To approach NY Harbor from the ocean, and round the Narrows to see Lady Liberty beckoning us, it was a highlight of my life. I kept thinking of how the immigrants must have felt when they saw her like that, with their hopes of a new life in this great country.
Can you see in the photos how calm the water was yesterday? It was glassy the entire way here, so lucky for us. And, the massive harbor was deserted except for the usual ferries and a few tugs. When we got up close to both the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge, I just put the boat in neutral to gaze and take pictures, with no worries about other boats in the vicinity.
We plan to cruise up the East River under all those bridges on Saturday, but since no one was around and it was so calm, I decided to just go ahead and see the first bridge, the 1883 marvel Brooklyn Bridge. We then went back in front of the Battery and cruised up the Hudson to our mooring at 79th St. As we passed all the tourists at Battery Park, it was a bit overwhelming to think that I was in my position versus when I have been there as a tourist looking out at the many boats doing what I was now doing. What a lucky stiff I am!
We enjoyed the scenery from the Hudson as we headed up here past historic docks, the Intrepid aircraft carrier, a big screened-in driving range out over the river, the high rises, the Empire State Building, the Palisades on the New Jersey side of the river, and the majesty of NYC! Bruce has never been here before, so he stayed on the back in his chair with the binoculars.
We tied up to our mooring at about 1 pm. After lunch we took the dinghy in to the dock, walked a few blocks up to Broadway, and took the subway to Times Square. It didn't take long for the Grey Line tour guy to find us and give us his sales talk, and boom!, we were on the tour bus the rest of the afternoon. I'd been to all the places before, but it was new to Bruce, who was overwhelmed with the numbers of people, the traffic, the entire scene.
The river was no longer placid when we returned to the boat after dinner. Big swells were rocking us all over, and we could tell it had been worse while we were gone because so many items had fallen over inside here. Sure enough, it was an approaching storm, which we have endured to the present moment. We're exposed in the mooring to the waves and wakes and rough water, since we're not inside the marina.
Since we were meeting with a friend of Bruce's for lunch, and it was raining off and on, we decided to do three loads of laundry at the marina to pass the morning. The complicated part was having to transport everything by dinghy, especially when it got to raining really hard and the dinghy filled with water (well, not filled, but you know what I mean). We kept having to bail out the water before we could transport the clean clothes in it, and had to make sure the clean dry clothes didn't get rained on. Ahhhh, my adventure! At this very moment, it's REALLY POURING and huge swells are flopping us up and down and side to side! My only dry pants left to wear are my PJs.
We should be able to resume touring around tomorrow, and I hope to ride my bike along the Hudson where there is a fabulous trail for many miles. I've watched hundreds of cyclists going by and I'm jealous.
On Sunday we sailed 50 miles from Atlantic City to Manasquan. It was our first day out on the open ocean! No sweat. Compared with the dicey shallow navigating in the intracoastal waterway, it was completely easy in the ocean using auto pilot. We simply paralleled the coast about 1.5 miles out. The only thing of interest was where we anchored and ate. We dropped TWO anchors at the end of a channel in front of a railroad bridge, just past a fishing boat fleet. The tides were so strong, I needed a stern anchor to prevent us from swinging the other direction and possibly into the bridge. So, I pulled out the new anchor from the storage compartment below the back deck, along with the chain and rope I've had for about 20 yrs, and put them in the dinghy. I then drifted back about 60 ft and dropped the anchor, and motored back letting out the chain and rope. We then tied to the stern cleat, and it worked like a charm. When the tide changed, it was like a strong river pushing against the stern and that anchor line was as tight as you could imagine, but it held us in place!
We dinghied into shore to visit a restaurant that was only 50 yds from the boat. Luckily for me, the bar had the Tour of California bike race on TV and I got to watch Mark Cavendish win the sprint yet again, in downtown Sacramento.
The next morning (yesterday) I used the dinghy to retrieve the stern anchor, and we were off by 7 am for our final 40 miles into NYC. Interestingly, from 30 miles away we could see a single tall building in the direction of NYC, and assumed it must be the Empire State Building. Sure enough, it was, but the closer you got, the more there were other tall buildings and it did not stand out that much at all. Only from a distance!
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