With the Platform secured, and a favorable 2-day weather window, we woke up early and began the first leg of the journey to New York, which is down the Delaware River. Last year, we went from Chesapeake City all the way to the New York harbor in one day, but with diesel prices as high as they are right now, we decided to slow-boat our way north, and planned to break up the journey with a stop in Atlantic City, where neither of us had been before.
We had a pleasant cruise and pulled in to our marina just before sunset. Despite this being something of a last-minute planned adventure, we had made some reservations for a full evening in the city! As soon as we got tied up, we threw on our swim suits and headed to the casino/hotel attached to the marina to their rooftop pool where we had a quick soak in the hot tub with a cocktail. Heading back to the boat, we changed into fancy clothes for the evening. We were headed to a magic show – the Masters of Illusion. I hadn’t seen a magic show live before (not counting a magician at one of my brother’s birthday parties who scarred me for life by sticking swords in my dad’s head in a box). David enjoys watching magic videos on YouTube, but enjoyed the live experience.
After the magic show, we walked to another casino/hotel (on a main road with no sidewalks or shoulder, which wasn’t really advisable), and had delicious Omakase at a sushi restaurant.
It was a lovely evening!
The next day, with the weather holding, we completed the remainder of the New Jersey coastline and pulled into the anchorage we had stayed at last year just north of Ellis Island, with a stunning sunset view of the southern tip of Manhatten.
The next morning, we pulled in to the Brooklyn marina were we planned to stay for the first portion of the week. David would be flying back to Seattle on Monday for a work event and I would remain on the boat and work from my company’s NY HQ. However, we had one day for some tourism and decided to head to Governor’s Island.
When we arrived to the pier, we noticed that we were surrounded by people wearing 1920’s outfits – too many for it to be a coincidence! After a bit of googling, we realized that there was a Jazz Age Garden Party on the island. Once we arrived, we aimed for the visitor center where we could take a free walking tour of the island. We passed by the party where a swing band was playing music for a huge gathering of costumed participants – what fun!
The walking tour took us around the island and we learned a bit about its varied history and ended up on one of the “hills” overlooking Manhatten.
On Monday, David headed to the airport via a piston repair shop to drop off our swim platform pieces in the hopes that a fix/rebuild would not take too long. I commuted to the city via Ferry and had a lovely 3 days working from the office with my colleagues! On Monday evening, we had an ‘executive’ dinner with Steve and Nick overlooking the water on the west side.
On Tuesday, I had managed to get tickets to Hadestown, which I was very excited to see. The musical was amazing – a wonderful blend of storytelling and political commentary, with a timeless quality to the costumes and staging.
On the last night before David came home, we had a big happy hour with almost all of my colleagues who live in the area. I enjoyed all my opportunities for some social time, and especially loved returning to the boat with amazing nighttime city views from the marina. It’s not affordable to stay in the city, but I really appreciate it every time we do – there is so much to experience in New York!
David returned early the next morning and since we were unable to extend our reservation in the marina and needed one more day before we could pick up our rebuilt pistons, we headed north to City Island and picked up a mooring for overnight. The next morning, David went to pick up the pistons, and we headed to Port Washington for the evening. After working, David replaced the pistons and we now have a functioning swim platform!! It does make a lovely whale-singing sound as it is moving, so we think we may need to buy a complete piston replacement, but at least we’ll be able to use the dinghy for the summer. Though it had taken several hours, we hopped in the dinghy and headed to land for a nice dinner to celebrate the milestone.