For the whole
summer we have just dropped the hook or picked up a mooring and so it was
rather strange to go in to bring our home in to a marina. After six months to
the day we spent our first night ashore, in the beautiful home of John and
Patricia. They have just got home
for four months onboard their Discovery
55 Sapphire having sailed it from
Italy to Southampton.
We decided
that before meeting up with them we would get a flavour of New
York, taking the hour journey by bus and subway from City Island
to Downtown Manhattan. We had downloaded
“Ten best things to do in New
York in 24 hours”, the first being to have a
bagel breakfast on 78th
Street. The bus journey proved to be the first
opportunity to engage with New Yorkers, when we found that we could only pay
for the fare using coins … we had dollar notes. I went round the bus
doing cash transactions with three people, a fourth person giving the last dime
that we needed for the fare. Asking one person what we should be seeing
precipitated quite a discussion amongst the passengers. We didn’t have enough
time to do justice to the Metropolitan
Museum, so made vibrant Times Square our first bus stop. I felt rather sick when
I realised my wallet was missing. John leapt in to action, saying that
Positive Thought was required. I was sure I must have left in on the bus and he
rapidly established the location a few streets away of the bus superintendent,
who was superb in tracking down the correct bus, getting it handed to the
supervisor along the route and putting us on the right bus to get it back –
all within the space of one hour. We felt a good lunch was needed to recover
and to celebrate!
It was great
to get snippets of New York life: a guy wearing shades, a white suit and
trilby hat was smoking a cigar at a café table and asking the person at the
other end of the phone when the film footage would be ready: as we walked down
5th Avenue a skate-boarder sped past us – his helmet had
lights and indicators on it. I learnt that the very elderly gentleman opposite
us on the bus had run his last marathon when he was 85 – but his
colleague remarked that he hadn’t done so much running for the last few
years!
We found New
Yorkers warm, welcoming, honest and entertaining!
