Underway Again

After nearly a week awaiting repairs to our transmission, they were completed about noon on Thursday. We were so eager to get going again that we decided to start immediately. We said good-bye to our new friends, the dockmaster and crew at Brielle Yacht Basin, with hugs and kisses and headed out about 1:00 pm for Great Kills Yacht Club. This is a very nice yacht club on Staten Island, just below New York. From here we rode the express bus into New York again and took a tour bus through the city. Shelly was determined to see Chinatown so we left the tour there and walked around Chinatown and ate lunch there. Next we went over to Little Italy for dessert and bought T shirts . Then walked back to catch the bus back to Staten Island. The girls truly enjoyed NYC.
We had planned to get a lesurely start on Saturday and just run a few miles up into the Hudson River and spend the night at Newport Marina directly across from the City so we can see the city lights at night. Several boats have said it is worth the stop to see the City at night. Muriel and I woke early and decided to go ahead and get started. We were under way before 7:00 am and in the marina and tied up by 9:00. Everyone has said to avoid NYC on weekends because of congestion in the harbor. Probably because we were early, unusual for the Lovetts, we saw very few pleasure boats. There were plenty of ships in and around the harbor but we were never intimidated by any of the traffic. There has been a poker run going on out on the river today so we are glad we got here before that started. Muriel and Shelly wore out the camera batteries taking pictures of the ships and the Statue of Liberty. We expected to see pleasure boats anchored behind the Statue but there were none today. Muriel is doing laundry and I have been cleaning up on the boat. We will probably walk into Jersey City this evening and get some pizza since we have not had pizza in New York. We plan to get an early start in the morning and get a ways up the River.