Tuesday August 16: New York City

After an all day rain on Sunday, it was getting to be time to move on. We pulled up the anchor about 1:30 or so as the current was beginning to change. If we timed it right, we would fight a slight current for about 45 minutes and then would pick up the current down the Hudson all the way to New York City. The entrance to our anchorage was not very wide as you can see by the first picture. We again passed huge cliffs along the Hudson - only about 15 miles north of NYC. I guess I didn't realize it was that mountainous that close to the city. Anyway, it was going to rain - that we knew but no threat of storms. Right. We were about 15 miles north when over the radio from the coast guard came a warning of severe thunderstorm for New York City and the Hudson River. "All mariners should seek safe harbor immediately." So we headed straight for shore (Skipper Bob said if you see storm clouds on the Hudson, get as close to the shore they are coming from as you can). All flybridge canvas came down as 50 knot winds were associated with the storm.

We watched as it came - headed up the Hudson right toward us. The anchor held like a charm, rained like crazy, lightening (not that close to us), and surprisingly minimal wind. The reward was a rainbow (Steve said we should see one given the sun was now peeking through). Coolest rainbow ever. It seemed to start across the river and end under the George Washington Bridge.

As quickly as it came, the storm was gone just as fast so up the anchor came and we headed on down to our destination: anchorage behind the Statue of Liberty again. Spotted: a giant McD's sign!! Also saw what might be the building on Ground Zero. I read it was up to 47 stories at this point but not sure if either of these might be the one.

After finally getting settled (it was now about 7:30 pm), Steve did turkey thighs on the grill - nice job, Steve :-) The statue is visible when we swing the correct direction and the rain clouds are still around. Tomorrow the forecast is good for our trip across to the Manasquan Inlet in New Jersey with 1 - 2 foot waves predicted on the Atlantic. This is one of the places where there is no choice but to do the ocean run. It's kind of nice after being on the rivers and canals for some time now. We leave at 5:30 am to catch the current .....