Day 61 & 62...Liberty State Park

 TUESDAY, MAY 29, 2012

     We needed gasoline to run the generator and outboard motor so Gary had to walk to get a few gallons.  Gary said, “Just tell them I walked a couple of miles into a shady neighborhood in the snow uphill both ways.”  His sense of humor is one thing that attracted me to him almost 45 years ago.  Here he comes paddling back.

The geese are out again today in the semi-rough water.

     Gary saw the Queen Mary II leaving the harbor.  On June 5, 2012, all three of the Oueen ships will meet in Southampton to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II.  There is a lot of information regarding these ships on the Internet. 

  

WEDNESDAY, MAY 30, 2012

     Thunderstorms were forecast for last night so we moved TRAVELLER out a little further into the anchorage away from the bulkhead in case we drug anchor.  Sometimes when an anchor is set a certain way if there is strong wind that turns you another way the anchor could break loose and the boat could move.  There was rain but luckily not very much wind. 

 

     As we got into the dingy, so Gary could paddle us over to the dock at the boat ramp, he said that I should hold on until he makes sure the oar works.  Every time we start off using the motor on the dinghy, someone has to hold on to the boat to make sure the motor will start before we move away from the boat.

      Today we went to the park to see if we could find a mailbox.  I asked the guy in the park office if there was one and he said no.  Then he offered to put the postcards in their mail.  It was very nice of him.  He has always been helpful if I’ve had questions.

     We decided to try a cheeseburger at the diner for lunch.  Our waitress last time was Kaitlyn and this time our waitress was Missy.  Those were easy names for us to remember since we have family members with the same names. The food was pretty good.

      On the way back to the marina we saw the Geese Police (from the walkway along the Hudson the other day) again.  This time he and his dog were on the road that runs beside the boat ramp.   He had his dog on a leash so it couldn’t catch the goose, but it did chase it away from the road and toward the water.  The geese policeman said that he had just chased the goose family back to the water a little while ago.  

Gary rows, rows, rows (rows sounds better than paddles) us back to the boat.

Day 59 & 60...Liberty State Park

SUNDAY, MAY 27, 2012

     After yesterday’s walking tour of the park, we decided to stay at home and rest.  That’s exactly what we did.  We lounged around, read and relaxed. Gary did venture off the boat once.  We saw a hotdog truck across from the parking lot so Gary rowed over to get lunch.  He said the guy looked at him like he was crazy when he asked him about slaw.  The frankfurters were really long and skinny.  They weren’t bad, but we’d much rather go to JAG dogs.   

     Sometimes we sit in the pilothouse and watch boat traffic traveling up and down the Hudson River right in front of the entrance to the anchorage.  It sure is a busy place.  There are ferries, powerboats, sailboats, tugs, and even cruise ships.  One big blue ship went by the other day and blew a regular horn and then Gary heard the horn play “When You Wish Upon a Star”.  Guess who owns that cruise ship?  We found out that several cruise lines have trips from New York.  Some go out into the ocean, make a loop and then return.  Here is a cruise ship from a different cruise lines.

     Last night I also took pictures of Lady Liberty and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge from our anchorage.

MONDAY, MAY 28, 2012

      Today we went to the park again to take some more pictures.  The picnic tables under the trees were full of families grilling and enjoying Memorial Day.   

       In the park there were 13 American flags flying with the Statue of Liberty or the Public Administration Building in the background. 

     I also took pictures of the Brooklyn Bridge, Liberty Island and Ellis Island.

     Nearby there is also a 15-foot, 2 ton bronze statue called Liberation by the sculptor Nathan Rapoport.  It depicts a WWII soldier carrying a Holocaust survivor out of a concentration camp.  The statue was officially dedicated in 1985 as a symbol of the strong helping the weak.  My hand was as big as the survivor’s big toe.  On source said 20 feet, but I bet that includes the base.

     While we were there I saw one of those trees that had the huge clumps of white, puffy seeds.  Sorry the picture of the pods before they burst is blurry.  The sun made it hard to see the photo.  I’m not going to fuss about the sun since it looks like rain again tomorrow.  I’ll take rain over fog any day.

     We’ll be glad when the long weekend is over.  It seems like only a few people know what a NO WAKE ZONE is.  We’ve been bounced around all weekend long when most of the boaters and jet skiers make big waves by going too fast very close to our anchored boat.  We don’t understand how they can be so inconsiderate or thoughtless. 

