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rebeccmeisterOriginally, this weekend would have been Yet Another Long Bike Ride, but since I decided to stop doing that, instead I had time to go boating! Yippee!
Small boat sail-camping is called "dinghy cruising," but I think if I'm rowing and not sailing to and from my destination, it's more like RowCamping for me. Plus, it would be really tricky to create some sort of boom tent setup aboard Petrichor to be a more proper dinghy cruiser.
In any case, I really wanted to do a RowCamping trial sometime this summer: see how far I could go in Petrichor, see what it's like to try and stow camping gear aboard, et cetera. I even managed to talkscrottie into joining me for the first leg, at least*.
We managed to get ourselves down to the boathouse in a fairly timely fashion, departing a bit after 9 am. The only real issue was a very strong northerly headwind - unusual for our stretch of the Hudson. Thanks to the extra rowing practice this past Monday, S and I were able to do a lot of tandem rowing as we worked our way north towards Troy. That was necessary; if just one of us was rowing, the boat could barely make forward progress.
You can see some evidence of our desperation to get out of the wind in this map of our journey:
We tried crossing over to the opposite shore several times, to see if that side was more sheltered. The first time, we found some shelter and relief, but once we rounded the corner after the Menands Bridge, relief was hard to come by as the wind ripped right down along the river channel.
We were pleased to find that Petrichor dealt well with the swells and whitecaps. There was less than a centimeter of water in the bilge by the time we arrived at the public dock in Troy.
I also learned a few lessons about trying to use a pee funnel while aboard a rowing vessel. Let's just say these lessons ultimately resulted in S deciding to purchase a pee bucket from the hardware store in Troy (with any luck, he will also use the bucket on an upcoming actual dinghy cruise).
Upon reaching Troy, we were thrilled to discovered that a beloved vegan burrito shop, Burrito Burrito, has reopened! It's now attached to/associated with a neighboring bar and music venue, in a quite lovely spot with quite lovely eclectic decor.
It looks to me like the kitchen in the new space is more minuscule than in the prior location, but it's just so good to have a vegan burrito option again even if they can't deep-fry entire cauliflower heads anymore.
The farmer's market was pretty bustling. No 30-pound bags of carrots, but at least one place had decent bundles of rhubarb, and another stall had grapevines for sale.
That's the greenery tucked in behind me while I'm sitting in the bow, a grapevine:
Later on I made S trade seats with me as an experiment.
In the bow seat he could row away without triggering as much commentary from me about various aspects of rowing technique. Probably for the best!
Based on the ferocity of the wind, and the fact the forecast indicated it would continue until at least 5 pm, I decided I'd had enough of fighting the conditions and would just aim for home after Troy, instead of trying to fight further north up through the lock and towards Peebles Island.
Besides, that meant we could actually enjoy the wind as it pushed us back to Albany. We hardly even had to do any rowing at all!
Here's the boat back at home, with all the stowed gear:
All told, I learned a lot from the trip. Stowing the gear wasn't that complicated by itself, but I do think I should get a couple more proper drybags for everything, since it does seem I can basically guarantee there will always be some water in the bottom of the boat. Stowing the kayak dolly on the stern deck wasn't too bad, either. When we brought the boat back up to the yard, however, we did learn that the kayak dolly needs to be minded, or it can wind up slipping out from under the boat (or in this instance, getting flipped upside-down).
I do still think I need to get a good folding cane seat for a passenger, too.
I think now I'll generally be satisfied with just daytrips in Petrichor for the rest of this year. I already have plenty of camping experience, so I'm now feeling fairly well-prepared for the RowCamping adventure I have planned for next summer.
*He has a lot of work tasks and homework to attend to, so was prudent enough to only commit to a day trip.
Small boat sail-camping is called "dinghy cruising," but I think if I'm rowing and not sailing to and from my destination, it's more like RowCamping for me. Plus, it would be really tricky to create some sort of boom tent setup aboard Petrichor to be a more proper dinghy cruiser.
In any case, I really wanted to do a RowCamping trial sometime this summer: see how far I could go in Petrichor, see what it's like to try and stow camping gear aboard, et cetera. I even managed to talk
scrottie into joining me for the first leg, at least*.We managed to get ourselves down to the boathouse in a fairly timely fashion, departing a bit after 9 am. The only real issue was a very strong northerly headwind - unusual for our stretch of the Hudson. Thanks to the extra rowing practice this past Monday, S and I were able to do a lot of tandem rowing as we worked our way north towards Troy. That was necessary; if just one of us was rowing, the boat could barely make forward progress.
You can see some evidence of our desperation to get out of the wind in this map of our journey:
We tried crossing over to the opposite shore several times, to see if that side was more sheltered. The first time, we found some shelter and relief, but once we rounded the corner after the Menands Bridge, relief was hard to come by as the wind ripped right down along the river channel.
We were pleased to find that Petrichor dealt well with the swells and whitecaps. There was less than a centimeter of water in the bilge by the time we arrived at the public dock in Troy.
I also learned a few lessons about trying to use a pee funnel while aboard a rowing vessel. Let's just say these lessons ultimately resulted in S deciding to purchase a pee bucket from the hardware store in Troy (with any luck, he will also use the bucket on an upcoming actual dinghy cruise).
Upon reaching Troy, we were thrilled to discovered that a beloved vegan burrito shop, Burrito Burrito, has reopened! It's now attached to/associated with a neighboring bar and music venue, in a quite lovely spot with quite lovely eclectic decor.
It looks to me like the kitchen in the new space is more minuscule than in the prior location, but it's just so good to have a vegan burrito option again even if they can't deep-fry entire cauliflower heads anymore.
The farmer's market was pretty bustling. No 30-pound bags of carrots, but at least one place had decent bundles of rhubarb, and another stall had grapevines for sale.
That's the greenery tucked in behind me while I'm sitting in the bow, a grapevine:
Later on I made S trade seats with me as an experiment.
In the bow seat he could row away without triggering as much commentary from me about various aspects of rowing technique. Probably for the best!
Based on the ferocity of the wind, and the fact the forecast indicated it would continue until at least 5 pm, I decided I'd had enough of fighting the conditions and would just aim for home after Troy, instead of trying to fight further north up through the lock and towards Peebles Island.
Besides, that meant we could actually enjoy the wind as it pushed us back to Albany. We hardly even had to do any rowing at all!
Here's the boat back at home, with all the stowed gear:
All told, I learned a lot from the trip. Stowing the gear wasn't that complicated by itself, but I do think I should get a couple more proper drybags for everything, since it does seem I can basically guarantee there will always be some water in the bottom of the boat. Stowing the kayak dolly on the stern deck wasn't too bad, either. When we brought the boat back up to the yard, however, we did learn that the kayak dolly needs to be minded, or it can wind up slipping out from under the boat (or in this instance, getting flipped upside-down).
I do still think I need to get a good folding cane seat for a passenger, too.
I think now I'll generally be satisfied with just daytrips in Petrichor for the rest of this year. I already have plenty of camping experience, so I'm now feeling fairly well-prepared for the RowCamping adventure I have planned for next summer.
*He has a lot of work tasks and homework to attend to, so was prudent enough to only commit to a day trip.
no subject
Date: 2026-06-01 01:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-06-01 04:45 am (UTC)So glad that Petrichor is working out for you.
no subject
Date: 2026-06-01 09:05 am (UTC)It's that much easier long distance walking- find tree and squat!
no subject
Date: 2026-06-01 11:13 am (UTC)Is that the boat you built?