45. New York City

Having spent the night in the New Jersey Intercoastal Waterway, we woke the next morning and continued motoring north, since what little wind we had was coming from the direction we were headed. I took pictures as we passed Seaside Heights, the infamous filming location for the show “The Jersey Shore”, while Eitan looked at me confused as I tried to explain the significance of “gym-tan-laundry”, or GTL. After passing Sandy Hook, we could begin to see the outline of the skyscrapers beyond the layer of haze. We passed under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge that connects Staten Island to Brooklyn and suddenly we were officially in the hustle and bustle of New York City.

It was an unforgettable experience to motor up the Upper Bay with the Statue of Liberty to the left and the Manhattan skyline to the right. Having only been to New York once before, I had only seen Lady Liberty from lower Manhattan, but seeing her up close and personal from the water was something else again. We were quite preoccupied taking pictures of each other and I had to remind myself to be present in the moment and just take it all in. I tried to imagine what some of my ancestors were thinking as they approached the same site when immigrating by ship from Europe many years ago. I asked this question of Eitan but he reminded me that he was first generation American, with his father coming from Israel and his mother from South Africa.

Planning around the East River tides, we would have about 20 hours in New York City. Since Eitan had never been here before, we thought it would be fun to splurge on a marina slip and be able to get off the boat, explore, and meet up with one of Eitan’s childhood friends. We were shocked to find out the marina fee would be an outrageous $12 per foot which would put us at $540 for the night (by comparison, most marinas are about $2-$4 per foot). We found out we could anchor in between Ellis Island and Liberty Park for free so we chose this option instead. After dropping anchor, I could not believe the incredible million-dollar view of Manhattan right out our windows.

Eitan’s friend was still planning to visit and he began investigating potential pickup locations. Most marinas have a public dinghy dock that you can use for free or a small fee, typically about $5. Eitan called back to the marina about accessing the dinghy dock to pick up a guest and was equally shocked to find out it was $50 just to use it for 5 seconds to load and unload passengers. After commenting on the outrageous marina fees, the marina staff just responded “Welcome to New York”.

Eitan’s friend was a trooper and she agreed to meet him over at Liberty Park and climb down to the erosion protection along the shore just a couple hundred feet away. Eitan left to go pick her up and was gone for quite a while when I heard some commotion at the back of the boat. I saw Eitan and his friend getting towed in by another boat. Apparently, the outboard motor on the dingy stopped working so Eitan had to row most of the way there and back until someone offered to help. For a charter boat designed to sleep 8 guests, the charter company gave us a complete POS dinghy that could fit no more than 4 people and apparently didn’t even have a working motor.

Despite the rough transit, we had a lovely time with Eitan’s friend watching the afternoon regatta at the local sailing club, but I could tell Eitan was distracted trying to figure out how we would get his friend back to shore. We devised a plan to pull anchor and Eitan would steer the boat as close to shore as he could, then I would row his friend over the remaining distance in the dinghy. Unfortunately, the tide had been dropping and his friend had to climb back up the rocks, which were covered in seaweed and slime, but she was a trooper and made it back safely. Then, I rowed back to the boat and we motored back out to our anchorage and dropped the hook.

Eitan made some pasta and we ate our dinner overlooking the Manhattan skyline as the sun set and the lights of the city came on. We spent the evening chatting and enjoying the awesome view, until hearing something exploding nearby. Jersey City was putting on a full fireworks display over the Hudson River. It was the perfect end to an amazing day.