Touring New York City

The first picture shows the clubhouse at Great Kills Yacht Club (GKYC) on Staten Island, NY. The club members have all been very friendly and helpful. John, our host, even offered us his car, if we needed. We spotted this pretty jellyfish under the stern of a boat on our dock.

On Thursday, July 3, we walked to the Staten Island RR station at Great Kills (@ 1.5 miles from the boat) and rode up to St. George on the tip of Staten Island. Here we picked up the Staten Island Ferry for a ride over to Battery Park in the financial district of Manhattan.

Passing another Ferry

Lower Manhattan

Battery Park

Glad we don’t have to dock this behemoth!

Brooklyn Bridge over the East River with Waterfalls underneath

Another waterfall on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade

These manmade waterfalls are a public art project by artist, Olafur Elliasson. The artist constructed 4 of these waterfalls in the New York Harbor area. The third one is on Lower Manhattan at Pier 35 and the last one is on the northern shore of Governor’s Island. The structures are 90-125 feet high and will be on display until October 13. For more information on the waterfalls check www.nycwaterfalls.org.

The Staten Island Ferry ride is free and the train cost us $2/person each way, so a whole day of sightseeing around NY Harbor cost us $8.00. That is a true bargain for the City!

Friday, July 4 turned out to be a rainy day, so we relaxed on the boat and plotted our course on our paper charts up the East River and out into Long Island Sound. We also consulted our Waterway Guides and Skipper Bob books. Friday night we watched the Macy’s fireworks over the East River on TV, along with real time fireworks visible around Great Kills Harbor.

Saturday, July 5, we headed for a bus stop on Hylan Blvd., not far from GKYC. We boarded the x1 express bus at 10:20am and rode across the Verrazano Bridge to Brooklyn and then entered the toll booths at the Brooklyn/Battery Tunnel to Manhattan, where we immediately stopped, the bus driver left the bus and a police car pulled up beside the bus! A policeman came aboard and questioned the passenger in the first seat. The passenger had been videotaping the bridge and tunnel— ABSOLUTE “NO-NO’s” in New York City! With the help of another passenger who spoke Russian, the policeman told the passenger that he had to erase the video that he had taken or tape over the video. It was great to see how quickly this whole episode was handled!

We rode the bus all the way uptown to 57^th Street and looked for a lunch stop, mainly to get out of the rain. We found a small café on 6^th Avenue and dried out.

St Patrick’s Cathedral

Rockefeller Plaza

The Ice Rink at Rockefeller Plaza

Trump Tower

Tiffany & Company, where we shopped a little over 40 years ago for our wedding rings. 40^th anniversary coming up in August!!

Bob walking in the rain in Central Park

Beautiful Planter in Bryant Park

Here’s Bob at Fox News, his favorite network!!!

Here’s Sue in Times Square

A Quiet Zone in front of the NYC Public Library

The race of the Taxis on Fifth Avenue

Other forms of transportation

Damaged Globe in Battery Park that use to stand near the World Trade Center

We returned back to Hylan Blvd. about 5pm and stopped at a Papa John’s Pizza near the bus stop and bought take-out pizza for dinner. I wore my pedometer and we had walked almost 18,000 steps today (approx. 6 miles). Doctors say we should be walking 10,000 steps daily, so we earned this pizza!!

This PileMate contraption is on the piling at our dock. It floats up and down with the 6’ tide and protects the boat’s surface from nicks and scratches if they hit the pilings, which is easy to do if there’s any wind. The owner of the sailboat next to us installed the PileMate to protect his boat called “Silent Woman”. Don’t you just love that name!! TOM-KAT makes good use of the pile protector too.

The last picture was taken this morning aboard “Silent Woman”. The fellows offered advice on our upcoming cruise on Long Island Sound up to Boston Harbor. It’s been a delightful, relaxing time at GKYC and we thank John and all the members of the club for their hospitality and all their helpful information regarding the city, the buses and trains and tips on our trip further north. Thanks everyone!

We hope y’all had a Happy Fourth of July Weekend!