We arrived in NYC on Sunday afternoon, excited to finally be here. We had always wanted to moor our boat in the 79th Street Boat Basin, which is only 2 blocks from Broadway. After getting things settled, we launched the dinghy and went to the office to register and then go exploring. We talked to some locals about a good place to eat and headed for Broadway. This isn't right downtown, but it was still typical New York City - noisy and busy. We wandered around for a while and then went to a great little restaurant for an early dinner and back to the boat. What we didn't realize in our zest for being at the boat basin was that it is rough, very rough. The current is very fast in this section of the river and add to it the wind (if it's going against the current) plus the wake from freighters, tugs and other assortment of boats. Imagine yourself inside your washing machine and trying to get some sleep. That was kind of what it was like our first night. In fact, we slept in the main salon because the bow we figured it would be like riding a roller coaster and thought it would be more stable in the centre of the boat. It's a very good thing that Wayne and I are NOT prone to mal de mer or it would have been extremely unpleasant. I'm always a little anxious the first night on a mooring or in an anchorage until I get used to the feel of the boat, so I didn't get a lot of sleep on night one and consequently, neither did Wayne because every time I got up, I had to crawl over the top of him.

We awoke on Monday morning to pouring rain and fog so thick you couldn't see the George Washington Bridge or most of the NYC skyline. We had hoped to go exploring, but it was so miserable, we stayed on the boat and did a few little projects and read and napped when we could. It was still quite rough, but we really didn't think we should move from the mooring. Night two wasn't much better than night one, but at least we got more sleep because we were used to the feel of the boat on the mooring.

Tuesday was a better day and although still threatening rain, we got off the boat in the morning and headed out for some breakfast and then caught the subway into the downtown core. The breakfast joint we ate at was interesting. I'm sure they have health standards, but I don't figure that it would pass muster in Durham Region! Needless to say though the food was great and cheap.

We haven't been in NYC since 2000 and wanted to see what work had been done on the memorial at the former World Trade Centre site. They have very impressive plans, but unfortunately we couldn't see much for all the boarding around the site still. We did go to St. Paul's Chapel though. This church was built in the 1700's and it is so close to the WTC site it's amazing that it had no damage after the terrorist attacks. We stood in awe as we wondered how something that was built almost 300 years ago stood long after things that were built 50 years ago. Divine intervention or great engineering. Maybe a little of both. It was very moving to see the thousands of "crests" from police, fire and EMT units around the world on display, the posters and the things that were important to those volunteering.

We wandered around Wall Street (and wondered how our investments were doing) and then back on the subway to Times Square. The last time we were in Times Square was New Years Eve, 2000 (I think we must have been smoking something when we decided to do THAT!) and it is still as garish as it was then. Didn't take long to get our fill of that and we were back to the boat for what ended up being a very peaceful night on the mooring. The weather system was taking a break and the river was very calm over night. Our first good nights sleep since arriving.

Wednesday's weather forecast was for sunny, warm and little wind, so we thought it was a good time to leave the City and start heading a little further south because the long-range forecast was not good & we wanted better protection in a serious blow. Heading into this part of the Hudson and into the bay is like Toronto harbour on steroids. There were boats coming from every direction - tugs, freighters, barges, ferries, dining boats - you name it. At times I wished I was Sybil so that my head would turn right round in circles. We passed Ellis Island, where millions of immigrants landed throughout the years and the grand lady herself, the Statue of Liberty. We were called at one point by a tug and asked to alter our course and since he was pushing a barge that had a train on it, we decided it would be prudent to let him have the right of way (see the picture if you've never seen a train on the water). There were freighters and barges anchored everywhere. At one point I counted 19. I think we got some reasonably good shots of this section of the river which we've put in the photo gallery for you to peruse. We've been a little surprised at how little internet access we've had in NYC, so hence the sporadic postings to the blog. Hopefully it will be better the further south we go. We're having a great time and enjoying every minute of our adventure (even in we do have to sleep in something akin to a washing machine once in a while).