May 09

It is HARD to leave New York! – by the Mom

As we fastened the dingy and neatened the deck, we were preparing our hearts for the wrench of leaving the “City that never Sleeps”. We understood so well that the chances of any one of us ever visiting here again, were extremely slim.

What we were not preparing for, was the hold that the Hudson River had on Shang Du as we tried to lift our anchor.

We were waiting in our set positions for weighing the anchor:

  • One child in front, on the pulpit, ready to hose down the chain and anchor as it comes up from the yucky depths.
  • Two children sprawled in the forepeak, wormed halfway into the chain locker – one to shine the torch and the other to deflect the chain into a neat pile (wearing a huge working glove).
  • The third child at the wheel, waiting for directions from Dad at the front. You know….. “5 seconds forward!” “Hold!” etc.
  • One Mom inside, giving a last once-over to see if there is anything that we forgot to tie down that just might come crashing down in the rolling seas.

Everything was going smoothly. The normal ke-chunk ke-chunk ke-chunk as the anchor chain came up. Then… silence. The windlass straining. Instructions from Dad to reverse. Move forward slowly. After all, this anchor had been here for more than a month! Let’s work it loose! Try again! Nothing! It still wouldn’t budge. And then… the Hudson just wouldn’t give up our anchor and Shang Du’s windlass broke down under the strain. This was a clear sign to stop. Nothing for it. Frans would have to dive to check out what was what. By God’s grace, we had full diving tanks on board.

But….. this was the Hudson River, not any old anchorage next to a tropical island. There is always a strong current, the direction of which is determined by the tide. Before Frans could even attempt to dive, we had to wait for the turning of the tide. This brings only a small window in which the current is at its lowest point.

On the 3rd of November, at 16:00, Frans did his first dive. He quickly cleaned the speed-log while he was down there and then proceeded to the anchor. He found a huge jumble of chain and rope with a mooring block, all attached to our chain. No easy solution. The visibility on the first dive was about a meter and that was the best it would ever be. The temperature of the water was 17°C. Frans managed to untie one shackle from the crow’s nest before he had to terminate the dive.

Next time-slot was only at 21:00 that same night. Frans was feeling very despondent. Really NOT looking forward to more of the same. This was the very first time in all the 27 years that I have known him, that he didn’t want to dive. He absolutely adores diving. Instead, he spent his waiting time mulling over what he would do when he was down there.

His second dive was much more difficult than the first one. The visibility was down to less than 30cm now. It was night. He managed to saw through a few things and attempted to undo the nest. This was extremely difficult, because the whole concrete block was now off the ground and moving up and down alarmingly. After 39 minutes, he called it a day. Or rather a night. His support team provided hot drinks and sympathy. Next time-slot was 8:52 on the 4th of November.

This third dive was during broad daylight, but Frans reckoned that for all he could see, it might have been the middle of the night. He wore his torch next to his face, on his mask, so that he didn’t need to think about it. On this dive he attached a line from Shang Du to the anchor chain after the mess on the bottom. This was effectively to attach the boat to the anchor again, so that the strain on the jumble of chain and stuff would be lifted, hopefully making it easier to untangle it on a subsequent dive. He also succeeded in cutting loose a buoy attached to the mess. This came bobbing up to the surface. To his support team, it looked as if things were happening at last.

Dive 4 at 16:15. Good news indeed! Frans found that the big mooring block fell off by itself since the last dive. He set to work to cut off a smaller anchor from our chain. Obviously, we were not the first to have our anchor swallowed up by the lurking debris in the depths of the Hudson.

Dive 5 at 3:17 in the morning. All the remaining chains fell off during the night and we had a free anchor chain and anchor! Praise the Lord!

On the 5th of November, at around 10:00 in the morning, we hauled up our anchor at long last. Except, that this time, Mom was at the wheel. This was so that one child could assist Dad with the laborious work of bringing up a very heavy chain and anchor, using the winch. We still had a faulty windlass.

So, yes. It really was hard to leave New York. Emotionally and especially, physically. But we managed in the end.

And so the sail to Norfolk begins…

May 06

Photos of NY – Part II – by Marike

So many things done and seen, yet we still had explorer passes we needed to use! The month that had seemed so long before, was very quickly disappearing..

I had fun sorting out the options, to see what we really wanted to do out of the remaining options and of those, which ones we would be able to do.

We did the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island tour, which was really great!

Each person receives their own audio-tour guide. The history there is SUPER interesting!

