TripSailor.com® Sailing Blogs

June 2nd, 2010

We left Mamaroneck, Ny. around 7:30 A.M. with a calm sea and a sky that even the most experienced painter could not recreate.  The traffic on the sound was next to none except for a small cluster of fishing boats.  The city could be seen for miles before we actual arrived at the East River.  While going down the East River we could see La Guardia on our port side and hear it’s many planes as they flew over us.  To all of you Law and Order fans, we also sailed by Riker’s Island. When we were preparing for Hell’s Gate, we had to double back twice, due to the ferry traffic on the river.  For all the bad press we received about Hell’s Gate, we had only on incident and Spruce handled the boat magnificently. After Hell’s Gate we continued towards New York Harbor while taking in the amazing sky line of New York City.  I must have taken hundreds of pictures and yet I was still restless.  I wanted to see the Our Lady in the Harbor.  Spruce sensing my restlessness laughed and suggested that I get the binoculars and look for her.  As I fumbled for the he said “Look at the past the last bridge, I see a statue”.  I scrambled to my feet and pointed the glasses in the direction and sure enough, there she was, “Small of course” (Nod to Titanic). We kept our course and dodged the wakes and traffic of New York Harbor.  When I say traffic, I mean every type of boat and ship imaginable.   As we circled the Statue of Liberty, (Behind the security buoys of course), we could understand what our relatives and the many others who came to this country felt when they saw the Statue.  Seeing her close up and from our boat, is truly a once in a life time event and it nearly brought tears to my eyes.  As we prepared to leave Our Lady in the Harbor, we took one last look at her and the New York sky line, pausing a moment to remember the men, women and children who died on September 11th in the Twin Towers and then we changed our course and headed towards Sandy Hook, NJ.