New York
Swiftwing
Fri 12 Nov 2010 08:51
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NEW YORK, NEW YORK. As we passed the Statue of
Liberty the four of us all felt a great sense
of achievement. For many people it must surly be an ambition to sail past this iconic landmark and to do it on Swiftwing was just wonderful. I hoped that lots of the visitors would be taking photographs of our beautiful boat and that she would be part of lots of people's holiday snaps, I wonder if there is anyone there from Campbeltown!  The anchorage we chose for the first night is behind the statue of Liberty and is an old dock with a narrow buoyed channel of water 11 foot deep within a basin that shallows to two feet deep at it's south side. We anchored near to a small sailing club for school children which operates from a pontoon in the middle of the dock and is only accessible by boat. There was only one other cruiser, a Dutch yacht at anchor in the anchorage when we arrived so we were able to pick our spot. We quickly planned our day and were soon ready to go ashore. As a precaution, we rowed our dinghy to the pontoon leaving the new outboard on Swiftwing, as we didn't wish to loose it to theft; the pilot book reported that there had been dinghies and outboard motors stolen from here in the past.  Statue of American soldier rescuing the opressed. . We then had a two mile walk through Liberty Park to reach the ferry boarding point for the visit to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.  You don't quite get car parks like this
in Blighty.
You are not permitted to land your
dinghy on either Ellis or Liberty islands and will be arrested by
over-zealous
border protection officers
if you do; we learned this from an
article which appeared in Yachting Monthly some years ago which we kept just in case we ever found ourselves in a position to visit NY. The ferries depart from the old train station, a place where millions of immigrants left from to start their new lives in the USA. There were twenty one platforms there alone.  The entrance to the reception building on Ellis island. There are thirty seven buildings in total. Ellis Island is an amazing place with very well displayed history and wonderful architecture. Immigrants seem to have been very well looked after, but what an emotional time it must have been for them.  Reception Hall, Ellis
Island.
 We climbed the segregated steps where the immigrants thought it was just a queue but in fact the queue to the left was being accepted, the queue to the middle was going straight for detention and return to their countries of origin and the queue to the right was also being accepted but did not have passports or papers of identification. Hence the _expression_, "without papers" (WOP) Entering the great hall was amazing, it was cathedral-like inside and very ornate for such a large building. Immigrants must truly have thought that they had entered the land of milk and honey.  Wall of remembrance
within the 7/7 museum. There was a photo of every person killed in the
attack.
The new 'Freedom Tower' was well up on
the 7/7 or Ground Zero site.
After a couple of hours at Ellis it was time to board another ferry and move on to Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty. In order to climb up to the crown you have to book six months ahead so we will know next time! The statue, a gift from France, is mounted on a plinth that is itself ten storey's high and is made up of 3/16" copper sheeting moulded around an iron framework designed by Mr. Eiffel, a name that has popped up a couple of times since we left home and of course of the tower fame.  Bev in front of
Liberty.
Close up, the detail of the statue is
quite fantastic and from the back you can see that she is
balanced on one foot about to take a stride forward, signifying that she is walking forward to welcome all the poor,
hungry, dispossessed, stateless etc. etc.
It is quite an amazing
achievement. We managed a walk around the island before
boarding
the last ferry back. The tourist could buy every size of model statue that you could think of and was reminiscent of Dell Boy flogging miniatures of the Eifel Tower, thank goodness we are short of room. We had a lovely walk back to Swiftwing and watched some very competitive J24 yacht racing beside the park.  Boss open 60 sailing south on the
Hudson.
The "Boss Open 60" came screaming
through the fleet as we watched. The clubhouse was a floating structure
anchored
in the middle of the course right in the centre of the action, the topdeck was crowded with people probably enjoying a G&T.  A gaggle of J24's
The following day we ventured back into the Hudson and sailed the 6 miles up river to 79th street marina which surprisingly enough is on West 79th street, Manhattan  Our very rolly berth in W79th Streem
Marina.....£83 for the night please.
 USS.Intrepid was so narrow at her
waterline I reckoned that she would roll on wet grass.
We passed all the piers that in
the glamorous era of cruise liners crossing the Atlantic must have
been busy and it would
have been quite a spectacle when all of these piers were full of gracious liners such as The Queens of Cunard. At 79th Street Marina you can rent a mooring for $30 per night but it is strictly a 'first come first served' system and it gives you the use of the marina facilities and a safe place to leave the dinghy when you go ashore. Unfortunately, there were no moorings left when we arrived so we had to come alongside a very rolly pontoon and pay £83 per night for the privilege!  Looking North on the Hudson hoping to
pick up a $30 per night mooring.We had to go alongside a pontoon at
£83
However, next morning we managed
to secure a
mooring which we kept for a week. There was nothing sophisticated about the Marina so we felt right at home, but it has a truly amazing location in the heart of Manhattan.  There were over
fifty piers like this that we saw but the numbers went up over one
hundred.
A five minute walk along W79th took us to the centre of Central Park and within a few minutes to a selection of subway stations. Even the walk up to the street was enjoyable as the marina is situated in a bay front park. Once settled we walked through the park along the banks of the Hudson and went to visit an American aircraft carrier, the USS Intrepid, which is now a floating museum ship that had served in the Pacific during WW2. In fact, a couple of Kamikaze pilots crashed their bomb laden planes onto her flight deck which was rather careless of them.  We couldn't believe how small Concord
actually is.
For the princely sum of $10 we were able to visit the ship which also housed 20 or so assorted aircraft. On reaching the flight deck which appeared to be about twenty storeys up we found that a school brass band from Belfast were playing. We also visited one of the
Concords which was parked on the same
pier and the first Ballistic Missile submarine ever built.( I've forgotten it's name I'm afraid)  On the flight deck of USS Intrepid.
