, before I ease his concern by calling out 'it's ok, it's just a taxi.' Everybody involved had a good chuckle about the situation as we unloaded our groceries and continued with our day.

Back at the boat, Greg had been busy at work. Sails and booms off, stays undone, stands constructed. We had pulled in only 3 hours before, and by dusk, Cee Jem now is looking like this:

It's now 7:50, Jessica is out helping Greg move the stands onto the boat. Sean should be here around 8, and we'll be ready to take the mast down.
Once the mast is down, and secured on the stands with lots of rope, we'll be on our way northbound again. There is still a bit of tidal influence here, almost 90 miles from the mouth of the Hudson, but it is becoming diminished. Counter to that, the river current is weakening, as there is a Federal Lock 40 miles north of here.
What that means for us is that our days of checking tide and current tables to see how they will affect our day are pretty much over.