Atlantic City & New York

Catacaos
Graham Shaw
Mon 17 Aug 2009 12:58
Atlantic City .......Umh don't go there unless you are staying in a plush
hotel and like gambling. This is the East Coast Las Vegas, umh go to Las
Vegas if you want to gamble, not Atlantic City. Not one of our favourite
places, but hey you cannot win them all. They had a spectacular building with
the whole of it TV Screens. Anchorage was good but a long way from the
dock. Had to spend two nights here as the weather was not ideal, so we ended
up going in a marina for the second night. Long time since we have been in a
marina - I had forgotten about squeaking ropes and fenders. At least it was better
than getting soaked getting to the dock from the anchorage.

Next stop Manasquan inlet, quite the happening place. Only problem, two
bridges to get into either of the ancorages. Downfall of having a catamaran, we
were too wide for both the bridges to get through, so
we ended up anchoring in the channel, which was fine until the next morning
when there was a rush of several hundred fishing boats - no exaggeration -
past us to the sea. When we left that morning the sea was awash with boats, not many catching fish though - I wonder why!!!!

We arrived New York in haze, best to arrive New York was sunrise,
but we were not that keen to sail through the night, we like our sleep too
much. Lots of large ships coming and going and of course a swarm of fishing
boats to dogde. First you see the Manhattan skyline, then the Verranzo Narrows bridge
which is two decks high (8th largest bridge in the world). Of course Gray wanted a picture of the boat with
Lady Liberty ( see pic) which entailed gray jumping into dinghy - I did not
fancy it - lots of wake from all the tourist boats flying about. 150 yards around the statue
is a No Go Zone, that why she looks so small, and the boat
looks so large! Then past Ellis Island, where all the immigrants used to check in when
arriving by boat in years gone by. Which meant another pic, as Gray's middle name is
Ellis - no relationthough, we think. Lots of tour cruises that knock you about - got knocked
sideways a little to much and ended with a wave over the back of the boat,
it almost felt like being in the Atlantic again. We managed to anchor off
79th Street Boat Basin in Manhattan, which has mooring buoys, but if you a catamaran you are
not allowed to pick them up. We found this out after battling against a very
strong current with not much space. Another downfall of catamaran, but a small
price to pay for living with space. The current in the anchorage is up to 4
knots which races by. Also the wind blows down the river so boats are
swinging all over the place, a few bouncing off each other too.

Off to Central Park to see the sights. Got to the park and was gutted to find
no horse riding any more, just horse and cart rides, what a shame I was looking
forward to a little horseback ride, but we had a lovely walk through Central Park with
Lucas saying horsey every time one went buy. So we went for the tour bus
thing, first bus we got on then stopped two blocks down, so we had to walk
another 3 blocks to catch the next one, which took a long time to arrive. We
had a good tour of the sights in downtown Manhattan which was worth the
wait. We were so enthused with the tour we decided to get off, do the Brooklyn tour
halfway through it, and then get back on the downtown Manhattan tour. Well, five
minutes in the bus broke down twice on the Manhattan Bridge - managed to get
to the next stop and said they would send another bus. 40 mins later - and two
hot dogs later for Gray as he was starving - another bus arrived only to tell
us that he had also broken down. They would send another bus but it would
be a while, so we decided to walk back accross the Brooklyn Bridge. An hour or
so later managed to catch another bus to take us back in the direction of
where we start. Lovely walk across the bridge. On the next bus we realised we
were on the same tour as before, so sat it out until we realised the other
line to catch the next bus stopped at 6 pm. We then had to walk another 20
blocks to our street then another 5 blocks to the dock. That beer or two
was need when we arrived back at the boat.

Surprisingly the architecture was very nice in Manhattan - lots of lovely
buildings, well worth the visit even though my feet would not agree!

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