Chapter 60: New York City to Kingston

Log 60
NYC to Kingston, NY.

5:50 AM
Monday, July 03, 2000
Hideaway Marina
Kingston, NY.

Day 78

Steve and Claudia arrived right on schedule. They caught a 6:30 AM flight from Chicago, and got to the boat about 10:30 on Saturday. The day was just beautiful. Sunny, and about 83 degrees.
Once we straightened up their stuff, we took a cruise of the New York Harbor. We went up the East River, which is between Manhattan, and Brooklyn. (I’m assuming somewhere along here we went under the Brooklyn Bridge) This is also the river that takes you out to Long Island Sound. We also went along, and around the Statue of Liberty again. Quite a sight from the boat.
For dinner we took the ferry from our marina to Manhattan. We have done that three times now, looking for a place to eat. The first time was with Rome and Theresa, and we ate at a place called Fox Hounds. The next time just Deb and I went over (on Friday night), we thought it over, and we ate at a place called Fox Hounds. On Saturday night with Steve and Claudia we introduced them to a great place called…..you guessed it…..Fox Hounds. Hey it was a good place.
Sunday…
We left New York with a lot going on. Here is a small example…
· They are expecting about 40 million people to be on the New Jersey Turnpike.
· About 160 Tall Ships will be there. The largest gathering in history.
· The carrier “The John F. Kennedy” will be in the harbor with President Clinton on board.
· They plan on the largest fireworks display in the world.
· They expect 40,000 boats in the harbor to see the fireworks. Yes…that’s 40 THOUSAND!
· Protection?? The State Police—Secret Service—NYC Police—FBI—Coast Guard and the Navy.
They are missing one thing though. Headquarters. We got the heck out of there, so I guess there will only be 39,999 boats now. (Call me boring, but there is no way I would want to be a part of that)
The trip up the Hudson was just awesome. It was everything I could ever expect, and a lot more. The first thing we encountered was a May Day call on the ship to shore radio. Someone was calling the Coast Guard saying they were taking on water and sinking near the George Washington Bridge. This was interesting to me, because we were just south of the bridge, and I immediately got the binoculars out and looked to see if I could see someone, and possibly help. The strange thing was no one was around. The caller told the Coast Guard they had 5 persons aboard, and going down. For the next few minutes there was a lot of chatter on the radio, but no one heard from the distressed boat again. I called the Coast Guard, and told them I was near the bridge, and I didn’t see anyone. The next thing you see is a Police boat, and then a helicopter, and then a Coast Guard boat. We saw the Coast Guard up close. Very close. In fact they had their blue lights on and pulled us over. They asked us a lot of questions, and took our boat information. I think, and so do they, that it was a crank call. A shame to have all of that happen for nothing, but it was an exciting way to leave the city.
North of NYC the Hudson is absolutely spectacular. Tall cliffs line the sides of the water, and it is wide and easy to navigate. In fact the entire 90 miles we went yesterday was very pretty. We passed West Point (that was really neat) and made our way up to Kingston, NY. All along the way we passed boats heading south. We assumed they were all heading to NY for the big show. It was a beautiful day, and a joy to spend it on a boat on the Hudson.
The Guide Book describes Kingston as sort of oasis. It is the only main stop off between NYC and Troy, NY. (Which is where we turn west, and join the Eire Canal) What we found in Kingston was a small town in need of jobs. They were having their July 4th celebration, and you could tell there was a fair amount of poverty. Nonetheless, everyone was having a great time. We found our way from our marina, to Rosita’s, a Mexican restaurant in the heart of town. It turned out to be a good place to eat, and afterwards we walked around the town, and watched all of the festivities. The boats were fender to fender. All waiting to see the main event. The fireworks. Which I must say was very good. (Although I can’t figure out why they have to have them so late. 9:45 Come on.) Good day!
I’ll keep you posted.

BK.