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**   Staten Island – Jersey City – New York City   **

I want to wake up in a city that never sleeps. And that we did after our long run up the Jersey coast. Our crew set down some roots and floated off a mooring ball for four nights in Great Kills Harbor before making the voyage into New York Harbor, by the Statue of Liberty, and to a dock in Jersey City for three nights. What an exciting, fun filled week in the city!

Great Kills to Jersey City by the Statue of Liberty

Neither of our crew have been to New York City. There was much excitement and a little trepidation tackling the city and boating through the harbor. We were not in Indiana anymore!

Happy to be in Great Kills Harbor with the ocean run up the New Jersey Coast was behind us, we had a couple of chill days on Staten Island. Exploring the area on foot, had us eating great pizza, checking out the marina neighborhood, and visiting the Richmond County Yacht Club for happy hour. We have found that even in New York, the price is always right at a yacht club!

On the strong encouragement of our Kentucky friends, Barbara and Joe, who looped several years ago on Bahlahula, we headed to Frank and Sal Italian Market. This was a field trip in itself, and a great game of Tetris ensued after our visit to fit our purchases in the refrigerator. Of course, the staff pegged us as foreigners right away as we didn’t have their accent down. Without any prompting they asked us if were on boats doing the loop de loop as they thought was that time of year again. Seems like we were some of the first of the Looper migration to hit this gem of a market season. We can now say there is nothing better than an Italian Market in Staten Island! We’re still sampling on some of our culinary finds.

Frank and Sal on Staten Island

We set off from Great Kills Harbor with our friends on Live the Dash for a day in the city. Emily, was our transportation director, led us to the first bus stop. We saw our bus barreling down the road prior to 7:00 am and it barreled right by. All of us being small town folks, didn’t realize you have to hail the bus for them stop, otherwise they just keep going. We didn’t let the second one by without big waves to get them to stop. You gotta wave those arms high! With our phones out taking photos every step of the way, we certainly were tourists of the biggest kind. A transfer and a train ride, we were at a downtown restaurant for breakfast with a singing wait staff. It was an array of musical entertining chaos, with food on the side.

NYC sights

As we sat in the restaurant, the rain began to come down in buckets. We needed to get around the block to our guided bus tour. We were happy we chose this as our activity on this dreary, rainy morning. Even Time Square was dead. The tour was narrated by a New York native who had great tidbits about the city, the buildings, movies, and people. We visited Central Park and Strawberry Fields; the area dedicated to John Lennon. Only touching a small corner of the park, it seemed like a place you could get lost in for days.

Central Park and Strawberry Fields – with Live the Dash

A visit to the 9-11 Memorial was a solemn experience. The tone was much calmer than the hustle and bustle of the city. The enormity of the footprints of both towers, and the tribute to each who lost their live that horrible day etched in the granite is something we’ll never forget. The police officer in our crew was very overwhelmed with the names and divisions of the first responders who perished in the ruble. Moving.

911 Memorial

We would return a few days later and visit the Memorial Museum where there were stories and artifacts from the horrific day. We found the videos very informative and learned more than we previously were aware of. The news clips that were strewn together laying out a timeline for the events of the day were a bit disturbing. So many clues, but uncomprehensible that this could happen. Our country was just so ill prepared for this terrorist attack. A popular and too crowded museum for our liking had us leaving without seeing all we would have liked to. The outside was our favorite and most moving part of the memorial. Only wished we would have visited at night too.

We rode the Staten Island Ferry to Staten Island from Manhattan. This was our first look at New York Harbor and the Statue of Liberty. It was great to see the harbor we would transit soon. It was as exciting as it was overwhelming. Ships anchored, ships moving, fleet week with military vessels, ferry’s EVERYWHERE cris crossing the harbor, pleasure craft trying to stay out of the way, and the confused state of the sea from all the action. One big hot mess. We would be in the middle of it all too soon.

Staten Island Ferry Ride with the Bohonek Family

After a few days on Staten Island, in our mooring field, we made one of our most monumental cruises of our loop. We made the 17 mile trek with our buddy boat, Live the Dash, through New York Harbor, right in front of Lady Liberty where we both did a photo shoot, and then headed to our downtown marina, Hudson Landing in Jersey City. We had views of Lady Liberty from our dock and were right across the Hudson River from Manhattan. It was the perfect location to explore the city more.

