Some Pics from Atlantic City and NYC

We hadn't intended to put into Atlantic City, but the lure of striking it big was strong and we pulled in early in the afternoon. Well, ok, it wasn't really the lure of big money that brought us in the Absecon Inlet, but the strong desire to go for a walk (and with any luck, find a shower). It had been almost a week since we'd been off the boat.

The bird lady of Atlantic City

Going against the warning from the City Marina staff concerning the one-mile walk to the Boardwalk (they were concerned about evil doers), we walked anyways. Along the way, we asked a bicycle-riding policeman, Officer Berg, whether it was safe for us to be walking through what looked like project housing at 10am and he assured us that at that time of day, we would be fine. Four in the morning would be a different story and certainly when I awoke the next morning at 4am, I heard many sirens.

The setting full moon over Atlantic City, 5am

Keeping watch
From Atlantic City, we had a big day (80 miles), motorsailing to Sandy Hook, NJ. Happy to have these long summer days. The next day, we moved up to Great Kills Harbor on Staten Island, where we spent the next 2 weeks, repairing the engine that overheated during our sail up Sandy Hook Bay and also taking time to visit Manhattan.

It's at times like this that I really miss the Caribbean.

We made 3 trips into Manhattan. The first trip, Rick's Mom met us, took us to lunch and agreed to do the tourist thing and board a Circle Line boat to circumnavigate Manhattan. My reason for wanting to do this trip was that once we left Staten Island, we had to travel up the East River and through the notorious Hell Gate. I'd been reading many scary reports about that area (some of which were sent by my own Mother!) and really wanted to see it before having to take my boat through it. More on this later.

The Bubble Man in Chinatown: bubble blowers for kids to lazy to blow their own.

Funny Lady in Washington Square Park: she had just snuck through the no-dog area.

On our two other trips to Manhattan, we met my cousin Ted, who came down from New Paltz to hang out with us. Since he's a minister, he felt it necessary to take us into at least one church (Trinity Church). I was more interested in the sculpture outside, which was inspired by an uprooted sycamore tree after 9/11. We got him back though by dragging him into New York Nautical and the 79th St. Marina.

Rick and I love the Staten Island Ferry. From our anchorage in Great Kills Harbor, we would walk a mile to the train station, take a 20 minute train to the ferry terminal (if you get off a stop early though, it doesn't cost you anything, a crazy man told us this and it works), then hop on a ferry and be in Manhattan. The total trip is about 1 1/2 hours if all of your connections go smoothly.
We'd wondered about the capacity of these ferries and how the crew know how many people are on board. The response from a crew-member after being questioned on this matter was that they don't know. Hmmmm, and they don't take into effect the growing size of Americans either.



Cousin Ted had earlier been asking what we do when it rains. Well, never one to just tell when I can show, I arranged for some rain as we took the ferry to Staten Island and got back to High Country. He got to see that we do as most people do, though we generally refer to it as "hunkering down". We hide down below and computerize, read, or cook.

(Ted on the left, Rick on the right)



Our second attempt up the New York Harbor (the first one aborted due to an overheating engine) proved successful. Here, I am pictured under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, holding the VHF radio close by, trying to understand where the traffic is. I don't know if it's me or the radio, but I can never understand anyone on the radio, hence, my heightened level of anxiety. Nevertheless, we managed to get in the way of only one supertanker and realised in time that he was headed straight for us.


High Country with lower Manhattan in the background. It turns out that shortly after we went up the East River, a swimming race began with 88 swimmers, who swam 28.5 miles around Manhattan. Amazing. I was nervous enough being aboard a boat!



Due to the strong currents we expected to find while transiting the East River and Hell Gate, we prudently put on our life jackets. I had never put one on while aboard High Country, and you know, they're kind of comfy, a back cushion wherever you go. At one point, just before entering Hell Gate, the GPS read 10.1 knots, certainly a record for this old boat. All in all though, the Gate was happily uneventful, even though we went through at full flood.


Very happy to be through Hell Gate, unscathed (note Manhattan in background). And it only cost us 1/2 a jar of peanut butter and a package of Asian fried broad beans (during times of stress, we both turn to our comfort foods, Rick dives for the peanut butter and I lunge for anything salty and fried).