NY Harbor Vacation - Days 1 & 2

With Vicky back in town, we have been saving our vacation days for a boat excursion.  This time we didn't do much planning... we knew we would be heading into NY Harbor, but from there we didn't know where we would head.  We planned a couple of days showing folks around NY Harbor, a couple of days of rest.  Possibilities included heading up the Hudson, or even over into Long Island Sound, but it also might be a "use the boat as a hotel" type of vacation and do some local sightseeing as well.

Day 1 (Friday), we headed up the turnpike early in the morning and loaded all the gear onto a cart and out to the launch.  There we found Diver Dan cleaning Seas The Day's bottom so we were sure to make good time.  We left our stuff and headed back into town for some lunch.

What's an Intuvo?  Just ask me...

We had lunch at Old Glory restaurant where we briefly ran into my son, John and a friend.

No... this is a waiter... I didn't want to embarass my son by being the photographer dad.

After lunch, we cast off from our mooring and started the trip east across Raritan Bay.  We didn't do any sailing.  We had to make NY Harbor before nightfall and couldn't afford to loose any time due to my sailing inefficiency.

Still it was relaxing to sit back and let Otto take the helm.

More relaxing for some...

We passed a couple of other sailboats and marveled how the sky turned from bright blue to cloudy.  I trusted the weather forecast for clouds without rain and it proved correct.

We pass the orange ship from time to time and it never looked as beautiful as when spotlighted by the sun through the clouds.  After picking our way through the deep spots just off the coast of Staten Island, we eventually reached the inlet to NY Harbor and turned north towards the bridge.

Of course, once you turn into NY Harbor, two things happen (at least for us each trip).  First, the big boys come out to play, and at the lower reaches of the harbor, it's hard for a novice to quickly discern which are in motion and which are anchored (or aground, two seemed to be aground this time).  

Secondly, it always seems to be much more choppy in NY Harbor for some reason.  I realize several bodies of water are coming together and winds get mixed due to the buildings.  We probably had a 2-foot chop through most of the harbor.

Vicky woke up as we entered the harbor and took the helm.  This gave me the chance to take some photos - of her and the many sights.

But you always get to see the fun sights like the SI Ferry and of course the Statue of Liberty...

The Sky brightened up a bit as we approached Manhattan and turned into the Morris Canal to Liberty Landing Marina, our home for the next few days.

Once we hit landfall, we quickly tied up and headed to our favorite restaurant, MaritimeParc.  Before returning to Seas The Day for the night.

Of course, after an Old Fashioned from MaritimeParc, this step across is much larger than it first seems.

Day 2 (Saturday) was basically a lazy day.  We lounged around on the boat.  Talked to a couple of our neighbors and John met us for dinner.  This is more of a working vacation for Vicky in her new role (doing two jobs for a few months), so she had some calls and lots of emails to care for.  I pretty much sat and relaxed.

We got into a big discussion of religion over dinner at MaritimeParc.  We agreed that the most important part of either Christianity or Buddhism seems to be how much you put into the collection plate or donation box.  Some things are constant the world over.

I finished the evening taking some photos of the MaritimeParc/Liberty Landing Marina building and heading down the waterfront to get my annual photo of the Manhattan Skyline at night.