Day 58...Liberty State Park

SATURDAY, MAY 26, 2012

     At 9:50 a.m. Gary paddled us to the nearby dinghy dock so we could begin our search for Statue of Liberty postcards and the Skipper Bob book about the NY canals including the Erie Canal.  Since it was such a short distance he didn’t take the time and trouble to put the motor on the dinghy. 

     I couldn’t walk past a fisherman without asking him if he knew what kind of fish we saw out in the ocean on our trip up the coast.  He said that they were bunker fish and even showed us one he was using for bait.  I later googled the bunker fish and found out that they are menhaden.  Remember the menhaden plant at Rockville.  They are plankton-eating fish that play an  important role in clarifying ocean water.  They swim in large schools, some reportedly up to 40 miles long.  See.....  In this case it paid to ask a fisherman since I needed an answer to my question.   

     I took a few pictures of TRAVELLER in the anchorage.  Can you see it way back by the buildings?  Of course the other boats weren’t so much bigger only closer to the camera.

     There were joggers, walkers, bicyclists and even a truck driven by the Geese Police on the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway.

     We walked to Liberty Landing Marina to look for the Skipper Bob book but the girl there had no idea what I was asking for.  She did offer to see if they could order it for me.  That was nice.  The guy did suggest we look at the ferry station. As we were walking there we saw a boat that caught our eye.  Can you guess why?  We liked the name of course.

      Liberty State Park opened in 1976 is 1,212 acres in area.  Most of the park’s area is on landfill created by the defunct Central Railroad of New Jersey (CRRNJ) and the Lehigh Valley Railroad whose lines once terminated at the CRRNJ Terminal.  The terminal was built in 1889.   An estimated 10.5 million people entered the country through the station.  Gary wondered if his Gammie was one of them.   As we explored this terminal, I was lucky enough to find my postcards.  

     Inside this historic building, there was an exhibit about Alcatraz.  I wonder if Gary wanted me to stay locked up?

     The ferries that shuttle passengers to the Statue of Liberty National Monument, Ellis Island and Liberty Island depart from nearby.

     Also nearby is the official state memorial to the September 11 attacks of the World Trade Center called Empty Sky.  Behind beams from the building are parallel walls engraved with the names of the victims.  The silver walls are oriented so that they are facing the former World Trade Center. 

     We took the back way to the anchorage via the diner for lunch.  There were a series of stops along the way with exercise stations.  Needless to say I was already too tired from just the walking to participate.

     There were trees along the way shedding their seeds in the winds.  Look closely and you can see the puffballs flying through the air.  There were so many seeds piled up on the sidewalk I heard one of the bicyclists calling it “summer snow”.  I thought that was very appropriate.

     After we got back to the boat and I had my feet up resting from the hike, Gary saw a mother duck and her many ducklings swimming by.  They were so close it looked like they were afraid she was going to lose them.  See how bunched up behind her they are?  

                

Day 57...Liberty State Park

FRIDAY, MAY 25, 2012

     We are going to be anchored here behind the Statue of Liberty till May 31^st so there won’t be too much to report. Gary noticed this family of geese (Is this small a group a gaggle?) just swimming casually along behind the boat.

     Today’s excitement was a man overboard test for the crew of the small catamaran ferry that uses the landing next to the anchorage here. One of the crew drug this life sized dummy down the dock and onto the boat.  I was not fast enough with the camera to get a picture of that so I watched to see what was going to happen next. The catamaran slowly cruised out into the anchorage and threw the unfortunate soul overboard. Of course, they threw him on the side of the boat away from us so we couldn’t see what was going on.  

     Once it looked like they were looping a rope around the dummy’s neck. Then they used a boat hook to pull him out of the water. The next time they practiced the drill, we were able to see the dummy floating in the water before the “rescue”.  See the orange thing in the water to the left of the boat in the picture.  

     At the end of the test, the dummy looked like a victim more then a survivor.  They weren’t very gentle with him as they took him off the boat. 

His feet were bumping all the way up the steps.  Poor guy.

     We rested and read most of the day.  Gary was reading on the pilothouse seat and looked toward the huge windows in the building behind us.  He discovered our reflection in the side of the building.  This was the first day the sun was out enough for us to see TRAVELLER’s image in the bank of windows.

  












   Gary took the dinghy down and went for an exploratory walk.  His main find was a diner about a block away (lunch tomorrow for sure).