Before visiting, I never knew that the Statue of Liberty was actually a gift from France to America! They did everything – designed, built and transported it. All America had to do was build a pedestal.

Unfortunately, the ‘American Committee for the Statue of Liberty’ ran out of funds. So Joseph Pulitzer came to the rescue. He owned a paper and used it to appeal to the people of America.

“It is not a gift from the millionaires of France to the millionaires of America, but a gift of the whole people of France to the whole people of America.”

He encouraged people to donate to the building of the pedestal and published the name of every contributor in his paper, no matter the size of the contribution. (Most were under $1).

Ellis Island was no less fascinating. With the immigration boom from 1892 to 1954, over twelve million immigrants entered America through Ellis Island.

The audio guides were absolutely great for this part of the tour. We heard stories of people who had come from all over Europe.

There were a lot of requirements to be filled. Mostly, the federal government didn’t want immigrants coming in to become a burden to the country. Sickness or legal trouble would keep you from entering the country.

Sometimes there were sad stories. A grandmother who was sent back, for no reason other than that she had a black fingernail. She had no family back in Europe and the women telling the story was still very broken over the memory.

There were lots of different voices telling stories in the different rooms. A lot of old people who had been children during the time Ellis Island had been really busy.

Overall though, the people were helpful. Even though Ellis Island was known as ‘the island of tears’, only about 2 percent of the immigrants were not granted entrance.

They really did try very hard to help the immigrants enter America. There had to be MANY translators. One woman spoke such an obscure dialect of Russian that there was only one man who could understand her. (Out of I don’t know how many translators.) Another old lady who was told to read had a very kind translator. He opened the Bible and told her to recite the “Our Father” and so she made it through with no problem.

Men standing in line, worrying about the fact that they had no money to show the official, were suddenly a couple of dollars richer. The law required that you at least be able to pay train fare to where you need to go. After passing the checkpoint however, a man was standing ready to take back the money. The boats that brought the people from Europe also didn’t want people to be unable to enter America, as they were only paid according to the people they were able to deliver.

Most of the “six-second medical inspections” took place in the Registry Room (or Great Hall).

 

There were two more things on our list that were kind of ‘minor attractions.’ One was Coney Island.

I don’t know if we would have visited Coney Island if it hadn’t been for our explorer passes.

By that time it was SUPER COLD. You can’t see how sharp the wind is on the photo. 😉

I really liked Coney island. After all the big rush of the Disney parks and Sea World, it is small and homey. Sophia loved it – she is exactly the right age for it. ^_^ She might have gone on the big thrill rides with us at the parks, but that just isn’t her comfort zone. Luna park, with its typical fairground rides was awesome.

Eating a kind of fried dough with icing-sugar sprinkled over it.

 

 

The Brooklyn Bridge and DUMBO walking tour was one of our ‘we-would-really-like-to-do-that’ items.

Franci said I should add this photo of our packed lunches.

Brooklyn Bridge is another very ‘New York’ thing that many people will recognise from movies.

At the time the bridge was built, it was huge – much taller than any of the structures then standing in New York.

Now, not so much. 😉

The Central Park walking tour was one of the two last things we did with our explorer passes. The other was to go on ‘The Ride.’

We definitely would never have done that if it hadn’t been for the explorer pass! It was a kind of bus tour, but way better.

The whole one side of the bus is completely made up of windows and the passengers face that side of the bus sitting on rows, like a grandstand.

As the bus is driven past familiar landmarks, such as the Empire State building and the New York Public library, two comedians entertain the passengers with random trivia and special effects. At every other stop, they would actually speak to a person on the sidewalk and in then that guy (or girl) would give us a solo or a little act, right in between the normal New York bustle. Some people would stop to look, but most didn’t even pause.

Because it was so close to Halloween, the theme had to do with ghosts and such. It was still extremely funny and very well done. When we reached Columbus circle the bus was filled with classical music and outside, next to the centerpiece, two people danced a classical ballet just for us.

It made up for not being able to go and see a Broadway show. 😉

(Oh, and by the way – a show doesn’t actually have to be on Broadway to qualify as a Broadway show. It just needs 500 seats or more.)

We also got to celebrate New Years in Times Square. ^_^ (Even though it was October and we were technically in a bus – we were still celebrating New Years. 😉 )

 

We procrastinated visiting the MET until it was almost too late! When we finally did, we were sorry we hadn’t made time before. But our time was up – we could only spend one day there.

It was close enough to walk to and we had a very interesting time. Here are some of the photos I like which didn’t make it into Karin and Sophia’s blog.

