Long Island Sound, NY
When we got up this morning, Tom told me that I was lucky I got to sleep through the night! Apparently in the middle of the night, he heard the ropes securing us to the dock groaning. As the tide went out and the boat went lower and lower relative to the stationary dock, the ropes were becoming like guitar strings being tightened. He was the hero though and got up and untied and adjusted them. We found out this morning that
this area has tide fluctuations of 11 feet of vertical drop. That’s a pretty significant swing when you are not moored to a floating dock.
After breakfast we set off across the New York harbor. It was an adventure to see the city from this perspective. There were huge freighters in the harbor some loaded with containers the size of tractor trailer trucks. The water was pretty rough, so my pictures may be a little blurry. I took a lot of pictures of the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island as she such an icon representing the US. She was a gift to the United States in 1886 from the people of France as a celebration of
our Centennial. (Yes, the lady was about 10 years late in arriving, but the design began in 1870). It matches a smaller figure in Paris in the Jardin of
Luxemburg. The framework for the statue was constructed by Gustave Eiffel who would later become famous for the Eiffel Tower. She has solid copper sheathing which is now colored by a green patina except for her gilded torch of gold leaf. The torch held high seems to glow from the distance we saw her.
When we got up this morning, Tom told me that I was lucky I got to sleep through the night! Apparently in the middle of the night, he heard the ropes securing us to the dock groaning. As the tide went out and the boat went lower and lower relative to the stationary dock, the ropes were becoming like guitar strings being tightened. He was the hero though and got up and untied and adjusted them. We found out this morning that
this area has tide fluctuations of 11 feet of vertical drop. That’s a pretty significant swing when you are not moored to a floating dock.After breakfast we set off across the New York harbor. It was an adventure to see the city from this perspective. There were huge freighters in the harbor some loaded with containers the size of tractor trailer trucks. The water was pretty rough, so my pictures may be a little blurry. I took a lot of pictures of the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island as she such an icon representing the US. She was a gift to the United States in 1886 from the people of France as a celebration of
our Centennial. (Yes, the lady was about 10 years late in arriving, but the design began in 1870). It matches a smaller figure in Paris in the Jardin of
Luxemburg. The framework for the statue was constructed by Gustave Eiffel who would later become famous for the Eiffel Tower. She has solid copper sheathing which is now colored by a green patina except for her gilded torch of gold leaf. The torch held high seems to glow from the distance we saw her.We enjoyed our ride up the East river under the sequence of bridges that connect Manhattan with the East. We wound past the United Nations building and La Guardia Airport both of which
front on the river. At lunch time, we anchored just off a sandy beach in the Long Island Sound and took our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to the bow for a picnic. The water was calm, the sun delightful, and the breeze making the setting very comfortable. It seemed, just to make it
perfect, that I could hear a music box playing. This was actually somewhat surreal so I set about trying to figure out where the music was coming from because it did not seem like it was from the shore. We finally decided that it was a series of buoys which had bells ringing different notes at a distance and the breeze was blowing them in our direction. Just perfect.
On our way into the NorthPort Bay, we passed Huntington, NY. The famous poet Walt Whitman was called the bard of Huntington and his family’s 1400 acre home place was there. He died in 1892 and also has a bridge in Philadelphia named after him. You might remember his poem, “O Captain, My Captain”, but it was pretty grim since his ship captain was dead... Oh well. Docked at the Britannia Yacht Center and safely tied to floating docks this time, we took our bikes into town to find dinner and a grocery store. It seemed like it was uphill both ways and I wound up walking part of the way to make it. We had a great dinner at a little Italian restaurant where you had the sense that everything really was home made. I had the lobster ravioli – yum, yum! We also saw an interesting tree in front of the First Presbyterian Church - from a distance looked like dogwood, but the four petal white flower
was shaped differently. Does anyone know what this is?
front on the river. At lunch time, we anchored just off a sandy beach in the Long Island Sound and took our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to the bow for a picnic. The water was calm, the sun delightful, and the breeze making the setting very comfortable. It seemed, just to make it
perfect, that I could hear a music box playing. This was actually somewhat surreal so I set about trying to figure out where the music was coming from because it did not seem like it was from the shore. We finally decided that it was a series of buoys which had bells ringing different notes at a distance and the breeze was blowing them in our direction. Just perfect.On our way into the NorthPort Bay, we passed Huntington, NY. The famous poet Walt Whitman was called the bard of Huntington and his family’s 1400 acre home place was there. He died in 1892 and also has a bridge in Philadelphia named after him. You might remember his poem, “O Captain, My Captain”, but it was pretty grim since his ship captain was dead... Oh well. Docked at the Britannia Yacht Center and safely tied to floating docks this time, we took our bikes into town to find dinner and a grocery store. It seemed like it was uphill both ways and I wound up walking part of the way to make it. We had a great dinner at a little Italian restaurant where you had the sense that everything really was home made. I had the lobster ravioli – yum, yum! We also saw an interesting tree in front of the First Presbyterian Church - from a distance looked like dogwood, but the four petal white flower
was shaped differently. Does anyone know what this is?
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