New York City

The trip from Manasquan to NYC was great. We ran outside in the Atlantic Ocean, and she was calm enough to skip rocks on, if we had any. As we made the turn to northwest around Sandy Hook, NJ, there was the skyline of the Big Apple.

There are several ship channels leading into NYC, and there were numerous ships making their way. Our job was to stay out of their way, as they travel fast you know. It’s amazing to think that a ship that is two city blocks long can travel about twice as fast we can in our small 44 footer, but they do. It’s sort of like watching a huge airplane in the sky. They look as if they are going so slow they will fall out of the sky, when actually they are going a couple of hundred miles an hour. In any event, they go faster than we do so we have to stay out of their way.

As with any major metropolitan area, there are many interesting sights to see. On our left was Staten Island, and on our right was Long Island, and then Brooklyn. A little further north of Brooklyn is Manhattan.

We passed under the Verazzano Narrows Bridge, and there we were in New York Harbor!!

One of the highlights for us was seeing the Statue of Liberty. We could see her for miles before we reached her, and she is beautiful. One of our goals on this trip was to anchor behind Lady Liberty, and we accomplished that, at least for a while.

Why just for a while you ask? Well, let me tell you about the ferry boats, tour boats, ships, tugs, barges, and other assorted water craft that ply the waters of New York Harbor near the Statue. The ferry and tour boats are the worst, in that they go from point A to point B as fast as they can, creating a wake that will rock your socks off. Now, with us anchored by the statue of Liberty, we were a direct target for the huge wakes launched by these boats, which rocked us like crazy. So, we decided to take up the anchor and move around the corner and anchor just off Liberty State Park. We could still see Lady Liberty from our new anchorage, we just were no longer right next to her. Oh well…

We stayed in New York for two nights, anchored next to Liberty State park. Several other boats were there with us, to include BUBBLES, new friends we met in Cape May. BUBBLES is a Nordic Tug 37, and is a very nice boat. Her crew consists of Roger, Dixie, and Skipper, a Portuguese Water dog.

We did not get off the boat and go into the City, much to the disappointment of Miss Patricia, who fell in love with NYC back in 1992 when we visited Manhattan for a week. Mike, on the other hand, had no desire to go into the city, where he would be on the alert for muggers, and other assorted thugs, not to mention figuring how to get around the city to see the sights without breaking the bank. We departed The Big Apple on 14 June, heading north up the Hudson River. Stay tuned