We did the Egyptian section first, since it was something we had never done before.

Really cool room with one wall completely made out of windows.

The armor of the nobility weren’t just protection – they were art!

I really like the way they displayed these pieces of armour.

I just love this photo. ^_^

 

 

To live on the Hudson river meant that whenever we had to get ashore, we needed to launch the dinghy.

This job became more of a challenge as the weather started turning, because the waves were much bigger, but mostly just because we were really cold.

We had awesome views though.

Three more random photos before this blog ends!

Here we are sitting in one of the many little “parks” dotted around New York. If you look on the map and see a tiny little green patch, it could quite likely turn out to look something a lot like this.

The second random photo is outside the house they used for outside shots in the “Cosby Show”. I don’t know how many of you know the show, but we have just recently finished watching the entire thing. ^_^

Last but not least – I found a photo of that interesting ‘Trader Joes’ trolley lift! It’s awesome!

Okay, now I’m done. =)

May 03

Photos of NY – Part I – by Marike

In this blog I just want to show you a jumble of New York photos that didn’t make it into other blogs. I’ll add comments, so hopefully they won’t seem too confusing.

First, my favourite place in New York – Central Park!

We took so many great photos in Central park that It would have been lovely to do a whole blog solely on Central Park.

It was awesome to see the colours change from green to orange.

Discovering how many different shades and shapes the leafy carpet could be.

I think the very first time we went walking in Central Park, we found this little pond. Whoever has watched “Stuart Little” should know that they have little remote-controlled sailing boats for hire, so you can spend a weekend afternoon sailing a little boat around on the pond.

You could, of course, bring your own. This one may not have been a sailing boat, but it was by far the most interesting!

Somewhere at the beginning of our New York stay, we visited the Bronx Zoo. I just like these two photos.

We bought Explorer Passes to cover a lot of our sightseeing. Each pass allowed us to choose 10 attractions out of a given list. I can’t remember how many options there were, but it was pretty extensive, covering all the basic stuff, like the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty.

I really liked the pass, because when you decide to use it, you just arrive where you want to be, then use the pass as a voucher to redeem your ticket.

The Explorer pass we bought allowed us a whole month in which to visit all ten the attractions, so we weren’t rushed.

We started using the passes by going on two bus tours. (For the first and probably the last time ever.) One downtown and one uptown. It was nicer on the second day, because the second day we had cloudy weather.

The first day

The MOMA didn’t even charge us entry for everyone. I can’t remember if children go in free or what exactly, but we only used two passes to get into the MoMA.

After we had visited the Rockefeller Centre, we had used our passes only three and a half-(ish) times and we still had most of our month in which to use the rest.

So we chose to do some cool free stuff first, like going to the New York public library. (That is totally my second most favourite place in New York!)

We ended up visiting the library twice, since the first time we went, the big reading room was closed for renovations.

The Library isn’t like a normal library, where you check out books and take them home to read. (That’s why it seems really empty.) The New York public library has TONNES of books, but you can’t take them out of the library. It’s really awesome – all you need is an ID, then you can sit for free and enjoy the books. They are brought up to the reading room from the ‘under-Bryant-Park’ storage by a robotic train system. There are actually people who have self-educated themselves by using the library!

On our first visit to the library, we got a free tour of the building, (minus the Rose Reading room). In one of the rooms there is a children’s library, that operates in normal Library terms.

There are two big stone lions outside the Library itself, so they made two Lego replicas in here.

Look who we found inside!

These are the original stuffed toys that inspired the Winnie-the-Pooh stories.

Visiting the New York Public library for the second time was one of the very last things we did in New York before we left for Norfolk. The reading room, which had been closed for two years actually reopened during the time we were in New York!

My Dad had the brilliant idea to take some work and to actually go and sit inside the library for a while. It was awesome!

I didn’t have my ID there, unfortunately. Otherwise I could have used their robotic train system to summon a book from the depths of their underground storage facility.

I really like the library, but I have other photos I want to share.

So, back to what I was saying. We visited the Natural History museum, which was not on our explorer pass list.

We never did see any moose in Canada, so we ended up seeing them here. 😉

After that we realised that our month was ticking by and we still had a lot of passes we needed to use!

We reviewed our list and made a trip to the Intrepid, Sea, Air and Space museum. (I’m not sure if the aircraft carrier the museum is housed in was actually called the Intrepid. Whether it was or not, we referred to it that way.)

