Captain's Choice blog: New York City

When we left on the great loop in 2016 it was July and it was warm, we were in Chicago at Labor Day (warm), Alabama in October (warm)...Buffalo had an absolutely beautiful summer this past year and I think we were lulled into thinking when we left at the end of September it would still be warm. We have come to the realization that it's October and October is cool and we have not moved down south fast enough and we didn't bring enough warm weather clothing with us! With that in mind we headed to NYC and did a little shopping to get us through the next couple of weeks of below average temperatures.

We are at the Great Kills Yacht Club and it wouldn't be a stay in Staten Island without a walk to Frank & Sal's Italian Market. It's a small grocery store with an array of Italian foods ... a must stop when you are here. It's about a 75 minute bus trip from Staten Island to the city, which is fine for us, we're retired. We love the yacht club ... the members are so nice and accommodating, good Wi-Fi, clean facilities. It's a pleasure to stay here!

It was a top of the world experience (thank you Allison) as we celebrated my birthday on Tuesday. One of the stops was the 102nd floor of the World Trade Center. Wow, what a view! First we met up with Allison and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn and back. We were amazed at how many people were out on a Tuesday afternoon doing the same thing. It was neat to walk across the bridge and then go up in the tower (47 seconds to get from the ground floor to the top) and see the bridge from that vantage point. Then it was off to dinner at an Italian Restaurant (delicious) where Eric joined us and I was serenaded by the waiters and my family in a round of Happy Birthday.

I thought the tower was now called the Freedom Tower so when Allison mentioned going to the top I was surprised she referred to it as the WTC. In 2009 the name was changed from "Freedom Tower" to its legal name "One World Trade Center", which all the New Yorkers know but somehow many of us did not.

Due to us staying a couple extra days waiting for the winds to calm so that we can go out into the ocean we were able to meet up with Allison again Thursday night for dinner.
We are diligently watching the wind forecast for Friday along with 3 other looper boats at the marina (Ramble On, Cha Cha and Goose Chase). Mark has 4 weather sources that he looks at where he checks the wind speed, direction, wave height and wave period. It still looks like a go for Friday morning with a very early start. The only question is how far we decide to go...Manasquan, Atlantic City or Cape May. That decision will be made once we are underway.