NY Harbor Vacation - Days 5 & 6

Day 5 (Tuesday).  Originally there wasn't supposed to be a day 5 at Liberty Landing Marina.  We were going to move on to either up the Hudson or onto LI Sound or perhaps back to the Raritan Bay to do some exploration.  There were two issues that kept us here.

First was my new weather app, Windy.  This has become quite popular lately and I'll admit that I like it a fair bit.  But perusing the weather for our upcoming plans, it seemed that all the areas I was checking (NY Harbor, shown here, Sandy Hook Bay, even Raritan Bay and Keyport), all showed 8-foot swells (!!!) for Tuesday night.  I freely admit that I'm chickenshit as a sailor and the thought of 8' swells here in the marina would be just bedlam.  I checked around with some friends... a few people think this might be more of an offshore app, but clearly, the best (meaning relatively calm) window for the return was later in the week.  So we decided to use Liberty Landing as a sort of home base for local sightseeing and did the tour of LSC and Liberty State Park yesterday as described previously.

The other issue that caused us to stay was the nagging sensation that something wasn't quite right with Seas The Day.  Several times this year while onboard, I've heard the bilge pump go off.  This is a little electric pump in the lowest part of the ship that is designed to keep water out of the bilge (and in turn keep Seas The Day from sinking).

I never recall hearing the bilge pump in previous years... in fact, I've even dumped water into the bilge to test it a few times just to be certain it was still working.  As I was lounging around on the boat this weekend, I became aware that the pump seemed to be activating a lot... a number of times a day.  Yesterday morning I timed the interval at right around every 45 minutes.  This was not right and since Liberty Landing Marina has a nice service yard adjacent to it, I decided to get their tech to check it out.

I also did some digging and figured out that the likely culprit was the stuffing box.  This is a device that allows the propeller shaft to go through the boat, spin and not let water into the boat... in theory.

In reality, here is what mine looked like while the engine was off at the dock.  Note that the owner manual says we should see ZERO drips while the engine is off and 1 to 2 drips a MINUTE when the engine is running and the propeller shaft spinning.

I recorded this just before the technician arrived.  He confirmed this was a disaster waiting to happen.  All that was needed was for the battery to drain from the bilge pump... maybe the solar panel disconnects... maybe we're away for a while, but this issue has sunk boats.  So we had him fix this and troubleshoot a persistent odor from the head (he fixed the stuffing box, but couldn't find the head issue)

We didn't get the 8-foot swells here in the marina (I expect NY Harbor didn't either), but we did get a steady rain and enough wind to test the dock lines and fenders a bit.  

We decided to take a nap... there's something nice about lying in the V-berth and listening to the raindrops on the ceiling.  It was a gentle rain and we could leave the hatch open slightly, and enjoy the moment.   Finally, we headed to a dinner at Liberty House Restaurant.

Day 6 (Wednesday), I woke up early and looked out from the V-berth to see this...

Living on a boat for a week has its... compromises.  Seas The Day is fun to sail, but as a live-aboard, it is a tad cramped.  

Later that morning, our new friends, Mike and Maria left this morning aboard Tuscan Sun, their Kadey-Krogen 42 (my favorite boat in the marina), which I have to admit, I envy (even if you can't sail her).

The rest of the morning was basically getting Vicky caught up on her emails, and I checked in with the dockmaster about tomorrow's trip back to Keyport.  (I wanted some local knowledge on the Arthur Kill - a sort of back way to Keyport through some of the NY/NJ industrial scene.

Around Noon, we finally got our act together and RUSHED for the Liberty Landing Ferry, which took us first across the Morris Canal to Jersey City (it's maybe a 100 yd ferry ride), but then across the Hudson to the World Financial Center.

As we approached the WFC marina, we found P.J. Clarke's Restaurant which looked incredibly inviting - at least as inviting as it was expensive.  But you seriously can't ask for a better outdoor dining experience... overlooking the Hudson and the Statue/Ellis Island/Jersey Central Station trio.

After Lunch, we entered the adjacent mall and found our way to the new Transportation Hub (i.e., Oculus) that was recently finished.  It is an impressive structure!

This was followed by a tour of the 9/11 Memorial.  I had briefly been by the outdoor fountains before but never was able to make it to the museum.  We paid a visit and it was a pretty intense experience.

While the inside was impressive, the outdoor memorial was simply moving and powerful.

After the memorial, we crossed a street and took a rest in a little park inside the WFC complex.  It was neat to see everyone sharing this community park, with mini soccer games zig zagging around family picnics or even just people out on the grass.

We finished back at P. J. Clarke's for a nice dinner with two of Vicky's colleagues (Ivy and Claudia), ending just in time to take the ferry back to Liberty Landing.  This time we were able to secure seats upstairs and outdoors (where everyone it seemed was taking photos).