 

The Blackbird spy-plane was one of the main attractions standing on the deck of the Intrepid.

That was a cool museum.

I learnt a lot about aircraft carriers that day – mostly that they are really huge!

We have a similar cleat on our boat . . . but against this one we felt like the borrowers. ^_^

Then we visited the 9/11 memorial. Unfortunately, it didn’t help us use up our tickets. 😉

It was a really sobering experience.

The World Trade Centre was attacked by terrorists on the 11th of September, 2001. Planes were hijacked and flown into the Twin Towers.

The whole disaster is recorded fully at the memorial, with tonnes of voice recordings of people who experienced it first-hand.

It was really sad. I think in future I will be better able to sympathise with the whole ‘terrorist-phobia’ associated with America.

Two huge square waterfalls now stand where the twin towers used to stand.

This is the artwork that used to stand at the base of the twin towers, in a courtyard between them. It took quite a battering when the towers fell. It now stands in Battery park. (No pun intended.)

This is the new World Trade centre. It looms over the memorial of the old one, all shiny glass and metal.

That’s it for Part I. There will be more soon . . .

Apr 20

Bird blog – by Franci

We landed in New York during the best birding season : D. Isn’t God’s timing wonderful?

Black-throated Blue Warbler

Not too many birds stay in New York area all year round. Most of them migrate through New York to the North in the Spring (for all of us who live in the Southern hemisphere, that’s March through May : P). They then pass through again on their way South. Especially Warblers, lots and lots of Warblers. Warblers are small birds, on average about 12cm. They almost all have black and white on them and this is very often mixed with yellow. They are usually not too hard to tell apart, if you manage to spot them in the first place. It’s amazing in how many different patterns God has painted these birds using mainly just three colours. African Warblers on the other hand. . .brown, all brown – to blend in with all the grass :P.

Yellow-throated green warbler

 

I love my Dad and the rest of my family because they’ve always been patient with me when I randomly wander off. They also become excited with me when a cool bird is spotted. Marike and Sophia both have sharp eyes and have often helped me spot birds.

Grey Catbird

One of the first things we did in New York was to go on the free bird tour in Central Park, which my Dad found. The tour was on a first come, first serve basis and they provided binoculars for those that didn’t have their own. I felt pleased when I saw that the guide’s binoculars were similar to mine. There is an area of the park called ‘The Rambles’ where the trees and plants have been left to grow naturally. We spent most of the time on the tour there.

White-breasted Nuthatch

In our small tour group there was a little boy with his Dad. He couldn’t have been more than six and yet he almost matched the guide in his bird-identification skills, if not in his actual knowledge. At one point somewhere at the start, Karin saw him ask his Dad something. In response his Dad got something from his backpack, but great was her surprise when what he got wasn’t a snack, but a fancy camera with a powerful lens! The boy had the camera around his neck the whole time and was quite expertly snapping pictures.

American Robin

Every time we come to a new place with new birds that I’m not used to, I feel as if I have to learn how to bird watch all over again. I have to get a feel for the kind of birds there are, learn their mannerisms, hear their calls – . That’s another reason I liked going on the bird tour so much, because I had someone who really knew the birds to tell me what I was seeing and who helped me to become familiar with them: ).

 

Winter Wren

Most of the birds in Central Park and the entire City of Manhattan are well hidden and small. Even the plentiful Red Tailed Hawks, Buteo jamaicensis, were hard to spot unless you were looking for them, and they are not even small. Therefore I hope you will excuse the bad quality of some of the photos.

Bridled Titmouse

Common Yellowthroat

Downy Woodpecker

 

 

Apr 14

Coffee – by Marike

Whenever my mom brews herself a cup of coffee, I immediately think of two things: Chocolate cake and New York.

The chocolate cake thing doesn’t have anything to do with New York. It’s just that we have an awesome cake recipe that uses coffee, so coffee gives me this idea that there should be cake to go with it.

I guess the more chocolate cake we bake and the further New York fades into the past, the more I won’t actually associate coffee with New York. But at the moment I still very much do.

To make coffee, we scoop the ground coffee out of the jar and put it into our neat little “one-cup-of-coffee-anaitor”. It is simply a small, black, specially shaped funnel. It fits perfectly over any mug. Inside this funnel you put a disposable paper filter, fill it with coffee, add boiling water slowly and then just wait. The water trickles down into the cup through the coffee. Voila! You have just made a cup of coffee!

In New York my Mom, Franci and Karin used to drink quite a lot of coffee. Of course, it was cold in New York, so deciding that you feel like a cup of something hot isn’t difficult to do. (I just prefer tea.)

