We're Here! We're Here! New York, Aug 17 2012

We're Here!

An early start, the winds were to be 10 to 15 knots from SW which was good, however the waves were to build to 2 to 3 feet. We wanted to have as short a time as possible on the ocean. We made the 26 mile leg of the trip to Sandy Hook by 10:30 am. The waves did not exceed 1 foot. We couldn't believe that we had 3 days in a row on the North Atlantic Ocean in such perfect weather. How fortunate.

Good bye to the Jersey Shores.

We continued along the picturesque Jersey shores towards New York.

Now for New York Harbor. We have heard such stories. The worst part was probably the outer harbor area. There was a maze of fishing boats all over the channel. Right in the channel. All that harbor area with plenty of water, and they have to fish in the channel.

14 miles in the harbor area. New York is one of the busiest harbors in the world, and you would expect that. Much to our surprise, it was very similar to the gap on a holiday weekend. Certainly no worse. Once again, if you can boat on Georgian Bay, you can boat anywhere.

Here we are in front of Statue of Liberty

Photo time at the Statue of Liberty before we go on to our slip at Liberty Landing Marina. There she was in her magnificence. Welcoming us as she has welcomed so many others over the years.

Ellis Island, so impressive and so intimidating to immigrants.

We proceeded passed Ellis Island, and on to our marina. We were once again reminded that we were still in New Jersey, as two big power boats sped by us with huge wakes, cutting us off as we were entering the marina. Entering a marina is always one of the more challenging parts of a boaters day. It is all new to you, you are trying to get your bearings relative to the limited information you have been given for your slip assignment. What is the direction to take, what is the tide, how much current will you have, is it going out or coming in, and what does that mean relative to your slip, how to approach the slip, will anyone be there to show you which slip is yours, will they help with the lines, which side for the fenders, do I have enough lines out, are they on the right side of the boat. "Boater on the Edge" These are my moments of panic. Fortunately, my captain, as always is so calm. Always saying ..... we will see what it looks like when we get there. It will all become apparent. And it does.

If these boaters only could remember the stress of their first entry to the marina.

We got in, safely tied, electric attached, AC on. Now what to do.

New York skyline background

We decided on taking the ferry trip to Ellis Island and it includes the Statue of Liberty. The Ellis Island tour was excellent. Self guided tour with head phones. Immigrants were so brave. It must have been so intimidating and frightening coming to a new land, with a foreign language, and not knowing if they would accept you. Most people had spent all of their money just to get here. And the possibility of being turned away. How stressful. And apparently 1 in every 100 people were sent back to their homeland. Ellis Island would process up to 3,000 people per day.

She needs no introduction!

We did not get off for the Statue of Liberty as you cannot go up inside her right now as they are doing maintenance/renovations. It was getting late and we had dinner reservations at the Liberty House Restaurant, right on the Marina property.

A wonderful dinner with Bob and Linda. Dinner while we watched the lights of New York come on across the Hudson River. The perfect end to the perfect day.

Back to the boat for some restful time sitting on the back deck to watch the thunderstorm come in before retiring for the day. As we were sitting out; a gentleman was going along the dock netting for crabs and he caught a 2 foot long eel. It must have had about 2 inch girth.  They are an ugly thing even at our distance away.

New York City Skyline. You can see two buildings that are under construction. They have cranes on top. One of them may be the replacement for the twin towers.

Tomorrow is another day. We will stay over another day in New York, and be tourists. What to do? What to do?