Rain and the City

The predicted storm rolled in and we stuck to the boat for 3 and a half days. Even with our previous experiences of having several days on the boat, we were all feeling antsy to get off by the time the winds settled. I think this was mostly because we didn’t have the outside of the boat to hang out on (unless we dressed up in our foul weather gear and wanted to play in the rain). Added to this restriction, was the oppressive feeling of not being able to see much out our windows! It was just gray. There was a shading film aded to our main deckhouse windows by the previous owner, and although it keeps things cool in the tropics, it causes the rain to build up on the windows and further limites our visilibity out them. We did however, have fun rocking around a little and watching the winds. Even in our protected bay, we saw winds up to 32knots.

So we spent our days doing school work and keeping cozy. We continue our break from boat jobs but will get back to them again as the weather clears and we head south. It is true what they say, there is always work to do on the boat. However, we are pretty comfortable on our boat now, even in the cooler weather we were able to run our heat pump system (on our batteries too!).

We got a break on Wednesday and went into Manhattan one more time. The night before we took a short trip on the Long Island Railroad to pick up some more water filters (we are still going through them like crazy). Kevin actually finally took a closer look at our watermaker, and it turns out there is a fresh water flush of the filters that is supposed to happen after we run the watermaker, and it hasn’t been happening automatically like it was supposed to. However, he was able to manually run it and the filters were substantially cleaner after. So, perhaps we will be able to save a few more filters than we have been. We have also found that we have to check or change all the filters and strainers in our system. There are two sediment filters. One is 5 micron and the other is a 20 micron. Then, there is a strainer. Twice when things have been smelling pretty off, we have found either a jellyfish or small crab in the strainer.

Our last day in Manhattan was spent walking lots and seeing iconic buildings. We walked from the Flat Iron building on 23rd street to Central Park on 59th street. On the way, we also saw the Empire State Building, Owen wanted to see it even if we didn’t go up in it. the we saw, the New York Public Library, Schwarzman building. I would say this was probably one of the highlights of our city trips. We were really surprised at the treasures this place housed. Not only was it a very attractive old building with beautiful ceilings and columns, but it also has a treasure room with some amazing artifacts. They have the first draft of the constitution and the first Bill of Rights. They have the original toys that inspired A. A. Milne to write Winnie-the-Pooh and the first addition of the Kings Bible. They also have six of the first copies of William Shakespeare’s first folio, Charles Dicken’s desk and a draft copy of the Secret Garden. It truly was fascinating to see all these important artifacts.

Unfortunately, you can only see the main reading room if you go on a tour. The cool thing is, it is a working library! Many of the books were across the street in a modern building, but there were periodical rooms and other reading rooms for people to actually use. After the library we got ourselves a milkshake before heading onto the next building. Next up, was Rockefeller Centre. They were in the process of putting up the skating rink. I will say, it was smaller than I thought it would be! I think it would be much more interesting to see at Christmas time. We moved from there to St. Patrick’s Cathedral (pretty much across the street). It was pretty large and ornate and remeniscent of the churches I have seen in Europe previously. We didn’t spend much time here because we were already doing a lot of walking. We continued on 5th Avenue, passed all the retails stores that were getting fancier and fancier as we went, to Central Park. In Central Park, we found the Carousel and then a playground and while the younger three rode on wooden race horses and ran around small cement castles, the rest of us rested our feet.

After the park we caught the subway again, heading farther up town to walk around Columbia University Campus. Kevin thought at one point that he was going to attend Columbia University after highschool but fortunately for me, he ended up attending UBC instead. We like to wander campuses, remeniscing about our years at universities but also imaging how it would have been had we attended a different university. We walked right across the campus and ended up walking down Riverside Drive next to Riverside Park, which is located on the Hudson River. It was a peaceful. We found a Mexican restaurant to have dinner in on our way back to the subway system and the LIRR. We made a special point of catching the LIRR at Grand Central because they kids wanted to see it again. It was a long day but we thoroughly enjoyed our self-guided tour of New York. Owen said one of his favor parts is just walking the streets and checking out the people and sites.

The rain returned the next day and in fact, it rained so hard the day after, that parts of the subway system and many parts of New York actually flooded! On the water, we were not hindered at all, except in our ability to enjoy our outer deck. We are very happy to see the the forecast now says sunshine and warmer temperatures for the next week. With that, we are ready to move further south and say good-bye to New York once again. I think we have done it more justice than we did previously. Still plenty left to see in the future though.

Tomorrow we start our journey back to the Chesapeake where we will spend the next month wandering smaller towns but also hoping to attend the Annapolis Boat Show.