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:
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| Ground Zero Today |
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| The Captain |
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| The USS Intrepid Aircraft Carrier and Cruise Ships |
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