Sit down with a glass of wine or a cup of coffee and enjoy my post

October 28, 2015

Coordinates: 40.41668N, 74.02140W

Atlantic Highlands, NJ

44.2 NM

5.5 hours

8.0 average kt.

I hate the wind!  We are anchored today instead of moored. The winds are very strong, the boat is being tossed around and there are white caps in the harbor where we are anchored.  The weather report says there will be gust of wind up to 40 miles per hour, so we are staying put today, tomorrow and Friday. The NJ coast will be 21 kt with gusts up to 29 kt and seas 7-9 feet. Rock and roll today.

I truly don’t know where to start because so much happened yesterday.  I can tell you that we started out at Playland Amusement Park in Rye, New York and from there we  traveled through Hell Gate Bridge and NYC before resting on an anchorage in NJ. We looked at the 54 pictures that Rob took with his phone and the 175 photos Rob took with my phone. It took a long time to go through them because we enjoyed reliving the day.

Fun Fact from Jim Brooks

The Playland Amusement Park is featured in the movie Big where Josh makes the wish on a fortune teller machine that turns him "big".   

I was beyond excited to be on the East River through NYC.  I can’t imagine the traffic through there during the prime sailing time, because it was really busy yesterday. I will choose the pictures of the bridges we went under carefully. The bridge I will enjoy showing you the most is the Hell Gate Bridge.  “ High tide slack water is just what you want--that is, unless you are looking for excitement to start your day!  You’ll also get to ride the falling tide down the East River and out the lower harbor.  As you pass under the beautiful Brooklyn Bridge, which was opened in 1892.  Finally, you will pass the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island just beyond Manhattan.” Description offered by Lenny Reich.

The day started with calm seas and following Sue and Paul. Because I had heard some dramatic stories about going through Hell Gate, I wanted to follow them closely without our auto pilot engaged.  Rob was at the helm early and needed a break, so he went below into the cabin to get a snack, big mistake, I took the helm.  I don’t know what happened. I guess I tried to follow Sue and Paul, but was a little off course headed toward an obstruction. I over corrected headed in a complete circle.  My cue to Rob is to stomp twice on the floor for general assistance or a question, but this time there wasn’t any gentle stomping.  Rob came to the flybridge from the cabin and asked me “what the heck are you doing”.  Remember Rob’s reactions are usually low key.  Well we got situated and continued our journey.  I really wanted to take the helm down the East River and somehow I was able to do it while Rob took the pictures.  The pictures don’t capture the feelings of the day, but still I do want you to see what we saw.

The trawler in the pictures is Sue and Paul’s. Keep in mind that our trawler is the same size.

The City

Hell Gate Bridge

Captain

In Honor of the FDNY

Empire State Building and Chrysler

We were there!

Fun! A Navy Ship makes a 36' trawler look like a bathtub toy

Ellis Island

With a lot of the Jews who left eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it wasn't so much their dreams of a new life that brought them to America as their fears of what would happen if they stayed where they were. Did you see "Fiddler on the Roof"? At the end of the show, those villagers were forced from their ancestral homeland by government-sanctioned violence, and many of them went to America. In fact, many thousands of Yiddish-speaking Jews fled northeastern Europe at that time and for that reason, most -- though not all -- landing on our shores.

They found freedom here, yes; but for the rest of their lives, most felt as if they were strangers in a strange land, clinging to their old ways in a rapidly evolving culture that made no sense. Many of them died young -- three of my four grandparents succumbed in their 50s. Their children (my parents) were caught between two worlds, the one their parents could not let go of and the one they met every day outside their door, and they wound up very conflicted people. Finally, with the second  and third generations born in America, the assimilation is complete, and a new story is underway.

My friend shared this with me and said that I could share it with you there isn't another story that tells the story any better.  

A security boat protects Lady Liberty

Isn't she beautiful!

Goodbye, goodbye New York

THAT WAS NEW YORK CITY!

It was a beautiful day and Hell Gate was heaven.  I so much thought of you while I was at the helm and wanted to tell you all about it and show you what I saw at the same time knowing that I could not really capture it for you.

No, no being a tour guide down the East River is not in my future but sitting down with a cup of coffee and telling you more could be in my future.

Tricia