It's New York Honey
28 August 2013
After months of cruising in rural and small town settings, New York was a bit of a shock.... On Monday the 26th we headed over to LaGuardia to pick up Cara who was returning to the cruise after a two- week trip to the UK with her Pathfinder group. Apart from a mis-directed cabbie all went well and we were back to the boat for lunch.
We departed around 2pm in order to make Hell's Gate at slack water, this is important as the tidal current in the East River can hit 6 knots and kick up very turbulent waves. Our timing was perfect and we had an incredible site-seeing cruise down the river past the Upper East Side, Manhattan, the UN, the Battery, Statue if Liberty and on up the Hudson to the West 79th Street Boat Basin.
We lucked out and got a transient mooring ball that was the closest to the marina. The current at flood was 3-4 knots and the wake from passing ferries, commercial shipping and pleasure boats have earned this place the nickname Armageddon on the Hudson. The marina was also badly damaged by Hurricane Sandy last fall and hasn't completely recovered. The location is wonderful, the staff are terrific, it's in the middle of dog-friendly Riverside Park and a mooring is only $30 a night. We stayed 3 nights.
The first night I headed up to Broadway to replenish our beer supply and get some munches for happy hour and we had a good dinner aboard. The night was pretty bouncy but it did settle down enough to sleep. I wouldn't wantbto be tied to a slip in the marina, though, as those boats really get slammed....
Next day after a good breakie, we headed into New York. Spent the morning wandering around Central Park and then Heather and Cara went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and I met a colleague for a great, long lunch at the Boat Basin Café right at the marina. Freshly reprovisioned, we had a good dinner aboard and settled in, night two was remarkably calm.
Wednesday we got up early, had breakfast and then grabbed the subway to Times Square where Cara and Heather lined up for rush tickets to a show. I ran some errands and walked around...... Tickets for an afternoon performance of Newsies in hand, we window-shopped and had dinner at a Chinese buffet (Cara's preference). While the girls were at the show, I went to a chandlery, walked around a bit, tried to watch Obama's speech celebrating the 59th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s I Have A Dream speech on the big screen at Times Square.... Ultimately the crowds and the insane commercialism along with the latent aggression all around me got the better of me and I found a good brew-pub (the Heartland) and then I went to a great supermarket, did major reprovision, hailed a cab and retreated back to the boat. On returning from the show we had happy hour including oysters on the half shell and a good BBQ dinner followed by the quietest night yet.
Thursday morning dawned warm and sunny, after breakfast Cocoa and I went for a good long stroll on Riverside Park and, around the turn of the tide at 10am, we slipped the mooring to head north up the Hudson River.