Saturday 30-June. Saturday 30 Jun: New Jersey to New York
New York, New York. Surely a big day to remember. Every sailor dreams of sailing into NY Harbour one day and today is our day.
The wind remains 9-11kts SW and we continue the gentle sailing as we are getting closer to the shipping lanes entering New York Harbour. Approaching USA’s 3rd busiest port, there are 3 sets of traffic separation systems that radiate out 30 miles to seaward. So we plan our course to approach between the southern and southeastern TSSs. As it happens we are hard on the wind exactly where we want to go and we peacefully slip along on silky smooth water under full moonlight and a brightening dawn sky to the northeast.
As we near the city, we spot the smog over it on the horizon, and the Manhattan tower blocks’ silhouettes. Quite a sight. Navigating through the entrance channel was a bit unusual, having to look out for small boats which were casually fishing in mid channel, not bothered one bit by the the ships passing them by.
While doing so, we get a VHF call from US Coast Guard. Oops, what have we done? Turns out they only wanted our details and to identify ourselves. Clearly they spotted on AIS a foreign MMSI entering the harbour and did their duty. After the call, we still had to go through the usual runaround trying to call New York CBP office to report our arrival. And 12 phone calls later, we are checked in. Why can’t they simply put the numbers on a website, one per state or port? Well, they do, but it’s always CBP at an airport and the airport CBP officers are not interested in arrivals of watercraft. So the routine is: we call that number, they give us another number, that number gives us another number and after several more iterations we finally get a CBP officer who actually takes our check-in details.
We pass under the first of many bridges, the Verazzano-Narrows suspension bridge. Lots of ferries and cargo ships speeding and creating huge wake, we even had the decks completely washed at one point as the bow dug in throwing a wave backwards over the coach roof. Luckily all hatches were closed!
Manhattan skyline is absolutely amazing, and what a beautiful day to arrive here, clear blue sky. Before we go further in on the Hudson River, we first go to have a closer look at the Statue of Liberty. From the sea it doesn’t look big at all. And it was absolutely mobbed, ferries unloading tourists in the thousands. Same thing with Ellis Island.
After passing the impressive Manhattan business district we motor up the Hudson, east of Manhattan, taking in the impressive view and cursing the speed boats which are rocking us around. We try to imagine how the passengers coming on cruise ships from Europe must have felt when arriving here in the early 1900s. Certainly it couldn’t have been as noisy as it is today. We are almost deafened by the noise of high speed ferries, speed boats, shops honking there horns, dozens of helicopters flying this way and that and of course the sound of fire and police sirens ever present on the land. Mayhem!!
After an hour of motoring, we arrive at 79th Street Boat Basin, our destination for tonight. We had hoped to grab a mooring buoy from them but they insist they are only for boats up to 40ft. So we have to tie up to their so called marina. It’s the cheapest mooring we could find in Manhattan, at US3.5$/ft/night (the few others were 8- 10$/ft!). But what a dump this “marina” is! We have to moor on the outer wall, exposed to all the wash. But that is not the worse part of it. Several wood boards are missing from the wall, cleats also missing and the few remaining ones are barely holding on only one bolt…how do they moor boats here we wonder. We put out all the fenders that we have and also blow up the 2 big Avon ones, to have as much protection as possible. You would think that for the money we pay, we would get a decent mooring. This is the most expensive and yet the worst marina we have ever been in!
After we tie up we remain onboard to observe what happens with the tide and wash from passing craft, which knock us about quite a bit. No wonder all the cleats have been yanked (excuse the pun!) out of their bolts. And it’s no long before the fenders are covered in black slime and splinters which then deposit themselves onto the hull. Glen is almost crying looking at the mess!
But once we are positive the boat is semi-safe from the threatening wall and the lines are slack enough, we are ready to hit the town! We have such a short time here, so no real agenda for the afternoon. We just walk the streets, taking in the sights, marveling at some shops and trying to escape the crowds. And it’s VERY hot!
We followed Broadway from 79th St. where the so called marina is, to 9th in East Village where the night life is. We pass the corner of Central Park which is full of people on the lawns. Then to Time Square which was packed with people and the theaters area was also mobbed. To escape the crowds till the shows started, we go up to the 54 Roof Top, on 54th floor of the Hyatt Hotel to have a rather pricy cool drink on the highest rooftop bar in NY, apparently. The views are amazing as the sun is setting. And it’s really quite eery looking down into the busy streets below.
We then debate whether or not to go back to Cloudy Bay to freshen up then come back for the evening, or just go straight for evening entertainment now. If we go back to Cloudy Bay we will both likely fall asleep! So we press on towards East Village where the majority of “best” bars seem to be. It’s a long hot walk to 9th St but we get to see the various faces of Manhattan on the way.
The two Speakeasy bars we had aimed for, Angels House and PDT, were already full by 9pm with over 1 hour estimated wait time. So we settle for a French style bar with live jazz. Quietish and nice atmosphere. After a drink and some tasty French nibbles we are both so tired and have problems keeping our eyes open as we listen to the rhythmic jazz. So it’s Mr.Uber back to Cloudy Bay, driven by an Albanian who swears there are no crooked Russians in Albania! Rather odd guy. The drive back takes 35 minutes …. oooph we get top marks for walking all that distance in our sleep deprived state!
By midnight we are in bed and thankfully the traffic on the Hudson is negligible now, so it’s quite peaceful. Zzzzzzzz!