Escape from New York

We finally left New York, and landed... in Jersey. Yes, not much of an escape is it? By the way, Deb hates it when I call her snooki. We arrived in Jersey City later yesterday, and spent today getting ready for some offshore work. We are heading down the coast to Delaware Bay, or possibly Cape May if we poop out. Deb wanted to bail on NY today, but I wanted some waypoints entered, and the AIS working before I went out into freighter Land. So I interfaced the SI-Tex AIS to the Raymarine E7, did some soldering, some crimping, and "TaDah!" we appear on the AIS system, along with the 250 other boats zooming around in this harbor. You should know that this harbor is one mad scene on the water. Boats are everywhere, and I was starting to freak out a little as we were coming in yesterday. Deb was taking photos, while my head was on a swivel, and I was doing a crazy dance in the cockpit looking every which way I could to see the crazy bastards driving these things. The NY water taxis were the worst. The boats traffic never lets up. At one point I had four water taxis, a Tug pushing a barge, and a cruise ship all on my ass, while dodging J22's racing back and forth across all this chaos. Amazing.

The King has left the castle. Imagine being a kid and running around in there.

Nice homestead at the base of the hill, unless there's an earthquake.

Go Army!

West Point

I bet it's a nice tour.

Sing Sing prison.  I only took a picture because I remember bugs bunny talking about sing sing.

The approach to the madhouse

NYC

Here they come...every 5 minutes

Sailors didn't give a damn about the traffic.

This guy backed out in front of a tug pushing a barge.

Such a hectic place. Not my style.

After we landed, in the wrong slip, we had a cold one and just stared into space, not saying a word for a few minutes. Phew. What a ride it's been so far. As stressful as some moments have been, it still beats work any day.

Wildlife sited so far: Cormorants (too many), Deer, Carp, various birds, Skinny dippers (in the canal, ick), Monarch Butterflies. That's  it. Amazingly little out there on this trip.

Keep your fingers crossed for us as we venture into the ocean for the first time! Should be pretty cool, or boring as hell. I better stay caffeinated the whole way. Hate to have Snooki and I wash up on the Jersey shore. 

Cheers!

Pauly and Snooki