The thing about drinking coffee in New York, is that there are just SO MANY OPTIONS! You can go to just about any Fairway (I don’t think I was ever in one that didn’t have it), look for the tea and coffee section. . . and you will the find coffee.

Bags of it.

Roasted coffee beans displayed in big burlap bags. The bags are hip high and open at the top. A smiling assistant wielding a scoop will help you – the poor confused client- to decide which of the many different shades of brown is likely to best suit your taste. Of course, most of the clientele aren’t confused at all – from long experience they know exactly which coffee they want. They just order a set amount to be grounded to a set coarseness and go on their way again, rushing off in true New York haste.

The coffee nook holds a unique charm for us. Our Fairway has the coffee and tea all tucked away in a little alcove. This is virtually the only place you can stand still for any length of time without being in someone’s way.

Have we mentioned how small Manhattan shops are? Great variety, but crammed into tiny isles with ever bustling customers. In the past, whenever we popped into any store to buy a few essentials, it would always be Mom who does the rushing about. We, (as the kids), stay with the trolley.

This is not possible in Manhattan – you will be in someone’s way. The best alternative we could find is to wander the isles randomly, dodging and weaving other customers. You can’t really stay in one place, (unless it is to grab something from the shelf), so the coffee nook was really a nice place to just stand still.

There was one specific employee whom we befriended there. Her name is Faith and her family comes from somewhere in Northern Africa, I think. Whenever we stopped by the Fairway to buy something we would generally go to check and see if she was there, just to say hi. =)

Now my coffee blog has turned into a shopping blog, but I will return to coffee – just as soon as I add one more thing in the shopping category.

The other grocery shop we frequented was named “Trader Joes”. Slightly cheaper with a little less variety, Trader Joes boasted three floors! Okay, not technically true, since one floor is only the entrance to the shop.

But here is the cool bit – the shop front is on street level, you walk in through the glass doors and there is an escalator slightly to your right. It goes down.

The whole shopping experience in Trader Joes is under street level. There are special trolley escalators that takes you cart up and down! Sooooo cool!

Okay, back to coffee. =)

I just want to mention the Starbucks before I end this blog. About a year after we left South Africa . . . I think . . . there was a Starbucks that opened in the mall of Africa. (A shopping mall I personally haven’t seen yet.) Something like that. XP Anyway – what I do know, is that a lot of my friends started posting photos of when they had had a coffee or whatever at Starbucks. So it was cool when we got the opportunity to go to Starbucks in the USA. 😉 We got hot chocolate though, so I don’t actually know what quality their coffee is. 😉 (My mom says it is good.)

Apr 13

The First ‘Not so Great’ Dingy Adventure – by the Mom

We are in New York. End of a very long day at the Natural History Museum. We stop at the Fairways to pick up some groceries and head back to the Marina.

The way leads through the Yacht Basin Café. This time of night they are closed and the chairs are stacked up on the tables. We skirt around the main café following the designated bicycle throughway. There is a family with small children walking in front of us carrying lots of shopping bags. Mmmm… fellow cruisers? Yep, they exit the café at the right point. They cross the busy jogging/cycling road and enter the marina just a little too far ahead for us to call out to them.

Frans turns to the office to check on mail. I slip into the Ladies and the children head for the dingy. Well, they are not overly enthusiastic about it, because once you reach the dingy, you have to start inflating the pontoons. They notice a dingy stuck halfway under the concrete structure of the bridge and feel terribly sorry for those poor people. They continue towards our dingy. Wait! It’s not there! Well, where is it then?

NONONONONONOOOOO!!! It cannot be! It’s OUR dingy under the concrete.

What to do?

It shouldn’t be too difficult to pop it out again? Right? Right?

WRONG!!!!!

It wasn’t budging an inch. The motor is pushed in underneath the concrete. Most of the jetty floats, but not this part. Our dingy must have floated in underneath at low tide. The really bad news is that the tide is still rising and pushing our dingy ever more into the water. This means that even if the motor is still okay now, it won’t be okay for long.

We borrow a rowboat from the marina to reach the dingy. It is in such an awkward position. The rowboat itself looks quite neglected and not too stable. While leaning out to push down on our dingy, Frans nearly capsizes it. It is impossible.

There is just one option left. Frans has to strip down and swim underneath the pier to assess the damage and find a possible solution.

