Who Would Have Thunk?

(Wednesday July 27 - Dist: 30.6 mi; Avg Speed: 7.9 mph; TTT: 3:50 hrs)

The Hudson River

The Palisades

I had heard that the Hudson River was beautiful but I had no idea.  In some places it reminds one of the shoreline in northern Ontario and at other times the fiords in BC on the way to Whistler.  The Hudson River to Albany is actually an estuary or even a fiord.  The tidal currents from the Atlantic Ocean reach that far.  In fact there is a four foot tide in this last stretch before the Erie Canal.  The Appalachian Mountain range give it the fiord sense. 

It is interesting that on the east side of the river there are commuter trains to NYC galore.  Amtrak also has trains from Grand Central Station to places like Montreal, Toronto, Buffalo and Chicago.  Here you can see a commuter train enter a tunnel on the east side.

The west side, still New York State, is the working side evidently.  About 60 freight trains a day travel the shore.  You can see how closely they hug the shoreline by the bridge that is near water level along the face of the rock.

Linda and I decided on a fairly easy day so we stopped at Half Moon Bay Marina at Croton-on-Hudson, an AGLCA sponsor.   Unlike most marinas on the Hudson River, they have a break wall in an effort to cut down on the wakes and swells from passing boats.  Note the boats beyond the end of the break wall.  There is a very nice beach there that unfortunately we were not able to take advantage of because of the storms.

We got hit with a full fledged storm complete with tornado warnings and actual hail.  The wind gusted soooo bad that it blew our table out of the cockpit.  That table is at least 40 pounds and has been in my cockpit since 2004....and has never moved let alone fly out.  After the storm I borrowed the neighbours grappling hook and started dredging beside our boat.  No luck, then Linda saw it floating past the front of the boat.  Evidently it got blown down south and then the tidal current brought it back into the basin.... how fortunate is that.  I did not even figure that it would float let alone come back to me.

The Table came back.

I have mixed feelings about Half Moon Bay.  The seasonal boaters were tremendous; fun, sociable and helpful.  There were a couple of good places to eat that we found, Memphis Mae, a BBQ place and the Tavern at Croton Landing.  The tavern is my favourite; the BLT was absolutely superb, the best ever.  I know that I have said that a lot on this trip but it is true.  You will have to try it before laughing at me.  Linda really enjoyed her choices as well.  On the down side the ad says there is a laundry...true, in town over a mile away.  The ad said there is a pool... true, but restricted to condo owners only.  The ad said lower rates than NYC and an easy commute to the city.... true, except for 79 TH Marina and the commute is 40 minutes.  All this aside we did enjoy our stay there.

A few more scenic photos for you:

NYC Tour

Tuesday, July 26

We continued our touring of Upper Manhattan and Harlem the next morning.



Cathredral Church of St John the Devine



Upper West Side near Columbia University



The Famed Apollo Theatre



Harlem - Gourmet




Harlem - Not so Gourmet





The Projects



No AC Heere







The Art Gallery

Broolyn Bridge

Bargain Shopping on Canal Street - NO

Shopping in SOHO - YES

Times Square

Monday , July 25

Times Square: people, lights, advertising and hustle and bustle.  We took a city bus to Times Square in order to catch one of the double decker bus tours.  Interestingly, when we asked a Metro bus driver who was having a cigarette before starting his run, which bus to take, he gave us excellent directions and 4 transfers so that it would not cost us anything.  That was small town service at it's best.



The Ball Confirms it is 2011



We had no problem finding a tour operator and purchased a 2 day all loops package.  We started with lower Manhattan and travelled through the rest of Times Square, the garment district, past Madison Square Gardens, through Greenwich, past the Seaport, past Chinatown, through SOHO and past Rockefeller Center and Central Park before returning to Times Square. 

It was a 3 hour loop and the weather was threatening so we got off and found us an Irish Pub, Playwriters Pub, in Times Square.  It was probably the most disappointing place that we have stopped at in all of the Loop.  Oh well, can't be lucky all of the time.  It started pouring outside so we decided to head back to the boat.  We jumped on the Upper Manhattan tour bus and had the driver drop us off near the Trader Joe's near are marina.  We got a little wet but not bad considering.

I will leave you with some images from the day.

Empire State building from downtown.



Flatiron Building(for the guys it shaped like an iron)




For my Windsor Friends, the Chrysler Building.





Anybody want to buy a "walk up" Apartment?




Lots of TD Canada Trusts in NYC, even on Wall Street




Pier 17 on the East River




United Nations




Apprentice Anyone?




Waldorf Astoria Hotel

Saks Fifth Avenue (I am not impressed)

Johnny Carson's digs from a way back.

