We said goodbye to New York City this morning and headed up the Hudson River in thick haze and low clouds. We were headed against the outgoing tide and the flowing river so we were only going about 4.2 mph. It took us over an hour to get to the George Washington Bridge (picture above), and unlike the old days that is haze and not smog... As you might guess, the views on today's trip were not the best.
Our views of NYC were much different in the haze today as we left after three full days of very nice weather. We were close enough to One World Trade Center that the haze was not thick but the clouds were low.
We left the dock just after 8:15 am since we had 36.8 miles to go, and there were scattered thunderstorms predicted for mid (?) afternoon. When we docked at our destination, we had had a total of less than 15 minutes of light rain.
Today was the second day of Fleet Week in NYC. We saw one Navy ship coming into the harbor yesterday, and after the musical yesterday, the were lots of white dress uniforms out and about in the city. With Navy ships in port there was also a huge presence of Coast Guard and other law enforcement boats for security. The picture at the right shows one of the ships with just part of the four boat security detail for this one ship. We had our own "little" excitement when we (very lightly) brushed up against one of the patrol boats as we left the marina. They were taking a break at our marina, but luckily, the "Coasties" did not seem concerned since their bow is well protected. However, what concerned me was that we did come within a (very) few inches of touching the machine gun mounted on their bow...
Another (recent) classic view in the Harbor is the aircraft carrier Intrepid that now houses an extensive air museum. (Unfortunately) Houston did not get a "real" space shuttle, but there is a real one on display here... The picture on the left show the Intrepid with planes displayed on her deck. There is also a cruise ship in the background and two ferries rushing past in the foreground. Talk about a busy place...
Unlike today's first picture, we did get some okay views of the George Washington Bridge. The admiral also got a "lecture" on some of the local geology of this area.
The picture on the right shows the western (New Jersey) end of the bridge, which is anchored in the Palisades sill. I will spare you the lectures, but for you geology buffs, think -Triassic in age, rift related, rotated in the hanging wall of a listric normal fault AND near here is where N. L. Bowen did his field work.
He taught at Columbia University very near here, and he developed Bowen's Reaction Series for the Crystallization of Igneous Rocks. Note: end of lecture (for today). The picture at the left is of some actual outcrops of the basalt in the sill, which is several hundred feet thick. The steep rock outcrops form the western bank of the Hudson River for a distance of nearly 30 miles. The view is wonderful, and it has been preserved as park like for many miles along the west side. I think of this as very amazing/ironic in that the "city that never sleeps" is bounded by this beautiful park (and river) along most of its western side.
As mentioned earlier, we spent the entire trip today going against the tidal flow and normal river current. However, as we got further north, the river widened to nearly 3 miles wide and the tide was slowing and about to shift. Thus, we started the trip at 4.2mph, but as we went along we slowly gained speed to just over 8.4 mph. The final photo shows Half Moon Bay Marina, and the view is to the west toward the Hudson River. For dinner we walked about 0.7 miles to a wonderful (real) Italian restaurant in Croton-on-Hudson, NY. So, while we had spent time in New York (City), this is our first night officially staying in New York State. Another state added to the list...
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