The Big Apple That Took Our Paddle

We made it to New York City!

I'm not sure what buildings these are or what significance they have other than they were near us....

There's a great place for sailboats off of 79th street called 79th St Boat Basin. For only $30 a night, you can grab a mooring and then dinghy your way to shore and explore the city. This gave us an excellent opportunity to learn how to tie up to a mooring ball. 

A mooring ball looks like a big floating beach ball that's securely attached to something at the bottom of the river. (I like to imagine a mermaid sitting on the bottom of the river holding the mooring ball like a giant balloon.) 

As we approached the ball, it was my job to lean over with the boat hook and try and grab the web of ropes on top of the ball, then tie those lines to our boat so we don't float away. It took a couple tries, and my face got a little closer to the Hudson River than I would have liked, but eventually, we got it!

The yellow thing is the mooring ball.

Our boat has a nice butt. 

Then, we had to get our dinghy in the water so we could go into the city. This was extra tricky because we had to get used to the tidal current in the water. Technically, there is a tide in Buffalo and a change in water level of about half an inch. These tidal changes of several feet were really different for us. Plus, when the tide is at the right point on the Hudson River, the water can move extremely fast. Justin had to manage to place the dinghy in that really fast water, then put the very heavy and expensive motor on that dinghy while balancing on the constantly moving dinghy. Not an easy feat. 

So I can't really blame him as he was trying to get all of this set up when he lost a paddle for the  dinghy. 

We noticed it was missing, and saw it bobbing cheerfully away, pulled upstream by the super strong tide. Justin leaped to the rescue, releasing the dinghy from the boat and chasing after the paddle, other paddle in hand. After a thrilling chase, he managed to catch up with the other paddle. (For now...cue spooky foreshadowing music....) Unfortunately, he had not counted on having to row all the way back to the boat, against the current. He got in quite the workout.  

Row, Justin row!

Finally, we got the dinghy set up and headed into the city Friday night for a short wander.

It really doesn't get dark there. 

We walked around a few blocks, checking out the sights, and found a neat store/gallery that had a ton of really cool geodes, minerals, rocks, and fossils. I thought about buying one of the cheap ones, but I figured there's enough stuff on our boat without adding a bunch of rocks. The boat already sits a few inches lower in the water than we expected.

Oh schist, geology rocks!

The next day was my day alone in the city, so I made Justin dinghy me to shore bright and early. Justin, meanwhile, was perfectly content sitting on the boat and getting work done. I think he did venture into the city just long enough to go to West Marine.

I'm such a tourist. 

I started off with a short stop at the TKTS building for half price theater tickets, then wandered around The Morgan Library Museum. Yes, that's right. I'm such a dork that I went New York City and decided to go to a museum about books.

I felt like Belle in Beauty and the Beast when she sees the library.

Boooks!!

They even had a Gutenberg Bible! For those of you who aren't giant nerds, Johannes Gutenberg was this guy who lived in Germany in the 1400s and said (paraphrased) "This whole writing thing sucks. There's got to be a better way to get words in front of people than getting a bunch of monks to sit there and copy text." So he proceeded to put a lot of monks out of business and invented movable type. It would be impossible for me to write these words you're reading right now without Gutenberg's invention. The first thing he decided to print was a bible, hence the Gutenberg Bibles. There's only about 50 of them left, and three of them are at the Morgan Library! I couldn't resist taking a selfie with it. 

I'm so cool. 

After the Morgan Library, I saw a new show call The Band's Visit, which was very good, and then grabbed some dinner.

Everyone uses turn tables now. 

Pasta and wine! Yum!

While waiting for my next show... you guessed it! I went to another library. The big New York Public Library was closed, but still really pretty to look at. I think they were getting ready for some fancy event, so they put candles all around the steps, and there were people in black tie outfits trickling in. I thought about hanging out and seeing if I could catch anyone famous, but I didn't want to be late for my next show.

I then left to go see Come From Away. Unfortunately, my phone was dying so I couldn't get a picture of the set, but it still deserves some sort of visual. Holy cow, this was a great show. 120 minutes straight of mind-blowing acting, incredible storytelling, and great music. If you like musicals at all, go listen to it. It's amazing. I'll wait. 

(picture from Wikipedia)

Okay, now that your mind has been blown and you've listened to the show, we can move on. The next day I went into the city to pick up a package and grabbed a bagel because I couldn't leave NYC without one!

Mmmm.... lox....

Then we went to New Jersey to pick up Justin's dad, Mark for a sail around New York harbor. That's right, sail! The weather was perfect, and we were able to raise the sails and actually use our boat as a sailboat all over the harbor. 

Because we're lazy, we decided not to put the dinghy on deck for this short trip, and we just let it trail along behind us. We motored over to a very busy marina on the other side of the Hudson and had a tricky time negotiating the other boats and few open dock spaces to get Mark on board. As we were pulling away, Justin turned around and yelled "The dinghy!" 

The dinghy, not being particularly intelligent, had forgotten which way was up. It was flashing its naked yellow bottom for everyone to see and dragging the motor, submerged, in the water. Justin, once again, jumped into action. He managed to flip the dinghy back up and get the motor out of the water. Luckily, the motor had not decided to abandon its post, and it was still attached to the dinghy, albeit quite wet. I was worried about the motor not being able to start and having to row the dinghy everywhere for the rest of our trip, but I chose to ignore those unhappy thoughts and enjoy our sail. 

 We had a fabulous time checking out the New York skyline, Statue of Liberty, and lots and lots of tour boats! 

We weren't the only sailboats out there! 

#No filter. Filters are hard. 

So many humans.

Mark was steering the boat and doing a great job looking out for oncoming traffic on the navigation system.

Hi NYC! 

Finally, the sun started to set, and we anchored for a few hours to make hamburgers for dinner, then we dropped Mark back off in New Jersey, and went back to our mooring. 

Seriously, it's never dark. 

The next day, after spending some time looking at the motor and changing the oil, Justin managed to start the motor on the dinghy. (Phew.) We dinghied ashore and I did some laundry. (Our towels were getting pretty ripe.) And later that evening, my Aunt Margo and Uncle Barry joined us on board for some drinks. Margo and Barry regaled us with stories of their 30 years of sailing experience, and we had a great time showing off our boat to people who also love sailing. After finishing up a bottle of wine, Justin dropped us off back at the dock so we could find a place to eat dinner. Of course, as we were getting off, the current picked up and our docking was...less than graceful. Normally, we're not with people who know too much about sailing, so when we dock badly, they have no idea we completely screwed up. Margo and Barry, on the other hand, absolutely knew that you're not supposed to crash your boat into things. (Well, maybe that's pretty obvious...) Anyway, they were nice about it, and joined us for a delicious dinner at a Greek restaurant nearby.

As fun as New York City was, the best part was being able to share that time with Mark, Margo, and Barry and give them a chance to see our new home. Thanks for coming aboard guys!

Tuesday morning, we ran a few last minute errands before heading off. I found a really cool two story bookstore, where every inch of the tiny shop was covered in books.

I could have been here for hours. 

But I managed to tear myself away, and we made our last dinghy ride back to the boat. Before untying from the mooring, Justin had to face the current one last time and bring the dinghy back on deck. He managed it without dropping the motor in the water, but once again we looked down and realized...

The paddle was gone.

We untied from the mooring and tried to race after it, but unlike last time, we weren't able to spot it. And so the Hudson River claimed another victim. Our paddle shall forevermore bob along somewhere around New York City. May it rest in peace.

Other than that, we were able to leave the harbor and head off into the Atlantic. Next stop, New Jersey!

tl;dr: We had a great time in New York City.