Great
Kills Yacht Club on the east side of Staten Island is quite a treat. Very friendly, welcoming members and the
cheapest bar anywhere ($2 drinks, $4 for premium). Manhattan is an hour away by either the
train/Staten Island ferry or an express bus.
We took advantage of both.
On
the 8th we took the train/ferry to lower Manhattan then went to the
9/11 Memorial and the new World trade Center.
Both are very impressive and the Memorial is very moving. We took the subway to 14th St. to
see the Chelsea Market thinking it would be like the Ferry Building in San
Francisco. Unfortunately, it is
not. We couldn’t get out fast
enough. We did find a neat little French
Bistro for lunch nearby then walked a bit on the relatively new High Line
Park. It is a linear elevated park on
the site of a former rail line. Of
course no visit to the city for Debby would be complete without going to the
original Macy’s claiming to be the largest department store in the world.
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| New World Trade Center |
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| 9/11 Memorial |
The
following day we returned to the city in late afternoon to meet our friends, Al
and Dorothy Oliver. It rained and we got
soaked waiting for the bus, but we were looking forward to seeing them after a
15 year hiatus. Al and Jim served
together on the board of ISTAT throughout much of the 90’s and Al preceded Jim
as President of the organization. Over
the years we met in many exciting places like Paris, London, St Paul de Vance
and Singapore. Debby and Dorothy became
fast friends and the Belles of all the Balls and receptions in these locations. We had a great reunion at Ruth’s Chris in
mid-town on 51st Street.
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| Jim, Debby, Dorothy, Al at Ruth's Chris |
Taxi
service on Staten Island leaves a lot to be desired. However, you have to eat so we endured the
cabs and did reprovisioning on the 10th. We were also able to do a COSTCO run to stock
up on some staples.
The
11th was a very exciting day as we cruised through New York harbor
on our own boat. It was a perfect
weather day and we were able to time it right to catch the tidal current in the
East River thru Hell Gate on the north end.
The pictures tell the story, but do not capture the thrill of being
there.
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| Verrazano Narrows Bridge |
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| Lady Liberty |
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| Brooklyn Bridge |
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| New York, New York |
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| Who knew the East river was a runway? |
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| Ellis Island |
We
anchored that night in Oyster Bay on the north shore of Long Island. It was a calm, picturesque anchorage. The next morning we decided to put the dinghy
in the water (the first time since we left) to tour the town only to discover
the steering was inoperative. A big
disappointment, so we left and moved on to Port Jefferson about another 25
miles up the coast. Again we anchored
out. This time as it was Saturday night
and as being near a beach it was very crowded.
On the 12th we pressed on to Shelter Island where we plan to
stay for a few days. Hopefully we can
get the dinghy fixed there.
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| Sunset at Oyster Bay |
