The wind had come up in the half hour we had been up, so we knew we would have some current and wind to deal with going out the channel into deeper water. There is only one really skinny part to the channel, and we were in just on 4ft getting through there. Once out into the bay, we set a course pretty similar to Brian and Linda, though after a short while and some further analysis of the situation, we decided to go further into shore, than they had. It became evident that it was an easy passage, when we watched various fast ferries doing the same thing, so there must have been plenty of water there! Doing this cut off considerable travel time and mileage. Good for the consumption of fuel!:)
On our way out of the Great Kills Harbor, a lovely little horseshoe of a bay...not as protected as we thought it might be!
There isn't a lot of room at the point, but you cannot see the green on the starb'd side, here.
This is at the shallowest and narrowest point, we had to pass. This is a wide angle shot, so you can see there isn't a lot of room for us to pass.
I should probably point out at this stage, that it was Waz who was running around like a blue assed fly, taking photos all over the place, this day. I Captained the boat all the way up the Hudson to the Washington Bridge...a looooong way! Good for me to do it, and I felt confident taking the helm:)
There she is! Lady Liberty!:) and those tows are all parked, within the designated Anchorage area.
The tallest building is the new and as yet uninhabited One World Trade Center. It rises directly above the Memorial Site for 9/11
It took us approx. 1.1/2 hrs to get to this point on the chart...north of the Narrows and well into the thick of ship traffic. There was a lot of 'parked' traffic, as I sai. It was a matter of working our way around them as necessary.
These Staten Island Ferries are huge and go very fast. We kept well way from their channel, though we did eventually have to cross it to go up the Hudson River.
It wasn't the most pleasant kind of water to be making our way through the channels, and the wind was fierce. Part of the problem with the water, was all the wakes from the various boats, also.
Manhattan Island up ahead.
taDA!..yes those are people , the ones that look like ants!
Our green triangle is the one with the black dotted tail, right next to the red circle! You can see all the boats criss-crossing around us! The route to the right is the East River, which is narrow and has many bridges. We didn't go that way, because we are going through the Eerie Canal, and that means we have to go up the Hudson River.
This is Battery Park, with the Ferry Terminal on the right (white). It is where we caught the SOL Ferry. The park is still undergoing reconstruction because Hurricane Sandy wiped it out completely! It was under about 9 feet of water, we were told.
Please don't ask me what the buildings are, I just don't remember, and I was concentrating on getting around the many other boats on the water. As I said, Waz took the pics that day:)
The left bank of the Hudson is Newark New Jersey. It looks directly across the water to Manhattan Island. On the other side of Manhattan is Brooklyn, across the bridges and the East River. Make sense?
The Empire State Building, center.
The red line in the middle of the screen is the Tunnel under the Hudson, which we are almost on top of. You can see the East River going to the right.
Other tourists!:)
Captain Mon:)
We were amazed at this family on their little yacht....the kids were running all over the place in the very choppy water with wakes crossing all over the place.
Empire State Building.
Love this building!
Brick buildings everywhere...I believe these are all apartment buildings.
...and as we went further north, the landscape changed...
That is the entry to the Harlem River.
Lots and lots of gorgeous spires rise from the trees. The further north we go, the more foliage, less houses and at the same time, lots of industry as well.
This sightseeing yacht was on a collision course with us....here it is behind us, but I had to put a sprint on to get past him....the onus is on motor vessels to give way to those under sail! I could have throttled back, but it made more sense at the time to speed up! We were well clear by the time he crossed our wake.
This looks to be a fairly recent slip. These cliffs are probably a couple of hundred feet tall.
Buildings appear out of the foliage, and disappear again soon after...swallowed by the trees.
The Tappan Zee bridge is undergoing some remedial work, and we had to slow wake through here...which was challenging, given the wind and tide conditions...we need speed in order to control the boat! It is dangerous for the men working at water level and above, when there is a wake as well!
Love the curve at the end of the Tappan Zee bridge.
The marina is in a pretty bay, though still fairly exposed to North and north easterly winds, which we were fighting. It blew us sideways into the marina.