There was even a Tornado there on loan from the RAF.
One of the highlights of our visit
to New York was walking in Central Park
a wonderful foresight by the developers and a haven for all New Yorkers.  Boating lake in
GCP.
We enjoyed the entertainment as we
visited several times, lots of
street artists of all sorts.  This is the standard of busker in GCP. I
think they were playing Fingal's Cave by Mendelssohn.
After Sarah and Will left to fly
home we
spent the 4th July, a Sunday afternoon, in the Park listening to a busker strumming 70's British rock music.  Another view of Central
Park.
Interestingly, there is a statue
of
Robert Burns and Sir Walter Scott on one of the Avenues.  Rabbie.
We also wanted to
'take in' a show while we were in New York but the Broadway tickets were horrendously expensive and the show we had initially wanted to see, 'The Munsters' was being panned by the critics, so instead we went 'Off Broadway' and saw, 'The 39 Steps', which was quite appropriate with it's Scottish theme and author. Sarah, by reference to her Rough Guide to NY, directed us to a very good restaurant called 'Josie's' at 300 Amsterdam Avenue. Cheapish, organic produce and a good vegetarian menu but plenty of big steaks for the 'boys'.  Empire State fro street
level.
 View fom the top of The Empire State
Building looking south over Lower Manhatten with The Statue of Liberty in
the middle of the photo. The Twin Towers would have been right in the middle of
the assembled skyscrapers.
The Empire State swings about
alarmingly at the top.
Duggy and I also found a good
Indian
restaurant after Sarah and Will left on W80th and Amsterdam, one of only four in NY. and in an area known as Devil's kitchen. We walked a lot in New York but also used the subway which was very easy to use but hot in the middle of July though the trains were air conditioned. There was one old man in his 80's busking by playing the piano on one of the platforms, I'm not sure how he put up with the heat and noise but he was very good.  Sarah was delighted to see that 'The
naked cowboy' was playing in Times Square. Apparently he is famous.We avoided
taking photos of 'The naked cowgirl' who was obviously cashing in on the cowboys
fame and to be honest looked like a midden on fire
(Douglas).
 The crowd watching the World Cup in
Grand Central Station.
Central station was an amazing place, beautiful building. Amazingly somebody had put a television screen in the center of the concourse and hundreds of people were watching a World Cup football match with much cheering and clapping going on. Soccer, as they call it is making heavy inroads into the traditional American sports with both Nascar and Baseball attendances dropping like a stone in favour of Formula 1 and Soccer.  Traditional New York tenament building
which has been saved from the wrecking ball.
 Times Square with Bev looking like a
native New....tourist.
 A bucket of live frogs for sale in
Chinatown and no it wasn't a pet shop.
With days of walking and sight-seeing the week with Sarah and Will soon went and it was time for them to head back home. We said goodbye to them at Grand Central Station following a very grand lunch there the waiters dressed in best bib and tucker. . As our US Visas were about to
expire (two year multiple entry, each visit no longer than six
months)
we decided that we would sit down
on Sunday morning and look at
our options. The original plan was to go home for six weeks in the summer when it was too hot in America, but looking at the price of flights we couldn't justify the cost for such a short time. I think the days of cheap air travel have now gone. We also looked at taking the train over the border to Canada with a visit to Niagara Falls for a few days and then re-entering the US., but on investigation this on a US visa forum we learned that this is viewed by the authorities as abusing your visa and our worst scenario would be to have Swiftwing on a mooring buoy in New York and us in Canada and not able to get back to her for a number of months. The Border Protection authorities want a clear break of two months from departure to re-entry. We still had over 600 miles to go to Nova Scotia and less then two weeks left on our visas to do it in. We were also anxious to see our folks and so we decided to come home. We booked our flights on Sunday morning and as it was July 4th we went to Grand Central Park, to give it it's full title, for a relaxing afternoon in the sun listening to the excellent buskers.  Sarah playing one of the street pianos
in Central Park
That night there was going to be the
huge Macy's Fireworks Display off barges in the
Hudson which we were looking forward to. We enjoyed our Indian meal and walked back to the marina. The whole river front was mobbed with crowds of people, cars and Police. The official estimate was that three million people had entered Manhatten to see the display. At 9pm in unison
with music over local radio, the fireworks were set
off
and we had a spectacular view of 22 tons
of fireworks being let off a little further
down the Hudson from the comfort of Swiftwing's cockpit, whilst the three million New Yorkers crowded the shore alongside us. Boats had anchored all along the area and not only was the park full of people but the Hudson was teaming with thousands of boats of all shapes and sizes. The highway was at a standstill with traffic and it all looked like mayhem from our position 100 feet from the river bank. . Three NYPD helicopters did a fly-past
as did three fighter aircraft. The firework
display was quite fabulous.  Photo doesn't do the fiewoks display
justice but you get the idea.
When the celebrations had finished we
watched
all of the boat navigation lights head off in different directions as people headed for home. Tomorrow morning we would get up early, sail back down the Hudson past Coney Island and say goodbye for this year to New York and sail back to the Chesapeake to lay Swiftwing up and head home for what was left of a fine soft (wet) Scottish summer.  The best picture that we got of the
Ospreys after meny attempts. We took Swiftwing very close to the Marker to get
this one and the birds seemed quite unperturbed.
 A peaceful anchorage on the way to the
Chespeake after the hustle and bustle of the Big Apple.
Now we are home in Scotland until we
return to Swiftwing at the end of March 2011
 Back home at the classic car show at
Brodie Castle.
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