Staten Island and New York City

A Dream Come True

After the NJICW incident, we made the push out of the NJICW at Manasquan Inlet.  Before you enter the inlet there is a rather fast canal.  We motored along at a nice 12.8 Knt pace. Whoo Hoo.
We then entered the Atlantic Ocean.  The inlet was a bit bumpy, but not too much.  We then headed out about 2.2 miles and turned north towards NYC and Staten Island.  We made the bumpy trip with no problems, and came in to Great Kills Yacht Club, and had a great greeting by fellow loopers. (FYI Kills means 'Many Creeks' in German...I have been told).

We proceeded to get things settled in for the night, and prepare for the trip in to NYC proper.  The next day, John (GKYC) took us to the Stanton Island Rail station.

Friends

There we took the Stanton Island Ferry to Battery Park NYC.  The trip over was very nice, looking at all the sights.  Lower Manhattan, Ellis Island, Liberty Island and the Statue of Liberty and all the ferries and boats hustling along, made for a wonderfully exciting trip.  Our plan was to tour Ellis and Liberty Island.  Simply stated, it was nothing but fun.

 

Vicki so Proud

I felt so patriotic at the Statue of Liberty.  The stories behind the making of the statue were awesome. The symbolism of the statue is just plain awesome.  The millions of immigrants who saw her as they arrived to the USA, is impressive to try to comprehend.  For the most part, many of us have had a relative arrive in the USA via Ellis Island and see the statue as part of their journey.

Ellis Island on the other hand was not as impressive.  By this I mean too many of the displays are still in ruins from Super Storm/Hurricane Sandy.  The number of humidity and temperature devices placed by nothing but a sign "Sorry, This display was damaged by Hurricane Sandy" in a display case was a bit upsetting to me.  There are many artifacts that were very nice, but it took away from the experience.  To add to the frustration, many areas were 80+ degrees with no ventilation.  We then ate lunch near Battery Park.  We returned to the boat and it was an awesome day. We had dinner hosted by JustUs and with Ant Aggie.  Dave prepared Italian Brats in the aft deck in the pouring rain.  When we arrived everybody was wet even using umbrellas.

Aboard No Zip Code

The weather was awful for the next three days.  50's rain, wind YUK!!!  We played cards and had a beer or two at the GKYC.  We also had docktails with No Zip Code.

Somber

The next day, we went to the 9-11 Memorial Museum.  Very awesome museum. Incredible.  Moving.

Frustrating.  Emotional.  I knew I had to depart when I got a lump in my throat.  I do not want to say much more, but every american needs to visit this place.

Vicki Mowing Lunch

We had lunch in a business type of store/restaurant with a few hundred of my best friends.

Its the Little Things in Life

Blue Willow going up the Hudson

 We then departed NYC and headed up the Hudson.

Grab the Bull by the Horn
(I had a choice of the Nuts)

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