0700 hours

Starting Position: Anchored off Hook Mountain at Haverstraw Bay, NY.
Latitude: 41˚ 07.0' N
Longitude: 073˚ 54.3' W

Day Seven of the first leg of our 2009 Fall Voyage of Discovery.

We'll post the full log later, but until then here's a preview of our day.

Today was the final full day of the first leg of the voyage. By tomorrow night, our American students and their teachers will be back in their homes.

Our initial plan for the day was to remain at anchor until roughly midday, but we instead weighed first thing in the morning to take advantage of a light, southerly breeze, using it to enjoy a few more hours of leisurely sailing.

While the ship was underway this morning, the students' main focus was on preparing graphs for the mechanical advantage presentations they would be making by day's end.

In the afternoon, after their prep work was done, the students took their last opportunity to engage in personal favorite activities, such as climbing aloft.

We reached our destination, King Marine in Verplanck, NY, at 1400 hours. The students spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and helping the senior crew refill the ship's water supply. In the evening, after dinner, the entire crew came together on the orlop deck to hear the students' presentations. Port Watch went first, followed by Starboard Watch.

Although both watches studied the same data, they used different methods to reach independent conclusions. These presentations led to a long discussion of human error and the conditions of the experiment.

Finally, the students used their final hour before lights out to entertain themselves, playing games on the anchor rode.

Robert Juet's Journal

After spending the night anchored in the bay between the modern cities of Beacon and Newburgh, the Halve Maen sails up what the Dutch traders of New Netherland would dub the Lange Rack, or Long Reach, a stretch of river we will pass through in a few days' time. Before the ship weighs anchor, the two Lenape captives seized in Raritan Bay six days ago escape through a gun port and swim to freedom; to say that their taunts back to the ship were delivered "in scorn" is probably something of an understatement. Juet's estimation of twenty leagues' travel (roughly sixty miles) is not necessarily trustworthy, but his reference to "other Mountains" indicates that the ship at least comes within sight of the Catskills, likely placing the ship's evening position somewhere between the modern towns of Saugerties and Catskill. It is here that the Halve Maen's crew first encounters the Mohicans, with whom they seem to take an immediate liking.

On September 15th, 1609:

The fifteenth, in the morning was misty vntill the the Sunne arose: then it cleered. So wee weighed with the wind at South, and ran vp into the Riuer twentie leagues, passing by high Mountaines. Wee had a very good depth, as sixe, seuen, eight, nine, ten, twelue, and thirteen fathoms, and a great store of Salmons in the Riuer. This morning our two Sauages got out of a port and swam away. After we were vnder sayle, they called to vs in scorne. At night we came to other Mountaines, which lie from the Riuers side. There wee found very louing people, and very old men: where wee were well vsed. Our Boat went to fish, and caught great store of very good fish.

-- Robert Juet's Journal.