Home on the Waves: Hudson Sailboat Living

Long before there were houses, long before the trees that made the houses, long before the roads and highways, long before a country called America, there was this river. Our river. Flowing from Lake Tear of the Clouds in the Adirondacks 315 miles southward to the Atlantic, flooding tidal marshes and mudflats and carving basalt palisades as it widens. The Hudson, quite simply, is lifeblood to this valley. The river and intricate net of waterways that feed it, are habitat not just for humans, but for sturgeon, cormorants, ospreys, otters, bald eagles, and all the other myriad wildlife that harmonize, cacophonize, and make this ecosystem home.

It is also the current address of Emily Cichon. A sailor and shipwright, Cichon lives aboard the Sea Lion, her 31-foot sailboat, anchored, most nights, on the Rondout Creek in Kingston. Her passion for sailing brought her to the Hudson Valley, and now is giving her the opportunity to learn about the river—its terrain and its traditions—intimately.