0900 hours

Starting Position: Docked at the Hudson River Maritime Museum, Kingston, NY.
Latitude: N 41˚ 55.1'
Longitude: W 073˚ 58.5'

Day One of our transit voyage from Kingston, New York to New London, Connecticut.

As our transit voyage begins, the Half Moon has spent the past three weeks docked at the Hudson River Maritime Museum, where the crew has been offering public tours and conducting a teacher training program with Ulster County BOCES.

1130 hours

The previous Tuesday marked the final day of tours. Since then, a small team of crew members have been hard at work packing up the ship's historical exhibits, loading supplies, and performing maintenance as needed.

But now it's time to set out for the Half Moon's next port of call: New London, Connecticut, where the first leg of the 2011 Fresh River Voyage of Discovery is due to begin.

Our volunteer crew has been arriving in waves over the course of the weekend. As the day begins, our three alums in residence—Alex, David, and Evi—have already spent a night on board and are kicking off the morning seeing to various last-minute tasks. Alex Whyte, for example, is currently assisting our bosun for the summer, Steven de Jong, with the task of repainting the wales (the black "bands" running the length of the ship).

Meanwhile, Evi Robinson and New Netherland Museum intern Sean Shoemaker are getting serious about a thorough cleaning. During our time on Rondout Creek, the Half Moon's upper masts have been home to a persistent flock of nesting birds, so we have an unusual amount of debris to clear away.

1330 hours

After a quick lunch, mate Bob Hansen, bosun Steven de Jong, cook Gary Masouredis, and sailor Keith Maurer can be found organizing the galley and loading the ship with a fresh water supply. Additional crew are busy above on the orlop deck, sweeping and securing the cannons.

1500 hours

Work continues on the exterior hull as the afternoon proceeds and additional sailors arrive in waves. Alex and Evi use a floating dock kindly lent to us by the Hudson River Maritime Museum to work their way around the ship, finishing the job of painting the wales. Meanwhile, Sean helps secure the raft while caulking a new plank being fitted to the railing.

The work is nearly done, and good thing too—our original plan was to leave the dock at 0500 hours tomorrow morning, but since the entire crew is due to arrive by the end of the afternoon, Captain Reynolds has rescheduled our departure to 2000 hours this evening.

1730 hours

We've set the sails to release any bird nests that may have built up over the past day or two. Evi is a bit startled by the magnitude of what comes floating down to the weather deck.

While we're underway to New London, we'll be testing our capacity to send live video back to shore. Our videographer Sean is the crew member in charge of that operation. Carolyn Niehaus has come down from the New Netherland Museum's office to aid in our departure, and together, they run through the video uplink system.

We don't plan to announce any live video events during this transit voyage, but stay tuned concerning the Fresh River Voyage of Discovery.

1830 hours

With all but a small handful of crew members now reporting for duty, Gary Masouredis serves dinner on the weather deck. Tonight it's beef, baked potatos, and salad.

1845 hours

Our departure time is imminent. Captain Reynolds convenes the crew for an introductory safety briefing.

1900 hours

During the briefing, the captain refreshes the crew on all of the required safety procdures we practice on board. We discuss everything from how to securely move between decks...

...to operation of the marine head and public hygiene. Everybody get those hands up!

Mouse over to scrub those digits!

We need to practice hand-washing. In Hudson's day, virtually no hygiene was practiced on board, so if a disease did come aboard, it could easily burn through the entire crew. Today, the simple practice of thorough scrubbing goes great lengths toward keeping those same communicable ailments at bay.

Lastly, we move on the specifics of our dock operations during departure. With the briefing over, the crew splits into teams to cover various tasks and moves into position.

1915 hours

Tony Ravinsky and Keith Maurer shift to the dock to transfer our protective fenders (such as the large brown one wedged between the ship and dock shown here) back to the ship.

Evi and Mary DeFazio move up to the fore deck to douse the fore course. The sail is now free of nesting birds, but we don't have far to go tonight and won't be needing the sails again. Once the sails are doused, the crew goes ahead and furls them (binding them tightly to protect them from weather and wear).

1930 hours

In the helm hutch, Carolyn instructs Sean on how to steer using the whipstaff.

1945 hours

To port, Steven, Evi, and Eduard van Breen put the finishing touches on the new plank caulking.

Our final crew member has arrived! Dawn Hopper's been out running errands inland for us today. With our full complement of 21 sailors on board, we can now depart. Time for the crew to climb aboard and for our shore supporters to return to dry land.

2000 hours

Bob Hansen and Alex man the Zodiac. As the ship's "tender boat," the Zodiac may be needed to aid to the Half Moon's navigation as we maneuver back out of Rondout Creek. And if not, we'll still need to haul the Zodiac up alongside the ship for transport.

All aboard! The Half Moon is leaving Kingston. A growing crowd has gathered on shore to watch our departure.

Glenn Humphrey is the first crew member to take the helm while Sean acts as communicator between Captain Reynolds and the dockline handlers at Line Four belowdecks.

2015 hours

Gene Tozzi's wife, Nancy Gill, helps Carolyn Niehaus cast off our lines on the dock.

And with that, we pull away from the Hudson River Maritime Museum.

Mouse over to give fire!

As we start down Rondout Creek, Peter Lemme fires a salute to our hosts from the stern chaser.

2030 hours

Work continues on deck. We won't be needing our docklines until we arrive in New London on the 24th, so we coil them up and store them on the orlop. Tony is working on Line Three here.

Farewell, Kingston! See you next time!

Our plan for the evening is to travel just a few miles downriver before setting anchor. By leaving Rondout Creek tonight rather than at 0500 hours tomorrow, we get a bit of a jump on our schedule.

It's time to haul in our fenders, so we send some "serious beefcake" out on the starboard channel to retrieve a particularly hefty specimen.

The Rondout Lighthouse marks the mouth of the creek. We are now entering the Hudson River and are officially on our way to Connecticut. Be sure to follow our course along the way, and if you intercept us, be sure to take photos!

2045 hours

As the sun sets, David Ellis, Mary, Steven, and Evi turn their attention to finalizing the duty roster, which determes who needs to report to what positions at what times. David and Evi will soon take charge of that task, as well as changing the watch rotation each day to provide variety.

Mouse over and mind your feet!

2230 hours

We've traveled just a few miles downriver, and are near the Esopus Lighthouse when we set anchor. While this voyage's primary purpose is, of course, to deliver the Half Moon to New London, it's also an opportunity to train new crew members (and experienced crew members in new positions). Tonight, Eduard and Peter get their first crack at tending the anchor rode as it pays out through the hawsehole. The first 50 feet runs out in a flash!

Ending Position: Anchored off Esopus, NY.
Latitude: N 41˚ 47.5'
Longitude: W 073˚ 56.5'

With the anchor set, the crew convenes back on the weather deck for our first anchor watch briefing. Our first night on the water passes quietly under fair, cool skies.

Next Time: Harbor-Bound!