The U.S.A.
A Lady
Stephen Hyde
Tue 21 Jun 2011 16:04
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MONDAY 20th JUNE
2011
Well it was just a week today since the last blog,
so here's what happened in between,
We had very strong currents heading us almost the
entire journey from Bermuda to New York, up to 3.5 knots against us at
times,
so when we were motoring at 7.5knots through the
water, we were in fact only doing 4 knots over the ground, so progress was very
slow,
This resulted in " A Lady " arriving in New York
harbour almost a full day behind our schedule,
The direct distance between the two places is 670
miles and we covered 745 miles as a result of the adverse
currents,
Wednesday
However, Arriving at Sandy Hook, off the Coast of
New Jersey, and at the entrance to New York harbour was exciting, It was
early in the morning and the day was going to
be beautifull , specially for our arrival,
The place was buzzing with ships, tugs, barges,
fishing boats, yachts, sailing ships, and all sorts of floating things, ohhhhhh,
it is so wonderfull to be here as we closed in on
the " Verazzano Bridge" this huge bridge linking Brooklyn to Staten Island
is
awsome, We passed underneath and gasped at the
sheer scale of it all.
And then, there she was, " the
Lady " The Statue of Liberty
standing proudly in the western part of the Hudson river,
straight across from Lower manhatten, and
next to " Ellis Island" where most of the immigrants had to register
on their arrival
to the land of oppertunities, It all sent
shivers down our backs,
we passed the Staten Island Ferries as they raced
back and forth from manhatten to Staten island, These orange coloured passenger
ferries brought back memories to skipper as he ( as
a student ) worked in the Staten island General Hospital, desigining all
their
extensions and alterations, The hospital has
since been replaced with a new bigger and better one closer to the sea with
great views.
The hospital was then, and still is a Jewish
operation,
One of skippers task's while working in the
hospital was driving the Ambulance, only on occasions when the
regular drivers were sick
or out of action, This all happened because skipper
could drive a " gear shift " auto, while most Americans can only drive
automatics ,
and that is still the case today,
We moored the boat at " North Cove Marina" Lower
Manhatten , just on the north west side of Battary Park , close to
Ground Zero
and facing onto the mighty Hudson River, We were
surrounded with magnificant glass Skyscrapers, restaurants, bars, and of
course
prominades running the length of lower
Manhatten, There were great monuments to the Irish and the Jews, not to
mention all
the different sculptures and Arty things, and then
the big brass " Bull " in Wall St. where all the girls were being
photographed
holding the Bulls brass B*ll's , while their kids
were being photographed sitting on the Bulls horns, ohhhh, happy days.
We had lunch with our friends Tom and Jos Hallway ,
who were just passing through N.Y. on their way back to England,
Lunch was in "Jacks" and we had a great time with
them and the food was also excellent, and the staff were mostly Irish, It was
almost like being at home, except we got a couple
of free drinks at the end of the meal, That would never happen back
home................
We made arrangments to meet the U.S customs early
tomorrow morning , and so skipper and the " first mate" toddled around
Times Square and Broadway for the evening, The
crowds were fantastic, and we booked a show for friday night, "
Anything Goes "
Thursday
We hopped out of the scratcher early and headed off
to Pier 92 to meet " Officer Kennedy" to do our clearances and get our
cruising licence for the East Coast , Of course for
40 minutes we stood out side the wrong door, well the right door, just the wrong
level,
Officer Kennedy was based on the grounf floor
and the taxi driver dropped us on the first floor, well, could you ever
!
Officer " James ( Jamie ) kennedy " worked as a
stock broker up to a couple of years ago before joining the Customs, Both his
father
and Granfather worked in Customs, his granfather
being Irish , Jamie also has an M.B.A. and was a very pleasent and
helpfull thirty something
young fellow,
We got our papers all sorted out and went for a
big, big american brekfast in an American Diner,, yum yum,
Following all the food, we had to walk it off, so
we walked from 40th street up to 72nd street around the Lincoln Centre, just
magic,
It was close to here that " John Lennon " was shot
by the mad man,
We armed ourselves with local mobiles, they cost
$25 each, another $ 25 to get onto the system and for $2 a day we had
unlimited
phone service for local call on the East Coast.
fantastic value,
Later, we sat down on a park bench in Battary Park
and just sucked up the whole atmosphere of the Place while watching
the sun go down over the sky scrapers on th New
Jersey shore line,
FRIDAY
We did a wakling tour of the area, Then went off up
town to have the hair done while skipper serviced the generator, it giving a
splutter
every so often and shutting down completly on
occasions, all just to test the metal, skippers metal..........
