David’s Voyage Blog

Publish Date: Monday, April 27, 2009
Location: New York City, New York
Coordinates:   40° 47.034′ N  73° 59.303′ W

It’s quite a thing to visit New York on our own boat. We arrived here late Sunday night, cruised up the Hudson River in the dark (yikes!), and moored at the 79th Street Boat Basin. It’s a great location from which to visit Manhattan, although they’re not really set up to handle a boat of our draft. We had to be moored on the face dock, exposed to the Hudson River, and the wash from the barges and other boats was a bit much. There are also five-foot tides right now, and we weren’t on a floating dock, so it was a constant adjustment of the lines. Consequently, we moved out to a mooring ball today, and we couldn’t be happier. It’s a bit less convenient because of the required dingy ride into the Basin, but where else can you stay in Manhattan for $30/day?

Since we’ve all been to New York several times before, and I lived here for several years in my younger days, we decided to make a short list of the things we really wanted to do while we’re here. This kind of “controlled tourism” works well for us, as it allows us to enjoy a few things thoroughly. Here’s the short list for this visit:

• See several family members who live here. We began this tonight with a wonderful dinner out with Maureen.
• Visit The Museum of Natural History. Ever since we all saw the movie Night at the Musuem we’ve been wanting to visit again.
• See a Broadway play or musical. Currently the short list includes Wicked, Mamma Mia, and South Pacific.
• Visit The Cloisters museum. I lived in Manhattan for three years, and I never made it up there. We’ve heard wonderful things about it, so we’ve decided to give it a look.
• Go stand outside the Today Show in the morning. While we don’t watch it much anymore, it used to be a morning routine for Kathryn and me to watch Matt and Katie. It’s time we went and saw the scene.
• Go to Zabar’s for food and cooking gear. Kathryn is always looking for a short list of things for the kitchen/galley, and Zabar’s is the place in NYC.

So that’s the plan over the next several days. We’ll see how it pans out, but we’re excited to be in New York!