Tony had scheduled a doctors appointment in Long Island and I had scheduled to go back home for a few days to get Monica registered for high school. On Monday Tony attended his doctor’s appointment and we began to watch closely hurricane Isobel, that was predicted to hit anywhere between Cape Hatteras, NC and Long Island in the next two to three days. We discussed sailing up the Hudson River to try and avoid the brunt of the storm or having the boat pulled out of the water. Neither of these were desirable given the circumstances, so we continued to develop other plans. We decided that Oyster Bay was not a bad spot to weather the storm given its direction. We had the Yacht Club move us to a heavier mooring in a more protected part of the bay. Anticipating the storm, I decided to cancel my trip home to stay with Tony and Monica and help prepare. On Tuesday, we stripped the boat of its sails, canvas and anything that could become a menace in high winds. By Wednesday, the forecast was for the storm to hit the North Carolina shore and move northwest. Late that day, the winds and the sea were starting to show signs a storm was brewing.
On Thursday morning, we moved off the boat, picked up a rental car, and took refuge at my sister Mary Theresa’s house in Oceanside, Long Island. We enjoyed a nice evening with her and her family and they were happy we were safe from the storm with them. As it turned out, the winds picked up to around 65 knots that night with just a little bit of rain off and on through the night. In retrospect, we could have stayed aboard, but our motto is, “we’de rather be safe than sorry”. It gave us some extra visiting time with Mary Theresa and her family as well.
On Friday morning we returned to the boat and put it all back ready to sail again. It was still breezy on Friday with winds above 25 knots, so we decided to leave the boat until evening and took in a movie and dinner at the local mall.
On Saturday morning we needed to do some grocery shopping and return the car. We got this taken care of and were ready to set sail shortly after noon. It was a beautiful day and our destination was City Island, a 20 mile sail from Oyster Bay.
We arrived at the 79th Street Boat Basin on the upper west side in Manhattan about 11:00 a.m. and picked up a mooring at the marina. We put the dingy in the water and were off to shore to do some exploring. I was back at my old stomping grounds in NYC on the upper west side. We stopped for a slice at Gray’s Papaya and then caught the #2 train from 72nd Ave. to Times Square to see about show tickets. We stood in line at TKTS, the discount ticket booths that are in Times Square and purchased tickets to see Beauty and the Beast, the Broadway production. We let Monica choose the show she wanted to see, but as it turned out, it was a fantastic production with all the glitz, charm and show you would expect when Disney meets Broadway.
Beauty and the Beast
We had some time to kill before our show began so what does one do when there’s time to kill? We went shopping! Macy’s of course, the 1st Macy’s in Herald Square. We enjoyed browsing the 8 floors and worked up an appetite. We headed back toward Times Square in search of a restaurant to have an early dinner prior to the show. We had dinner at a nice chop house in the theatre district. We hurried off to catch the 6:30 p.m. show and enjoyed every minute of it. After the show, we caught the #2 train back up to the upper west side where we walked back to the marina and called it an evening.
Another storm was in the forecast, and we were not well protected at the 79th Street Boat Basin Marina, so our plan was to push on in the morning to more protected waters. Following are some selected photos of the city.