Heading into New York City – Surreal

Our jaunt up to and by the Statue of Liberty was full of exhilaration, a bit of fear, and a visit from the coast guard. Exhilarating to be staring Lady Liberty down so close, what a beautiful sight she was keeping watch over the harbor. Fear as we were in the middle of all the chaos of New York Harbor. The Staten Island Ferry crossed our bow going starboard to port, another crossing port to starboard, the multiple Statue of Liberty ferries who circled the statue again and again, other commercial boats, pleasure boats, and of course the US Coast Guard.

New York Harbor

With the sightseeing and Coast Guard helicopters circling above, the first mate heeded warning to the captain that a Coast Guard boat was approaching quickly on our port side, blue lights on. A coast guard chopper was also hovering above. Our law enforcement captains first thought, was “oh, this isn’t good”. The CG boat had just about caught up with us and made an abrupt turn to port away from us and quickly approached our buddy boat. “oh, this isn’t good at all”. Our crew doing what any buddy boat would do took photos of them being approached and conversing with the Coast Guard. After a few minutes, the boat and helicopter left as abruptly as they approached. In preparing for our photo shoot, the crew of Live the Dash had gone out and sat on the bow. All were in life jackets, and they were sitting in a factory seat on the bow. There is some contradiction of whether one can be on a bow or not underway, some say yes with a seat, some say not at all. The Coast Guard checked in with them, were good with them sitting down in the seat, and then sent them on their way. They disengaged as quickly as they approached. It’s another good story on our loop and sure got the blood flowing with the crew of Live the Dash. All was good.

Coast Guard and Live the Dash, Now or Never in right photos

We proceeded to do our photo shoot in front of Lady Liberty and all the chaotic traffic around us. This is the shot all the loopers treasure of their time on the loop! Thanks to Live the Dash for our photos that will toast this moment forever.

Lady Liberty

That night, heading to the Broadway show, A Beautiful Noise, The Neil Diamond Musical, we walked through Times Square one night (you gotta do it once). The musical walk through Neil’s life had the whole crowd singing Sweet Caroline, bom, bom bom. The show will leave Broadway at the end of May and go on the road. We enjoyed the show with Emily and Jordan, our cruising partners aboard Live the Dash. Our crew highly recommends seeing it, you’ll be singing along too, bom, bom, bom.

A Beautiful Noise on Broadway with Jordan and Emily

A highlight of our trip was meeting up with our hometown Hoosiers Cathy and Pete for a day in the city and a Broadway show with their daughter, Mary Claire in the cast. Pete has been planning this day for a couple of years now and we really didn’t think we could get our calendars in synch. Our schedule is not a schedule but a go with the flow, a get there when we can get there, weather dependent schedule. As we zeroed in on NYC, we kept them updated on our target date. Once we arrived at Great Kills Harbor, we could lock in possible dates, and it worked. Somehow it all worked. Cathy and Pete were on a plane within a few days, and we were sitting front and center watching Mary Claire on Broadway in Chicago. It was amazing to watch Mary Claire live out her dream on that stage and the lights of Broadway. We have been watching her since she was a young girl on stage, but this was a whole new pleasure. As much as we enjoyed seeing Mary Claire on stage, it was equally thrilling to watch her parents beam with pure joy watching their daughter light up the stage. It was AMAZING.

Chicago on Broadway, Mary Claire, her parents Pete and Cathy, and boyfriend Marty who is also in Chicago

As you visit the Broadway area -Mary Claire is on billboards and signs all over – how cool!

Our hometown Columbus Indiana representation on Broadway – Mary Claire King

During our stay we frequented all the modes of transportation including bus, train, ferry, and personal boat. We put a lot of miles behind us on foot too. Good food, good friends, and a trip we’ll never forget.

NYC

Thinking a week might be too long in the city, it flew by, and we easily could have filled more days. So much to see and do, and so much more enjoyable than our crew ever imagined. We can see the lure of the city and so glad we took a week to be there. As our time was up, it was time to head north. Many new things ahead of us and our cruise up the Hudson.  It certainly was over in a New York minute.

Cheers!  David, Tasha,  

                  & Remy forever in our hearts! Loop Dog for 1 year and 3357 miles

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