Support Whisper Polar Expedition Spitsbergen 2009.
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Support Whisper Polar Expedition Spitsbergen 2009. |
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Support Whisper Polar Expedition Spitsbergen 2009. |
With the current and against it - following the Hudson River into the City That Never Sleeps Ahead of us, there lies an exciting stretch of "whisperiad" - the  legendary
Hudson River with New York City lurking at its mouth, also known as The City.
After an impressive set of five locks in Waterford, popularly called "The Flight
of Five", the Hudson River doesn't show its tremendousness. In the vicinity of
Troy, it's merely a small scrawny river, overgrown
with wild thicket. Further down, it starts to flow wider and reminds us of our
Polish Narew River. We install the mast in one of the riverside yacht clubs and
from now on we continue our trip motor sailing.
The wider the Hudson River flows, the more ships we encounter
on our way. They seem to be regular vessels meant for the ocean moving up from
New York City. Meant for the ocean means huge blocks made of steel, next to
which Whisper is just an autumn leaf (yet green) lost in the river's whirlpools.
One of them appears to charge straight at us! Panicked, we steer close to the
right riverbank covered with rushes. Such vegetation could suggest shoals, yet
the tremendousness of the overall situation (the huge ship aiming downright at
us) took advantage of us...Whisper smoothly sinks in the muddy bottom without
our noticing it. The
Piotrek jumps into the water in order to look around. It
turns out that hard sandy bottom is covered by two-foot layer of sludge. No
matter how hard we try to move the boat (pushing, turning, heeling, motoring to
pull ourselves out of the shallows) fail in the face
of the ebb. That's right, the ebb. Almost throughout its whole length, the
Hudson River is affected by the ebb of several feet, and its current changes
direction twice every 24 hours. We decide to do what sailors used to do in such
situation - we wait for the tide. After an hour has passed, we observe with
great relief as the current stops to While we get closer to Westpoint, the river reveals to us its legendary beauty. We move swiftly along the feet of hovering postglacial hills, that evoke in our minds vivid memories of Norwegian fiords. We stay in Cold Spring overnight and still before dawn we pass by Westpoint - a fortress and military academy founded by our Polish fellow, Thaddeus Kosciuszko. The City awaits us... |
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