29 Jun 14

Up with the 06:00 alarm, we were away from the mooring ball before 07:00 and pointed north toward NYC. We crossed under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge at 08:44, before swinging past the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Then, it was time to turn up the East River, leaving downtown Manhattan (Memorial Tower (site of former World Trade Center), under the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, passing the Empire State Bldg, Chrysler Bldg and the UN Headquarters rapidly to port as we caught the full flood tide. We shot through Hell Gate at 11.5 kn SOG; it was a little bit turbulent, but otherwise uneventful. We carried on past Rikers Island (which appears to be one huge prison), La Guardia Airport, and under the Bronx-Whitestone and Throg’s Neck Bridges into Long Island Sound, turning right at Manhasset Bay on Long Island, where we picked up a free mooring ball at 12:08 (40 minutes ahead of schedule), courtesy of the Port Washington Town Dock. 

30 Jun 14

We got up and hit the tourist trail; bought a 10-trip pass on the LIRR (i.e., 10 one-way or 5 round trips between PW and NYC (Penn Central)). At Penn Central, we bought a 7-day unlimited pass for the subway. Then we rode over to 52 St., had lunch at Hello, Deli (any Letterman fans out there?) and spent the afternoon at MOMA (also known as Museum of Modern Arts to you uninformed troglodytes). There were a lot of fascinating exhibits and we were really enjoying it all, until I blundered onto a Cy Twombly painting (and I use the term very loosely there). If you do not understand my antipathy, go to Houston, where they have and entire art collection - nay, an entire building - dedicated to this modern (so-called) artist. Personally, I think he was one of the biggest con-men in the twentieth century, but never mind. After the MOMA, we found a pub where we could watch GER v ALG in the World Cup. Then, we got the 20:18 train back to PW and dinghied back to the boat in the dark.

1 Jul 14

Half the year shot and what have we got to show. Well, we have more than 4100 N-miles under our belt since we left Houston, that’s what. We got the 09:40 train into NYC and headed down to the Battery to catch the ferry over to Ellis Island. By the time we got there, we only had about 3 hours on the island, as we wanted to catch the 15:18 train (the last cheap train before Peak rates commence for the rush-hour commuters), so we could watch the USA v BEL World Cup match at Finn McCools back in PW. The museum was great and we may go back one of these days, but we made all the subway and train connections and got to Finns just after the start. It was a great match, but the USA came up short in extra time. Maybe 2018 will be the year; still, they did well to make it out of the “group of death” and it bodes well for Futbol in the USA for the coming generation. We got back to the boat about 19:30 and checked the weather, only to find out there is a bloody tropical storm (Arthur) forming off the east coast of Florida and predicted to strengthen to hurricane force as it works its way up the east coast. So much for heading north to miss the worst of hurricane season.

2 Jul 14

We were up at 07:00 and spent the morning perusing weather web-sites and trying to decide what to do with a hurricane headed this way; although, to be frank, it looks like it will head a bit offshore and largely miss us. Talking to the locals, it seems that the only boats that broke free from moorings here during superstorm Sandy were the ones that were not attended; i.e., the ones with someone aboard to manage mooring lines and monitor and control chafe did just fine. So, we have decided to ride this one out. I spent the rest of the morning moving from our original (500 lb) mooring ball to another one with a 1000# mushroom anchor, doubled up the primary mooring line and ran two safety mooring lines straight to the ball, bypassing the mooring pennant (one line is chained to the swivel and the other is chained to the shackle between the ball and the swivel. We may not stay in this spot, but the damned mooring ball is coming with us. After lunch, we went into town to see a movie (Jersey Boys; great sound-track, and not a bad show), escape the worst of the afternoon heat and get some victuals to tide us through the hurricane. We got back to the boat at 18:00, just before a world-class thunderstorm descended upon us. Lightning strikes all around, but they did not get us this time.  

3 Jul 14

After last night’s storms and rain, it dawned clear and still. The forecast called for storms in the early afternoon, so we decided to stay on the boat and do some maintenance. The port pump-out boat came round and we pumped the holding tanks. Then, I spent most of the day working on the aft 1/3 of the port and starboard toe-rails. All the varnish has been scraped off and they have been cleaned in preparation for the first application of teak oil and sealer. Still have the forward 2/3 to do on each side, but thought I would see how this works before committing to the whole thing; aside from which, scraping 8 coats of varnish off is bloody hard work, except where it is peeling off. The predicted early afternoon thunderstorms never did materialize. The latest forecast for hurricane Arthur indicates that it is going to be slightly further offshore than originally anticipated by the time it gets this far north, so we are probably not going to see any significant wind or rain from it. OK by me. We finally got a good thunderstorm about 20:00.

4 Jul 14

Very little of the predicted rain last night, but showers forecast for today, and a bit of wind, so we decided to stay with the boat. Hurricane Arthur hit the North Carolina Outer Banks last night, but looks like the worst of it will miss us. However, we decided to stay put in Port Washington on our heavy mooring ball and quadrupled mooring lines. We spent the morning working on the starboard toe-rail (it’s about 2/3 scraped now). Just before noon, the rain started and carried on until just after 15:00. When it let up, we headed into town to watch Brazil v Colombia (BRA 2 - COL 1) at Finn MacCool’s. Back to the boat for dinner and sunset. We watched the fireworks in this and the surrounding bays from the boat; very nice and convenient.

5 Jul 14

With the weather improved and settled down a bit, we went back into town and tackled the Metropolitan Museum of Art (or the “Met” for short). This is a huge collection of every kind of art from ancient Egyptian, up through modern art, with all points in between. We were there for nearly 5 hours and only scratched the surface, although we did blunder into my old arch-nemesis Cy Twombly (even the Met has been duped). It is worth a visit if you are ever in NYC. We left in time to see the Nederlands v Costa Rica (NED won on penalty kicks). Then we had dinner at an Afghanistan restaurant, and afterward got the 20:48 train back to PW.

6 Jul 14

Neither one of us had the energy to spend another day in a museum, so we stayed aboard and scraped varnish on the toe-rails. The starboard side is now varnish-free now and I have started to apply the teak oil; looks pretty good to me. The bay was hopping today with sail and power boats going hither and yon. The emergency services were very busy: capsized kayaks and sail boats, lost paddle boarders (in the middle of Long Island Sound), a dismasted sailboat, the usual assortment of mechanical difficulties, a moron in a power boat who anchored about 60 feet away from me (in the middle of the town mooring field, no less) until I shouted him off, and a sailboat on an adjacent mooring that lost his steering just after they left the mooring ball, tried to anchor - unsuccessfully - and drifted just past us, fortunately. Quite an exciting afternoon actually. We will be glad when all the amateurs go back to work. Plandome had a very good fireworks display between 21:00 and 21:30; nice flourish at the end of the day.

7 Jul 14

Back on the tourist trail, we rode the LIRR back to the Big Apple and spent the afternoon at the Met. We still only saw maybe half of it and studied way less than that. But they ran us out at closing time and we caught the subway down to 42nd Street and Time Square, where we eventually ended up at Carmines for dinner. Then the 20:19 train back to PW. In bed after 22:00, completely exhausted; all this culture is hard work.