Side Trips: Up the Hudson and around the Island

Friday, September 25:

This was a day that we had been planning for a long time, going up the Hudson River. We originally wanted to spend the night in Kingston, NY and really explore. Bob Woods told me about Bannerman Island, an island with the remains of a castle that was built by some Highlander many years ago and fell into rubbles from an explosion. I had read about Haverstraw, where they made all the bricks for the buildings in Manhattan until there was a major collapse of the town from over mining and the need for bricks diminished. I read a great blog about going up the Hudson and where to stay. As the day approached, we decided to just do one day on the Hudson and save the journey up for a time when we could go all the way to Lake Champlain. So we gathered a group of friends, (Goss', Dillons, Danas) met at the boat at 1:00PM right when I got off work and ventured out.

The plan was to get as far north as Westpoint. The wind was blowing quite a bit up to 20-25 knots and coming out of the north on a rising tide. That means the wind was blowing against the flow of the water and making for some very choppy seas. But I am thinking it will get better as we head north and get more protected. Well, with the wind out of the north and the river running  north/south... guess what? No protection! As a matter of fact it got worse the further north we went until just north of the George Washington Bridge dipping our bow into almost 4 foot swells coming at equal intervals, we turned around and headed for the sights at the mouth of the harbor. The Hudson River has been going through some amazing changes on the New Jersey side. There are some wonderful towns that have been built right on the water, great looking town houses with access to water taxis that head for Manhattan. And the Hoboken train station is spectacular looking from the water. Lots of marinas with beautiful boats. new Jersey has a much more thriving boating community than NYC. We poked in and waved to young Tommy Dillon at the seawall. His project looks fabulous. and then off to the Statue of Liberty.

No matter how many times you see this woman, her size and majesty get you. And for the golfers on the boat, we snuck in around Liberty Island back towards Liberty Point to see the golf house where the PGA played in Jersey City. That was amazing. The golf house is all glass and designed to look like the bow of a ship. On the left ia a picture of the guys on the stern with the golf house in the backround. We poked around Ellis island and danced with the ferries and trust me when I say that they lead! Water taxis, Staten Island ferries, helicopters, barges anchored off the Battery with their tugs...waiting. Huge cargo ships coming under the Varrazano Narrows Bridge. Lots of comercial traffic. At 5:00PM we went back to the marina to drop off the Goss' and pick up Michael and Anne Smith and out we went again. Past the Statue, around the Battery and up the East River which was very protected. Still, there was lots of commercial traffic, ferries, water taxis, heicopters taking off over our heads, barges and of course, the Coast Guard standing guard of off the UN building. This time the bigger boat made it's way over to us. This time there were no guns, just a friendly request to stay clear of the UN and navigate on the east side of the East River. No problem, we were just leaving anyway. Back down the river we went and after a quick jaunt up the Hudson staying below the heavier swells, we worked our way back to the marina. Anne, as always, came laden down with fabulous cheeses and sausages, crackers and nuts. We all had a cocktail enjoying the view from the boat of the Mahattan and Jersey City skyline and then up to the restaurant for a fabulous dinner. Walt Willey was sitting at the bar with a friend and I finally got to say to him, "I get it! I completely understand why you would want to live in Jersey City." We waved everyone Goodnight. (Thanks for dinners, guys!) and back to "that" boat we went for the night.

Saturday, September 26th:
We had one more excursion planned for Mahattan. I wanted to take a little girl to the Statue of Liberty who had no idea how big it really was. She thought it was two inches tall because that's how big it looked from her bedroom window. On Friday morning on my way to the boat, I pulled into Chelsea Piers to find out if there was a place where you could pick up and discharge passengers. After all Manhattan is an island, right? You might think so, but you can't there from there! I went into Surf Side 3, which is the marina there and made arrnagements to pick up my precious cargo. He needed to know the size of the boat so he could make sure that there was room available. When I told him the size of our boat, "a 35 foot side console Contender" he looked at me and said, "Is that your tender?" (For those of you who don't know, a tender is a dinghy for a large yacht.) my answer, "Well its tender to me." So Saturday morning, after cleaning up, washing, refueling and refilling the water tanks, we went over to Surf Side 3 at the Chelsea piers to pick up Lauri Hogan, Bari Halle (LA friend), David Brooks and 5 year old daughter Ruthie. The day was beautiful. What wind there had been the day before had subsided and the river was much calmer, a perfect day for tootling around. During the night 5 cruise ships had come into the harbor. There were three at the main docks by 40th street, one at the Brooklyn yard and another in Bayonne. I couldn't wait to show Ruthie the sights and Ruthie couldn't wait to go below and jump on the bed. After some coaxing we got her back to the sights. Again there was the Statue of Liberty, only this time it was a whole new reaction. Ruthie was amazed but it was Bari who never having seen the statue before, got tears in her eyes and was overwhelmed. We hung out by the helipads and waited for helicopters to take off and land over us. We dodged the taxis and ferries and laughed at the ferries that were listing because everyone was standing to one side to see the statue. Up the East River, we hung out under the bridges while the trains passed overhead. That was really cool. But the highlight was watching a seaplane head for the UN building getting lower and lower until I thought we were going to watch another disaster. We didn't. It landed without ruffling the feathers of the Coast Guard, so I guess they were expecting the arrival. We had so much fun on a beautiful day, but there were birthday parties to rush off to so back to Chelsea Piers to drop everyone off. Thank you Scott at Marine Max for the dock space. We waved good-bye and headed back to the marina. The next time we would leave, it would be for good. We had a great time in Manhattan, but it's time. New horizons. Can't wait!