New Jersey/New York

6/10/08

Now I don’t want to slight Delaware, but we were in and out of the state so fast there is not much to say. Today we went about 80 miles, which took us close to 12 hours. We were actually able to get that far because part of the day we had a favorable current so we were scooting along at about 11 mph. Every mph helps.

We arrived in Cape May, New Jersey. After we tied up the boat we went for a little walk to check out the marina and noticed a familiar boat. It was Frank and Deb on “Another Compromise”. We have spent much time with them all along the way and were with them a week in Fort Myers Beach at Christmas time. They were over in the Bahamas for a while, so we lost track. Anyway, we had a wonderful time catching up with all our adventures.

It is interesting to listen to the Jersey accents of the marina people. I think those guys always sound like they are mad or joking or both at the same time.

6/12/08

We stayed in Cape May to rest for one day before heading out into the ocean. We are not able to use the ICW here because the bridges are too low and it is too shallow. Luckily the inlets in and out of the Atlantic are fine. We hung out in Cape May yesterday and today went 100 miles up to Brielle, NJ. It was a calm quiet day on the ocean and an easy passage. Don't these look like the little houses we have set out on our windowsill?

6/13/08

“Start spreadin’ the news, I’m leaving today, I want to be a part of it. New York, New York! These little town blues, are melting away………” So as you can tell, we are here. We arrived around noon and headed into the harbor. We have been here before but not by water so it is fun. I don’t even have to describe the sights because they are so iconic that everyone knows them already. It is a huge natural harbor and one of the busiest in the world. We had to keep dodging the Staten Island Ferries and all the ocean ships moving around. Our marina is up the Hudson River a ways so it took us a little while to get there. With all the traffic and the size of the ships around, the river stays pretty riled up. The waves are bigger here than we encountered in the ocean. We got to our marina and of course they have no pump out, so headed back down the river for that. Then back to Newport Marina where we will stay. We did have a bit of a negative surprise here in that the wave action in the slip is just miserable. This is the worst we have seen this whole year. It is from all the heavy duty river traffic, and is quite uncomfortable aboard. We are glad we don’t have anybody that is not seaworthy with us. Maybe we will try to get to another marina. This marina is in Jersey City just across the Hudson from Manhattan. There is also a great sushi bar just across the street. Other than the wave action, it is great.

6/14/08

Today we are out and about to see a little of the city. We are trying to decide whether to stay here or go back to the other marina. Our dock girl said the wave action is much less on the weekends and so far she is talking true. We have to decide which is most important to us. Here we are in a much nicer part of the city and have access to the PATH train to go downtown. The motion does quiet down at night after the commuters are done. So far this marina still has us. We are not on the boat much during the day anyway.

 Today we headed to Manhattan to see the World Trade Center site. Then we walked through Tribeca and SoHo. For dinner we went to Hoboken with John and Wendy Huebner, our friends from New Jersey. We are getting used to taking the trains and subways to wherever we want to go.

A big storm rolled through here tonight and both Rolf and I thought the thunder sounded different, more echoey and louder. We were trying to figure out if the sound was bouncing off all the buildings. I guess we will never know.

6/15/08

Happy Fathers Day! Rolf is having a good day chatting with all the children. We then went to a Fathers Day lunch at John and Wendy’s house with their son and grandchildren. After that we walked to an art fair. I just have to tell a shower story. Yesterday when I went to the showers there were cleaning supplies laid out but nobody was around. As I was in the shower I heard voices but did not think too much of it. When I got out, there was a guy busily cleaning up. So I thought ok, he didn’t know I was in there. Then today the same thing happened again. There was Alphonso just cleaning away. He just said hi and went on with his business. Now I have pressure on me to get in the shower earlier in the day so I get off the same schedule as Alphonso. I just figured that if he was in there again tomorrow, I will pretend that he is my butler.

This is the beautiful night time view from Norske.

6/16/08

First of all, Happy Birthday to Grandson Doug! 8 is a good age.

We are having another grand day in New York. We need to be off the boat all day because of the wave action and there are one or two things to do here.  We took the train in again and walked through TriBeca, SoHo, Chinatown, and Little Italy. We had a great time strolling through Central Park on the way to the Metropolitan Museum. Of course when we got there it was closed for the day. So we took a cab to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). We were both confused as to where we were going but we finally ended in the right spot. Like any modern art it sort of falls into three categories; really cool, I coulda done that, and that artist is insane. We saw all the greats, Lichtenstein, Pollack, Warhol, etc. We both liked the furniture and technology design, but didn’t care much for the photography, except for the water pictures (of course). There were two things that entirely fascinated us. The first was a fan. There is about a 6 story atrium. Hanging from that was a big round house type fan. It hung to just about 8 feet from the floor. It was on and the air movement propelled it around. People including us stood in the middle and ducked when it came by. It sounds a little nuts but it was the most fun all day. Second there was a hallway with benches and the only unusual thing about it was that the lights were very yellow. We went through there about 3 times and didn’t know why. Finally we stopped and looked at it and of course Rolf figured it out. The yellow light washed out all the color in clothes and changed the skin tone. So everyone looked like they were in a black and white photo. Very very cool. We also stopped at Zabar’s, which is a very famous store downtown. On the lower level is a grocery store and the upper level has all kinds of household items. For the people from Sheboygan it is New York’s answer to Evans in Falls.

