Big Apple #3 Mooring in the Heart of NYC

While at anchor near the Statue of Liberty, another boat came in, ParPar with Henry as captain.  With the dragging excitement the night before, I decided to take the dinghy over and introduce myself and compare ground tackle.

Turns out that ParPar is a veteran traveler with thousands of miles under her keel.  They had been in Guatemala,  and were heading back south from a visit to Nova Scotia.  It is alway nice to compare notes with other live aboard captains.

So Henry and I got to talking and he mentioned a mooring field at 79th street on the Hudson just 3 blocks from Broadway,  another two blocks to Central Park etc... all for $30/night!  How's that for cheap NYC accommodations.. you just need to bring your own floating house!  Wait.  We have one of those!

We couldn't pass that up, so followed ParPar up the Hudson with the tide.  Only the tide did not exist! There had been a bit of rain, so the tide tables were completely off and what was scheduled to be a flood tide turned out to be pretty serious ebb given the flood waters coming down the river.

Now the odd part.  We got to the 79th street boat basin and took one of the yellow transient mooring balls.  We arrived ahead of ParPar because we were larger/faster and it turns out that I took the LAST transient ball.  Not good.  Here I just made a new friend in Henry and I end up taking the last ball!

Major credit to Henry though.  We contacted each other on the radio and he was remarkably good natured about the whole thing.  I offered to raft up, but the marina/conditions really didn't allow that. So they anchored just north of the mooring field and we exchanged cell numbers and I promised to call him when one the transient mooring balls came free (first come first serve only).

Anyway, last night was serious rolls.  Finally the flood tide got going (North set) with 20kn winds from the North.  Bad things happen when the wind blows one way, and the water is moving the opposite way.  It would appear that on the Hudson the result is about 4ft standing waves.  Gypsy Queen with her full keel wants to set to the current flow, but the wind blew her sideways to the standing waves.

So, our usual sleep pattern emerged again.  Christine sleeps like a rock and Mark gets up repeatedly to check on the boat and store items that had become airborne and banging back and forth.  She owes me a nice nap today!