The Big Apple

(Sunday July 24 – Dist: 6.7 mi; Avg Speed: 5.5 mph; TTT: 1:15 hrs)

Sunday morning we were able to secure a slip at the 79 TH Street Marina so we headed out into New York Harbor and travelled the short distance up river to 79 TH Street.

One can also see the new construction where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood.  Linda and I did go down to Ground Zero later and were humbled by the sheer size of the site.  The new plan has five buildings; one is already completed and the others are under way.  We purchased some brochures and a DVD from a local hawker and again we were saddened deeply watching the video which was put out by the Mayor of NYC.

We saw an oddity, by our standards anyway, a golf driving range along the waterfront.  We actually saw a second one further up river on the Joisey shore as well.

I knew the city run marina was nothing special but even my low expectations were not met. The boat basin is shallow and the docks have seen better days. There is only one toilet and I was afraid to check out the one shower. I had heard that most of the marinas along Manhattan Island had a problem with big wakes and swells from passing boat traffic but I really wasn’t expecting it to be as violent as it is during the day. Everything gets bounced around, the boat and the docks and the people on them. Fortunately it did quiet down at night and we had a good sleep til 6 AM when it started again. Well it cannot really be that bad because my satellite dish which was really meant to be sat atop a picnic table, worked fine with very few breakups.

Linda and I took extra care in tying up Q securely and we used almost all of our fenders against the floating, bouncing docks then we headed up to Broadway. Outside the gate of the marina was the Boat Basin Café… how nice.  If you look hard you can just see Q through the arch.

Just 4 blocks from the marina is Broadway and it looked the part. There were lots and lots of people and both sides of the street were lined with shops, restaurants and businesses of all kinds. The actual famed portion of Broadway is about 40 blocks south in lower town. The area that we were in was called the upper west side and it was a good area; safe, interesting and everything that a well to do community would want in their neighborhood. We chose to eat at Artie’s Deli and I must say that the pastrami and corned beef sandwiches were better than Dunn’s or Schwartz’s in Montreal. Mine was superb, the best that I have ever had.

We then wandered over to Central Park about another 6-8 blocks. I had no idea that it was so huge; it runs from 110 TH Street to 59 TH Street on the south, 2.5 miles long. We entered near “Strawberry Fields” at 72 nd Street. I learned today on the tour that this area was named for John Lennon who lived and unfortunately died, across the street in the Dakota Building. Sunday was a hot day here too (fact: Saturday was the hottest temperature ever recorded in Central Park) so the place was jam packed with people and bicycles. Linda and I were going to take the easy route, a pedi-cab, but decided that we could put the $75 for a 45 minute ride to better use. We headed for a bar.

By the time we got back to the boat, the river was settling down and we watched the last of the Canadian Open. I was suitably impressed with the young Canadian, Hadwin, and was pullin’ hard for him.

Here are a few more shots:

Ground Zero Today



The Captain



The USS Intrepid Aircraft Carrier and Cruise Ships

New York, New York

Liberty Landing, Jersey City NJ

(Sat. July 23 - Dist: 108.6 mi; Avg Speed: 18.0 mph; TTT: 6:00 hrs)

Another decent day on the ocean... after the first 90 minutes anyway.  In the harbor it did look hazy again but off shore there was still a thin layer of fog.  Fortunately it was not near as bad as we experienced in Cape May.  Visibility was a few hundred yards, maybe a quarter mile, so we carried on through the inlet...Then we hit a series of 5 foot waves which were not in the forecast what-so-ever.  The only thing that I can figure is that the shoal across the inlet, even though the depth was still 16 feet, caused the normal 2-3 rollers to come up higher.  Linda wanted to turn around immediately but we pushed forward to deeper water and lo and behold the ocean was what we were expecting.  An hour later the fog was gone and we were cruising comfortably again.

New York harbor is a very busy place even on the weekend.  Famous ferries like above and all manner of ships, barges, tour boats and water taxis.  The river is plenty wide so it really was not that problematic.  The Statue of Liberty was further up the river than I had envisaged and it was neat to see Ellis Island.  We may go on a tour there later. 

Unfortunately we could not get in to the 79 th Street Marina.  They do not accept reservations so it was not through lack of planning.  Liberty Landing is on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River and is probably one of the best and calmest marinas in the Harbor.  It has a new and very nice facilities building with a restaurant and marina lounge, probably the nicest we have stayed at on the whole Loop.  And well it should be at $4 per foot per night plus 40 cents per foot for electric.  Ouch.

It was a long stressful day so we had a good late lunch at the Liberty House here in the Liberty Landing Park and just relaxed in air conditioned comfort watching the Canadian Open on TV. 

Hopefully, we can get in to the other marina tomorrow and then start some serious sight seeing in New York City.

Here are a few other photos of the trip up the Hudson River at least thus far.

Ellis Island

View Across the River  from our Fly Bridge.

Entrance to Liberty Landing Marina