Sights of New York

After our visit in Brooklyn, it was back to Staten Island where we moved the boat from the mooring ball to a dock at the Great Kills (a Dutch word for creek) Yacht Club. Through a former Looper who is a member there, we were able to stay there for $1/ft. – an unheard of price for the NY area. Thank you again John C! He said about 25 Loopers have visited there but we were the first sailboat! The only down side was it was quite a long drive from Brooklyn for Kyle and it wasn’t exactly convenient to shopping, etc. We did have quite an ethnic adventure shopping at a local Russian market though. I don’t think there was one thing in the deli case I recognized but we managed to get some produce and basic items. Kyle lives in a very Polish neighborhood - interesting shopping there too and hearing so many other languages spoken by people passing by. We hauled laundry to a laundromat on our bikes which was an adventure in itself.

There was a family of mute swans with three little ones in the area. This was what I saw peeping in my galley window the morning we left.


On Friday the 25th we left Staten Island and went under the impressive Verrazano-Narrows Bridge which connects Staten Island to Brooklyn. It's one of the world's largest suspension bridges. I can’t resist taking pictures of impressive bridges and this area has a lot of them.




We entered New York Harbor not knowing exactly what to expect. There was quite a lot of chop with all the boat traffic. Here’s one of the famous orange Staten Island ferries passing by Lady Liberty. We feel somewhat of a connection to these ferries as they’re built in Marinette, WI.

Here’s one of the Circle Line tour boats passing a portion of the famed Manhattan skyline.


Here’s another view of the Statue of Liberty. It’s rather unbelievable to think we’re actually seeing her from our very own boat all the way from Green Bay, WI! I climbed up to the crown with a HS group many years ago but you’re not able to do that anymore.


Here’s Ellis Island where the immigrants were processed for entry into the U.S. I wanted to tour it but it didn’t work out to do that on this trip. Only tour boats are allowed to dock here and at Liberty Island.


We anchored for the night off Liberty State Park on the New Jersey side near Liberty Island with a few other boats. We could see the green lights of the Verrazano Bridge in the distance; they looked like twinkling emeralds – beautiful.

Capt. Paul diligently prepared for the next day’s adventure: a side trip up the East River through Hell Gate!