Noo Yoik...... well Joisey

We came this way for the first time 4 years ago...check September 2010 if you can be bothered ...and the ride down East River from Port Washington was just as much a thrill this time. Under the "Coat Hanger" ,11.5 knots through Hell Gate and then the big Green Gal comes into sight....under the Brooklyn Bridge ,round the Battery and across the Hudson ,past Lady Liberty and the giant Colgate clock........and Home.

 Now, by home I mean what's become our home in NY (alright Joisey City ). It's at the service dock at Liberty Landing Marina up the end of a no longer working canal  which is just round behind that big ferry on the right. It's one of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island ferries and it lives here too. Actually this is an old pic from 2011 and the  Twin Towers used to be to the right of the big building on the far left. sort of between the big piling thingies. The posh end of the marina is where all the boats in the middle of the pic are. You walk off the marina and you're in Liberty Park which runs behind Ellis Island  and Lady Liberty with great views from the Verrazano Bridge to Manhattan.

This is the view from the Hudson end of the Morris Canal which is now the Liberty Landing Marina.  That's the new Tower.

We figured we'd call in here and see our old friends and get a couple of things done which would give us a day or two at the service dock to catch up with Todd and Melody again etc.

It was just after hours but as we pulled in there was Jose to help us tie up with a "welcome back guys" and his trademark smile.As it turned out it was harder to get a photo of Jose smiling than we thought (there's supposed to be a little thing on the e but I don't know how to get it on this computer ) so we ended up with a pic. of the new Jose (known as JoseB ) in the foreground and Jose the original almost smiling.

Then Tyler,the rigger ,lent us his security key so we could shower up etc.

See what I mean about "home"

Checking the standing rigging was the main concern so next morning Louis and Miguel.....

Moved us to the hauling slip.

Tyler came round and organized things.

That's Tyler in the red hat. He'd been in Sydney back in '81 crewing on Nirvana, one of the Maxi's in the Sydney to Hobart .They actually won but got protested into second by Ted Turner on Condor.Tyler reckons it didn't matter to them cos they had a great victory celebration all night in Hobart before TT won his protest the next morning.

So...on with the work

Jacob,the new apprentice , gets sent up to hook up the mast.

And out it comes...Jacob's a good looking lad but that's his butt.

The Verdict............All the standing rigging (that's the stuff that holds the mast up) needs replacing.

Oh dear........we're going to be stuck here for at least a couple of weeks.

So here we are...just over from Jersey City Fire and Rescue, who run their hoses every day to check 'em and that's pretty spectacular and if you look closely you'll see one of their guys on the back playing his bagpipes.

I painted the mast while it's been out and two weeks have flown by and Tyler told us today that the new rigging arrives maybe tomorrow. That means we'll have to spend the holiday (Labour Day ) weekend here before Jabiru can leave with all her new stuff.

As I said before ...Oh dear!

Might have to catch a bit of the US Open or a Broadway show to pass the time.

Geez......retirement's  boring.