We met at Times Square later and strolled over to
the theatre and took our places to watch " ANYTHING GOES " and what
happens to
skipper, yes, this 6.5 foot bird with a mop of
hair like a monster birds nest sat down right in front of him,
! this made viewing a
real neck straining exercise. BUT, but, it
was worth it all, a fantastic show, and we spent the night laughing away out
loud,,
Saturday
Skipper had to get up earley to do something with
the Aqua fresh water filter, this blooming thing is leaking again, and after an
hour
on the mobile trying to locate a new filter, just
gave up, they do not have this type of filter system here in the States, so
skipper
decided to take it out all together, that took
about an hour , but when finished everything worked like clockwork, no more
water squirting all over the engine room ,
10.15 am We met Clayton Love and Christina for
Brunch, we have not met these for a long time and it was great to meet them
again,
we had the " Brunch" in a restaurant selected by
Clayton called " locanda Verda" An italian place and the food was very
Italian
and equally very good, we stuffed our faces while
catching up on all the stories and travels of each other,
We really enjoyed a few hours chatting, whileing
away the day.
Clayton presented skipper a " Fathers Day
" card from his youngest son " Stefan " a very apt card in the
circumstances titled :-
To my DAD the
" Mr. Fix-it " of our FAMILY
Later, Skipper was taken by the first mate to Mass
in St. Patricks Cathedral on 51st street, Later we did a tour of " Sak's"
before going to China Town for a meal ,
SUNDAY ,
Up early to catch the east flowing tide through the
East river up to Long Island Sound, We passed under Brooklyn Bridge at 07.30
hrs
past all the ferry docks, past the sailing ship
Museum's , past the U.N. building, psat " Hells Gate" and finally past "
Throgs Neck Bridge"
and into Long Island Sound, The weather
was great and the sea as flat as a pancake, However on the way ,
skipper forgot to switch
on the auto helm as he went to read the cruising
guide, so " A Lady" did a big circle and crashed into an old timber Pylon,
Ohhh My God! A quick survey of the boat
and apart from a few scratches and scrapes, a broken stb. navigation light,
there was no other
damage, phew, ..................... we really
escaped there lightly..
What an irony, having sailed 36,000 miles only to
bang the boat in a river, But it did shake the life and soul out of skipper, and
the first mate
dident know what to say , and thats unusual,
We travelled 30 miles east along the Sound and
moored the boat at " Stratford" on the South coast of Connecticut , a
lovely marina,
when we were all settled down , we went ashore to
the " Outriggers Rest " where skipper watched Rory Mc Ilroy win the U.S. open
in a fantastic style, breaking all records on the
way, and aileen did her emails,
later we had a great Rack of lamb dinner in the
restaurant, skipper had a few glasses of wine to calm the nerves after the
trauma
of the day, . an early night,
MONDAY 20th
Another beautifull day,in a beautifull location,
still delighted for Rory Mc Ilroy, at 22 years of age, he has a fantastic
future, and a great
advertisment for Belfast and ireland as a whole,
Skipper has been thinking about the generator and
thinks it might be the MPU is the trouble here, so this will have to be
tackled
over the next few days, but definatly not today.
So Far we have travelled :- 25,839 nautical miles,
we
visited
:- 29
Countries,
we called
to
:- 117 Ports, Islands
& stops,
All in 2 years this Month,
We left Stratford around 3pm and headed
east,towards Clinton, but failed to enter after going aground twice, ohhh, whats
next,
we sat for a while and having checked with a
number of marinas, it seems that we draw too much water for most
harbours
at low water, so we decided to drop anchor
outside " Duck Island " just a half mile south of " West Brook
" harbour.
It was a beautifull evening and we had a real red
sunset, good for the Sheppeard and his dog,
Thats it for now,
Signed ;- Stephen Hyde (
skipper )
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