We couldn’t manage a spinnaker entrance into New York Harbour, as the breeze just didn’t hold quite long enough, probably just as well as we were bound to have cocked it up! Instead we had the time to marvel at that extraordinary skyline, sadly missing the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre, but still probably the most recognisable skyline in the world.
We dropped our anchor just between The Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island, the landing point for 10s of thousands of immigrants, and settled down with a glass of wine to enjoy the sunset and amazing scenery. Our calm was interrupted fairly quickly by the NYPD who came alongside to ask us what we were doing? Once we had explained we were going to spend the night anchored there, they wanted to check what time we would leave in morning, Louise wondered out loud if they were taking our coffee & bagel order for breakfast, luckily they thought us crazy but harmless and best left alone.
The next morning we headed up the Hudson River to the west of Manhattan Island to the imaginatively named 79th Street boat Basin which had been recommended to us by our sailing friend and NY resident Efraim from Aliza. It turns out that he has sent us to the best hotel in New York - $30 a night on the “Upper West Side” with a view of the Hudson River and Riverside Park, although as we are parked on a mooring, a wet bottom from choppy dinghy ride to shore can still be a problem!
On our first trip ashore in the Big Apple it suddenly dawned on us that Marks’ usual outfit of slightly oil stained shorts and a faded, t-shirt with just 1 or 2 holes and the sort of shoes that he would point and laugh at in the UK would not really cut-it on Madison Avenue! Louise panicking sent him to the nearest Gap to get a pair of decent trousers and after a rustle around in deep storage a non-mildew ‘smart’ shirt was eventually found. So suitably attired we set off on our first sight seeing trip to the Guggenheim which was disappointing as the exterior of this great building is covered in scaffolding for its restoration.
Another clothing problem quickly emerged whilst wandering around Central Park, as Louise, so happy to be back in proper clothes, had donned a pair of high heels and such bad blisters quickly appeared that she had to spend the rest of our time in New York back in flip flops.
After a ring round our New York contacts our diary was quickly filled with dates (1st time we have used a diary for 5 months!) and we proceeded to enjoy the whirl of a big city again. Louise’s old employers, Goldcrest Films, lent us an enormous apartment for a night, invited us to a private screening (Louise in 7th heaven) and took us out for dinner. We spent a lovely day with Efraim and his family in New Jersey. They live 30 minutes from central Manhattan yet are surrounded by wonderful wooded countryside and very close to the Hudson River where he keeps his boat. Very impressively Efraim and his Dad build the boat themselves and sailed around the world!
We had a quite noisy night out with James Sheed who invited us to stay at his home in Connecticut – more of that to follow.
We also discovered the wonderful bicycle road which runs along Hudson River side of Manhattan and it became our preferred route as we travelled everywhere (pretty much) by bike. Louise only got nervous when we crossed back to the main roads and ended up weaving in and out of yellow taxis and buses but as only a few shouts and beeps were received it all went well!!
So by the time our Swiss friends arrived on Shiva a few days later, we felt like old New York hands and quickly took them on a guided tour ending up with a trip to Modern Art Museum and then out for an Indian!
It has been such and unexpected treat our visit to New York; NYC seems to have transformed itself since we were last here 10 years ago. It’s clean the people are polite (well some of them) there are numerous food shops that would make Fortnum & Mason blush and at $2 to the pound it has been a full time job keeping Louise out of the clothes shops – crying is not attractive in a girl over 30!
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