Day 3, Sept. 13: City Island to Sandy Hook
This morning we played our own version of a “Top Gear” race. We left City Island by boat, under power, and our younger son left his apartment on West 112th St. (the block that has Seinfeld’s “Tom’s Restaurant” at one end and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine at the other) for a race to the bend in the East River (#7), near Roosevelt Island across from Gracie Mansion. I think we (on the boat) even got a bit of a head start, but our son the biker beat us on this leg of the race!
After photos and a lot of exuberant waving (and happy tears on my part) we began the second leg of the race: the Upper East Side to the Battery (#8).
In Chris’s case this meant dodging a lot of traffic on 1st and 2nd Avenues. We, on the other hand, were just sluicing down the East River at half throttle, with a favorable current pushing us and luckily no other traffic! We won this leg by several minutes. Chris had some bad information on the quickest route downtown, so he was terribly disappointed to miss getting a shot of us going under the Brooklyn Bridge.
Given Chris’s struggle with morning traffic coming down the East Side, it was impressive that we only beat him to Battery Park by about 10 minutes. That boy can ride!
I had quite a moment of panic when Chris jumped over the railing in Battery Park to get a photo of us. The folks nearby asked if he was planning to swim out to us….
I thought this was an interesting juxtaposition, the Verrazano Bridge and the colonial fort near the base. And that brings me to the similar clash of cultures I felt as we went through New York today. We were on our very small vessel, not a lot different than a floating gypsy caravan, with all our power in our little world generated by four solar panels that sit atop our bimini at the back of our cockpit. Meanwhile, we were motoring through one of the largest cities in the world, the city I have lived nearest for over 40 years now. It’s vastness was almost as great as the ocean to me….and I felt pretty tiny on board Pandora.
We anchored inside Sandy Hook (#10), New Jersey, in time for lunch. The excitement of the morning had thoroughly worn me out! So it seemed appropriate for some quiet time with my current book and then a nap. At this point, it’s almost opening time!
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