6/17/08

Our last day in New York City and we are seeing the sites. We have a Mall near our marina in Jersey City. The rocking and rolling continue on the boat. Rolf even had to gimbal the stove to make breakfast in the slip. In the afternoon, we once again met our friend John at Bryant Park. He took us out for drinks at a place called Alfredo’s. It is a sister restaurant to the one in Italy that invented Fettuccini Alfredo. We then went to Christine’s for dinner. It is a Hungarian/Italian place where a friend of his called Barrett is the piano player. Then we took a little jog up the street to see a view of the Empire State Building from the top of a hotel. It is an interesting view from the base of the Empire State Building looking straight up to the top, a very different perspective.

6/18/08

We left the city today. John is joining us for the day for the ride to Tarrytown also called Sleepy Hollow of the Legend fame. We had a nice ride up the Hudson River with NYC in the rear view mirror (if we had one). It was not a long trip so we had the afternoon free. After naps, we went to explore the town and possibly get to Washington Irving’s house. That was pretty much an exercise in futility. No one could tell us where the house was. As you would expect Rolf was going in every single storefront quizzing all the clerks and pharmacists and bankers to find out information. Surprisingly enough, no one knew a thing! When we finally got a little information we called a cab to get there and of course it never showed up. So we just gave up. I was thinking that I had never read his stories of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle so I would get a little book and check it out. Of course no store had any books by him. A drug store had a T-shirt but the clerk didn’t speak much English and didn’t know any more about it. So we had a nice supper and John headed back home on the train which was conveniently next door to the marina.

6/19/08

We headed up to Newburgh today. The big event of the day was going past West Point. Now that has an impressive look from the river. What a fortress it is. That said, when you see an aerial view of it, there is a lot more hidden in the trees. A few years ago you used to be able to pull up there to the dinghy dock and get a tour but no more. No one is getting that close any more without major connections. But they do have tours you can take from Newburgh.

6/20/08

Today we got to the Poughkeepsie Yacht Club at Esopus Island. It is sort of a non-place facility wise but the dock guy was exceptionally nice and gave us a ride to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s home and presidential library at Hyde Park. On the way he drove us through the grounds of the Vanderbilt Mansion. All of this is, of course, very impressive. We enjoyed touring the Roosevelt grounds. It was the first presidential library ever built. One thing that stands out aside from the presidential information was the relationships with him and Eleanor and his mom Sara. That had to be a wild ride.

6/23/08

We have been at this place called Hop-o-nose Marina since Saturday. First of all, the girl that runs the crane was poking a little fun at the name Sheboygan, so we got a little discussion on the meaning of Hop-o-nose.  The town we are in is Catskill, NY. I don’t want to say anything real bad about the marina because the people that run it are exceptionally nice and competent but the facility is what you would call VERY basic. It took a while to find the shower building and when I did, I just turned around and headed back to the boat. It was behind the red door in the picture. I think I miss Alphonso (the cleaning person in NYC). We have a floating pier but the part up to the shore is so steep you have to hang on to the rail with both hands. They have some roofing tiles nailed down for traction but they are far enough apart that you sort of have to hop from one to the next. Oh, and there are nails on the underside of the hand rail. I have to say I sort of like these kinds of places because they are always good for a story and have such character, but I am looking forward to someday being back at a real nice marina for a few days.

On Monday we pulled the mast. We have spent the last day or two getting things ready for that. We have decided not to ship it ahead this time and to just put it down on the deck. These guys do this all the time and are very good at it. It was all over in a few hours. No yelling or power struggles. We decided to take the mast with us this time because it will only be down for a couple of weeks. When we get to the Buffalo area we will have it put back up and be on our way into Lake Erie. We are still very happy with our decision last fall to send it on ahead because we would have had to live with it this way for months. The down side is that it is hard to see forward and very awkward to get around the boat for docking and locking. Sometimes it feels a little like a road runner cartoon. You are walking around and then boingggg, your head has just run into a spreader, shroud or chunk of wood. It is especially tough with a hat on. Then there is no help for us.

We have been very impressed with the Hudson River and the Hudson River Valley. It is a beautiful wide and deep river. In some places we were reading 100 feet deep or more. It is tidal all the way upstate to the first lock of the canal. The surrounding land is hillier than we thought it would be, very different from the Illinois, Ohio, etc. In the distance you can see the Catskill Mountains. It is mostly large forests with occasional peeks of farms and houses on the bank. The word bucolic comes to mind as we are traveling along. 

Since we have been chatting about the mast on deck, here is the view forward from the helm. It seems almost as bad as a full racing crew standing up in front of the helmsman.

See you on the Erie Canal.