THE CITY

Charmed made New York City about 2:00 pm last Sunday, having departed Port Washington four hours before.  It was a wonderful sail through the west end of Long Island Sound, by Rikers Island, through Hell Gate, by the big buildings, past the Statue of Liberty.  We planned and rode the maximum ebbing current of the East River for a fun flush between Roosevelt and Manhattan Islands and under the Brooklyn Bridge.  Over 11 knots SOG at times.  We then had to work against the current up the Hudson, hoping for a mooring at the West 79th Street Boat Basin, before the George Washington Bridge.  The moorings are not reserved but handled first come, first served.  At only $30.00 a night they are popular.  Once within radio range we were given bad news, none were available.  We sailed on, looked anyway, happened to find one, and were told we could have it.

Once on the mooring we sat amazed at the state of the river and the current.  The mooring balls were nearly under water a large part of the time.  BOAT SPEED was sometimes over three knots, and we were parked!  The waves were two feet.  The swells were higher.  It was not comfortable, and we wondered how safe we were.  The harbor master had assured us . . . .

Deciding to sit on the boat until the current was slack the next morning, we enjoyed the scenery from the cockpit until bed time.  There was no sleeping on Charmed that night!  The boat bounced and bounced.  The mooring tackle made loud, horrible noises.  We wondered whether the mooring pennants would hold and inspected them for chafe every hour.  More often for the periodic louder than loud noises.

About 4:00 am we decided we were not going to stay on these moorings.  We would not be comfortable leaving the boat for any length of time, at all for that matter.  We had not even seen business day river traffic yet!  Now we just wanted enough daylight to depart.

Once the big boats and fast ferries started passing us just before daylight conditions even got worse.  A loud pop turned out to be the parting of one of the strands of one of the two three-strand nylon rope pennants.  Now sitting at the helm, watching and waiting for sunrise, I thought it might just be best if we broke off.  Then we wouldn't have to deal with casting off.

Once Charmed started to swing with the slacking and changing current, and the light started coming up, we did cast off.  We found the Liberty Harbor Marina fuel dock up Morris Canal and waited until 8:00 am for them to open.  By 9:00 we were docked and napping in a calm cove.  Liberty Harbor's tag line is "Are you tired of being bounced around on the Hudson?"  We were, in less than half of a full twenty-four hour day.

Settled in at LIberty Harbor we now could enjoy New York.  Like all tourists we walked and walked and looked and looked.  A dinner with Cousin Jim and his friend Jason, and being in the audience of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, arranged by friend Al, were highlights of this trip to The City.

This was our second visit to New York by boat.  On the first visit we stayed in The North Cove, a marina on the Manhattan side of the Hudson.  It is a good place and very convenient to The City.  They looked full this time, and we wanted calm as calm could be.  The North Cove rocks and rolls throughout the day.  It settles down some at night.  Liberty Harbor is complete calm, and we needed that after one night exposed on the Hudson.