2019 NYC - Liberty Landing Trip - Day 1

Vicky landed yesterday from China and today we embarked on our yearly trip to Liberty Landing Marina and NY Harbor.

We've done this trip a number of times now, sometimes in good weather, sometimes in less good weather.  Yesterday it looked like all would be well, but today all the weather reports were mixed -- some calling for rain and others saying it would not rain.

We made it to Keyport just in time for a Noon departure and as Vicky was doing the friendly wave thing to passing boats, I was noticing the clouds looming over Staten Island to the north.

Still, the bay was flat.  With a boat SOG of 6 kts, we maybe registered 6.4 kts on the wind gage.  So sailing was out of the question... this would be a trip using the "iron genny".  Initially, Otto got the job of steering while Vicky was supposed to sleep below.  Otto sometimes behaves like a recalcitrant teenager (veering to one side or the other, or sometimes even doing donuts), but today he behaved like a well behaved Elementary school student out to impress mom and dad.  (I'm sure it helped that the bay was flat.)

We did see one boat displaying the distress flag (bright orange with a black square and circle).  We were about to stop when we noticed a Boat US boat heading to them, so we allowed them to assist.  I was amazed at how visible that flag is out on the water.  I easily saw it two miles away.

Since Vicky had just returned from China, she went below... to sleep supposedly... but I suspect she was not sleeping (at least at first).

Eventually, we approached the Narrows and had a nice time passing under that bridge.

Because of all the storms, the current coming down the Hudson was strong.  It seemed to take forever to get through NY Harbor.

We also noticed that while we were aware of storms all around us, we seemed to be in a perpetual hole of sunlight.  I'm not complaining.  This was the radar prediction for a few minutes after we passed under the Narrows bridge.  (The entire Raritan Bay that we just passed through was supposed to be stormy.)

We continued to pick our way across NY Harbor, dealing with the rolls, avoiding the big guys and eventually reachind The Statue of Liberty.

You can't pass the Statue without doing selfies!

A note of explanation... this was my reaction when Vicky almost fell overboard during an unexpected roll -- while not wearing a life vest -- and HOLDING MY CAMERA!!

Finally, we docked at Liberty Landing marina.  Why do they always put us up against the big boats!? The Grand Banks was beautiful, especially at night.

Seas The Day is the teenie tiny boat on the left.

Of course, docking means boat cleaning (she now has me trained).

One of Vicky's classmates came by with her family to join us for dinner, which had to be at Maritime Parc.  Following dinner, we walked down to the Hudson River for some photography.  They will come sailing with us tomorrow.