Our contact there, Steve, talked Waz into the dock, while I manned the ropes and fenders. We ended up on a T-dock in about 3. 1/2 of water! Duh! We are not too happy with this Manager/dockmaster. He talked a lot and didn't listen, and though he said he had been 'doing this' for 21 years, he must have been in diapers back then! He certainly didn't know how to dock a boat our size...or our friends, who had pulled in 15 mins ahead of us...he let them hit the poles and the swim platform! they are NOT happy!
When Waz had made initial enquiries about staying there, he kept getting e-mails from this character, but the man never answered our questions. Even when we were talking to him on the radio and phone, he didn't answer the questions. I think we disliked him even before we arrived, lol.
The Marina is pretty and the condos are attractive.
Here we are parked at the T-dock. The wooden wave =break/screen didn't work very well. They would have been better to have put a rock wall there as a breakwater. We were literally blown onto the dock. Too bad the guys weren't ready for us!
We took this photo from the road above the condos that look out onto the Hudson. We had gone for a walk into the town...well, actually, we went in search of Ice-cream! hmmmm....
I went so far as to have an ice-cream sundae...something I havnt had for years! Don't think I will have another, either...too much sweet stuff. It was so hot and we were exhausted and in desperate need of water. We sat inside the shop in the air conditioning, which initially didn't feel that cool...I guess we were suffering a little heat exhaustion!
Then, we had to turn around and walk all the way back. Easier downhill!
We sat with Linda and Brian on their boat for a while and enjoyed cool drinks, and discussed our trips up the River and with another Looper, Maurice. We all adjourned for the night and went to make food.
As we went outside around 11 pm to have our shower off the back deck, Steve, the manager was out walking the docks!!! huh? WHY?? Everyone was in bed!
Our next day was going to start early, so we needed to go to bed!
Thursday!
We were woken at around 4.15am this morning by a downpour...Waz and I had omitted to put the tarp over the upstairs furnishings! so we hustled with that...Waz went back to bed, and I got up! We were going to get up at 5am anyway. We knew to expect rain for our day in New York, and it wasn't displeasing.
We put the tea on and checked our mail online while we drank. We thought we would find some NY kind of food for breakfast, but took bags of nuts, a croissant and some mandarins with us just in case we got hungry on our Tour. Two backpacks with 2 bottles of water each, and the snacks..and raincoats and an umbrella, just in case.
We had booked a taxi for 6.10am to meet us up the hill at the flagpole, in the marina. 6.10 came and no taxi. Waz called, and he soon appeared...but we still had to have time to buy our train tickets for the 6.32am train. We arrived with five mins. to spare! The tickets we $50 for two Express tix, return, peak travel time....of course!
This was turning into an expensive stop, but we knew that it would be. Going back to our arrival the day before....
The marina charged us $2.25 per foot, per day..after I haggled with Steve. He wanted to charge us $2.75 per foot, per day, but there was no laundry, we couldn't use the pool (Condo only) and there was no credit card machine available for me to pay. That meant I lost valuable airline points!! I need them to get back to NZ on free miles!United!!:)
THEN as soon as I had written out the cheque, he said he had forgotten to charge me for Electricity!! wow! I haggled with that one too, as we don't use air con, and we weren't going to be there all day. We settled on $10 for the two days! I don't know how he gets to be so arbitrary with all the numbers? and we still didn't feel that we got value for money. The excuse was..."This is NY!! and we are one of the cheapest!!" To my way of thinking, I don't care where you are...you cant charge like a wounded bull if you don't have the amenities! Simple, really.
Back to regular programming...
We were separated on the train...People don't sit with others....then they have to sit with strangers anyway, as the train fills up...hmmm...
It was express, which meant that from our stop to Yonkers, it was straight through. We arrived with enough time to find ourselves a Latte and Flax seed/Blueberry Muffin (me) and cheese and ham Croissant (Waz) at one of the counters at Grand Central Station.
I am going to leave this here, as it is time to shut my eyes....and I will tell you all about NYC tomorrow.! Night Night.
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