Hudson River Trip - Day 1

So here's the plan... Leave Keyport, NJ and head across the Raritan Bay to NY Harbor and Liberty Landing Marina in Jersey City, NJ.  Stay there three nights while sailing around NYC with friends and family.  Then, Head up the Hudson, through the Tappan Zee, up past West Point, and all the way up to Kingston, NY.    We may not get as far as Kingston, but we'd like to visit Holy Cross Monastery again, so we'll see.  We'll use a combination of reciprocity privileges at yacht clubs and some marinas along the way, but the Hudson part of the plan is nebulous.  If all goes well, we should log 8 or 9 days on the boat.

So... we got to Keyport and found 17 knot winds.  It made it a bit sketchy, but somehow we got all our stuff (cameras, computers, food, clothing, supplies, marine grade toilet paper (don't ask), etc. on the launch and boarded Seas The Day.  Then we motor sailed across Raritan Bay and into NY Harbor. We came across a few of our friends and even saw the NCL Gem heading out.

Can you notice the sailboat going alongside the Gem (below)?

I did finally convince Vicky that my choice in headgear was much more practical than her stylish alternatives...

We crossed under the Verazzano Narrows Bridge and entered NY Harbor.  This time I didn't make any foolish mistakes, so I proceeded to pick our way through the maze of anchored barges, tankers and tugs.

Of course we plotted a course that got us close to the Statue of Liberty (not too close... there's some WEIRD traffic in that vicinity.

I'm always amazed at the scale of a boat like mine up against the towers of NYC.

 After passing Ellis Island, we turned into Liberty Landing.  Of course, after docking, Vicky wanted to clean the boat.  We can't do that from the mooring ball and it is her hobby.

After stopping to admire a 60' boat Vicky wanted, we went to maritime Parc for a wonderful dinner, then noticed the fabulous sunset (as did everyone else).

So despite feeling "fine" from the cocktails, we grabbed the camera equipment and walked down to the end of Liberty State Park for some photos of lower Manhattan.

We were rushing to try and capture the city all aglow in red reflected from the sunset, but by the time we got to a nice vantage point, it had turned into this fabulous golden hue.  We stayed for a few minutes and followed the light through twilight.

Then we finished a wonderful day by working up photos by fake LED candlelight in the shadow of the freedom tower.