Just finished some laundry and some boat chores (they just keep comin’). We’re at the West 79th Street Boat Basin in Manhattan, N.Y. We arrived yesterday afternoon, around 4 pm, but had to relocate (more about that later).

It was a very nice morning leaving Newburgh, and a scenic trip through “The End of the World” (that’s what it says on the chart), and past West Point military college.

After recent experiences in New York, I feel I may have judged the marina in Newburgh too harshly. It was a nice place, the people were nice, the dock was adequate. I have different standards now.

This stretch was prettier than the pictures. Not sure if it’s the camera or the photographers, but we seem to have a hard time capturing the beauty of it all…

It was pretty exciting approaching New York City. We could see it in the distance for a long while after we passed under the Tappan Zee Bridge, but the skyline wasn’t visible in the excessive number of pictures we took, so I deleted them.

We knew we were almost there when the George Washington Bridge was close.

We planned to stop at the West 79th Street Boat Basin, and were hoping to pick up a mooring ball, which cost less than a third what getting a slip there costs.

There were loads of free mooring balls when we got there, so we picked one up. I opted to be the person on the bow – the one who picks up the ball and secures the boat to the mooring, and I made the mistake of not wearing gloves. Phill is much better at driving the boat under power; I’ve practiced, but he’s still better at it (there was a serious tidal current when we arrived). I grabbed the submerged ropes with the boat hook (pike pole, whatever), then used my hands to secure the lines. The most disgusting rain of squirmy, many-legged water creatures came down on the bow and all over my hands. I couldn’t help the embarrassing squeals that escaped my mouth. It was very gross. Anyhow, the boat was secure. Then we had to move. Could’ve cried.

It’s a long story, and I won’t bore you with it, but basically, if we wanted to stay, we had to get a slip inside the basin. Let’s just say we should’ve called them before we got all exited about picking up a mooring ball. $2.75/foot plus electricity. The boat basin guy instructed us how to enter the basin and find our assigned slip. When our slip came into view, I didn’t think we’d fit, the slip was bucking like a bronco in the swells, and there was a huge catamaran uncomfortably close by. I was sending Phill, who was of course at the helm, all the good vibes I could muster. A lot of silent “You can do it, Phill. You’re an awesome boat pilot. You can do it. Piece of cake, you can do it.” Anyhow, we made it smoothly with only the lightest kiss of the piling on our port side. Phill did a great job under a lot pressure, so lots of kudos to him. This docking put a great big boat-handling feather in his cap, for sure.

Anyhow, we were secure in the boat basin, if you can call being tied up to a slip that bucks like a bronco secure. New York City is the land of “pay more get less”. There is no free WiFi at the boat basin unless you want to sell you soul to Time Warner Cable, so we’re drinking coffee at a Starbucks (something we swore we WOULD NOT DO on this trip), catching up on some admin and updating the blog.

Hope all’s well at home (thinking about everyone at work, and sending you all the good vibes I can muster).

Talk again later…

(P.S. we’re still dinghy-less – we’re meeting a guy named Artie from Long Island tomorrow to take a look at the one he has for sale. Note to self: don’t leave home without a dinghy next time you go sailing. This has been an ongoing pain in our behinds)