We arrived in New York Harbor with a strong sense of excitement after a 48 hour passage from Little Harbor, VA to Sandy Hook, NJ. Our time at sea was very pleasant although we had to run the engine for about half the time. The other part was some fast sailing as the wind finally came in from the right direction. Our watches passed smoothly and Andi consistently cranked out gourmet food including a killer lasagna. Every time I came on watch, she had the sails trimmed to a fare-thee-well and I couldn't find anything to improve on. I'm going to stop taking her to places where sailors hang out because if they find out what she can do, I'll have no end of trouble.
Anyway, when we passed Sandy Hook at the entrance to NY Harbor, I called the marina and they said that they had a spare mooring waiting for us. Can you imagine staying in Upper West Side Manhattan for $180 a week??? We go ashore in our dinghy - about 3 minutes and there is a secure dock for the dinghy, free laundry machines, free ice. It's not fancy, but we are stoked. Buses and subways a few blocks away.
Our first night in town, we called our old friend, Steve Kahn, and he joined us for dinner and then came back to the boat for an evening of flamenco. We've missed that! Good clean fun. I'm looking forward to a lot more of that and we have contacted some other musicians as well. So at the end of our first day in NY, we finally got some well-earned sleep.
The city at night is beautiful. We've only seen our corner of NYC, but are very impressed. There are lots of nice little details - flowers in planter boxes around the street trees - I mean cared-for flowers! The public landscaping is generally very impressive. As much as we love San Francisco, NY makes it look a little shabby in the public works department. We'll go farther afield tomorrow.
Here is Andi doing her version of the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes while playing Frank Sinatra singing about New York (about 5 times) - yes, we're excited...
And of course, you can't come into this town by water and not swing by to see the lady...
Here is a better picture of her. When my parents got here, they were each about 1 year old so probably didn't appreciate her very much.
Here is Andi checking out the city front where the Twin Towers used to be.
Here is a fancy marina for Megayachts where you can tie up your boat for a paltry $6.75/ft./night. That would be $276 for us and about $500 a night for a modest megayacht. Thanks, but I'd rather spend it on dinners.
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