Day 272: Monday, June 3, 2013
Port to Port: New York City
Underway: 0:00 am Motor Off: 0:00 pm Miles Traveled: 0 Stayed At: Mooring
Mile 146 to Mile 146: Our noise reduction projects were partly successful. We stopped the centerboard from banging and eliminated some squeaks and bangs but added a million more noises overnight. Torrential rains fell off and on accompanied by thunder and lightning making for an interesting night trying to sleep. My phone added to the fun by beeping at midnight (waking me of course) warning us that there was a flash flood warning for our area so be cautious. At least we don’t have to worry about that – we are already floating.
I woke up early and decided to do a quick load of laundry while we waited for the rain to move on. We must have gotten 2-3 inches overnight – it took many buckets full to bail out the dinghy. I waited for a lull in the rain to dinghy to the marina – I almost made it before the rain started falling again. I threw our clothes in the washer and hopped in the shower. Cindy stayed on the boat to try to get a little more sleep. It probably didn’t work since another inch of rain fell while our clothes were in the washer. Surprisingly, the washer and dryer were free. Not surprisingly, the dryer didn’t work. No one had bothered to put a sign on it so now I had a heavy load of wet clothes on a rainy day in Manhattan. Are we having fun yet? Luckily, I found a Laundromat a few blocks away on Google Maps so I loaded up the clothes and hiked over to find a dryer. A little over an hour later, I had finished my morning coffee, had a roll for breakfast, wandered around the area a little and had a load of (much lighter) dry clean clothes. All by about 8:30 am in the morning.
I went back to the boat, dropped off the clothes, picked up Cindy and off we went to explore again. We had planned to go to the Natural History Museum and Planetarium but it was crowded with school kids on field trips and the sun had come out so we decided to wander north along Columbus to see what kinds of stores and restaurants are nearby and just take in the sights. After stopping at a Virgin Mobile Store to see if they could tell me how to fix my battery life problem (he told me how to get a warranty replacement phone) we were at the far northern end of Central Park at 110th St.. So Central Park it is again. We wandered through the North Woods, past the Harlem Moor, toured the Dana Discovery Center, smelled the roses in the Conservatory Garden (amazing) and cut across the middle of the park along a path overlooking the Jackie Kennedy Onassis Reservoir before reentering the real world again. I can see why the apartments around the Park cost millions of dollars each. What a treasure right in the middle of the city.
We stopped at a few shops on our way back to the boat to get a few groceries and essentials for the boat, Dark clouds were rolling in from the west so we decided to sit on the bench at the marina for a little while to wait for a break. Lucky we did since a few minutes later, the skies opened up and it poured buckets – again. We probably would have gotten soaked before getting to the boat. We chatted with several other people also waiting for the rain to stop and after about a half hour the clouds thinned, the rain stopped and the sun came out for good. We enjoyed French toast al fresco on the Hudson River as the sun set over the river. Only four days before the kids start arriving for their visit – we are counting down the days.