Meanwhile, our boater family of earlier on – in true cruiser fashion – came to see if they could help us. We agreed that the Dad would take his family back to their boat and come back to see if we’ve made any progress. If we don’t get our dingy out, we have no way of reaching our own boat without help. The marina night watchman was really not very helpful at all. He lent us a boathook and gave us permission to use the dilapidated rowing boat and then retreated back into his office. Oh yes, he did offer the information that high tide was still about 4 hours away!

Sooo, no choice. Frans strips down to his denim and enters the freezing water. It really is not very deep, but VERY murky. He cannot budge the dingy, even when standing on the bottom. Next, he swims in underneath the pier. The good news is that the concrete pier is hollow and that there is a lot of free space above the motor. The bad news is that the dingy is very stuck underneath the side and Frans is not able to push the dingy out. If he pushes down on the motor, it will be submerged. (Salt water is very bad for engines).

At this point, some of us are on top of the pier, shining our cell-phone lights through the slats so that he can see more clearly. Frans reckons that the whole dingy should fit into the space underneath the pier. Therefore he pushes down on the dingy again. This time it is not necessary to bring the part with the motor out, but to just push the nose inside little by little. It works!

It seems that there is enough freeboard above the dingy for it to survive the rising tide. Or so we pray. Frans ties it in position so that it won’t drift around and he dives back underneath the concrete. Now all we need to do is wait for low tide. The tide only turns at 2:00 am.

Our good Samaritan arrives back (it is a loooong dingy ride to the boats) and he takes us all back to Shang Du for some much needed sleep. He arranges with Frans to pick him up again at 3:00 am so that they can be there when the dingy starts moving out from the pier. What an amazing guy!

Boy, am I glad that I am not the Captain – but only the wife – as the alarm goes off in the wee hours. They leave in the dingy, and end up spending about three more hours in the cold (Frans being wet from another inspection swim), before the tide is low enough to slide the dingy out. The motor starts without incident. God is so good! He protected our motor and sent us the right people at just the right time.

Looking back, I find that we have no photos of this whole incident. I think that it was just too painful to admit that we actually allowed this to happen. We DO have a photo showing the after-effects of the trauma to the dingy.

This is what our dingy looked like after its 79th street Marina experience. We had to inflate it every time before using it and we even had to keep on pumping as we put-putted to our destination.

 

We also have some lovely photos of the Good Samaritan Family when they visited our boat some time after the incident.

Apr 11

Central Park – by Franci

A lovely bit of nature amidst the forest of towering glass and steel.

It wasn’t always that way. Before the park was built there were houses and shops and people living on that land. But when the petition for a green place for the city dwellers was approved, that land was commandeered.

A competition was held for the best park design. Whoever won, got the contract to actually build the park. The construction of Central Park was no mere matter of gardening. No; the whole piece of land was blasted and shaped by the architects. The only original parts are flat boulders of black rock rising above the ground in a few places. The rock is called ‘chist’ and is the solid base all the skyscrapers of Manhattan are anchored in.

 

But looking at the Park today I would never have guessed about its violent start or neglected past. The trees stand tall and broad throughout the park – people might have planted them, but God is the one who made them grow and they are beautiful.

The park became even more beautiful after the changing weather convinced the trees to swop their emerald hues for golden nuggets and crimson jewels. The fallen leaves mocked the neatness that the caretakers could produce in the summer, because they fell everywhere and in overwhelming numbers, reflecting the autumn colours back up from the ground.

I learned very quickly just to keep my camera around my neck whenever we were in the park. The trees, ponds, pathways and nature in general were all just so beautiful that I kept stopping to get my camera out of my backpack anyway.

The designers wanted to free the city dwellers from the rigid grid system of blocks and squares, so they made sure no path or road in the park runs in a straight line. Their plan succeeded so well that apparently no real New Yorker has not, at some point, gotten lost in the park ; P.

There is a main road going through the park, but its not actually used by cars. It is, however, used by joggers, bikers, bicycle drawn carriages and horse buggies 🙂 . Some of the horses and their buggies look ready for a parade, complete with the horse having a plume on its head 🙂 . The bicycle carriages are really expensive, going from 3 to 5 dollars a minute!(and it was just about big enough for only two people to fit in).

 

There are always people in the park. Tourists – like us – snapping pictures; people out for a stroll after work; people jogging; people jogging while pushing a baby carriage; people walking their dogs; people strolling while pushing their dog around in a special pet-carriage (I’m not kidding). . .

I think Sundays are usually the park’s busiest days. On our first Sunday we had a picnic lunch there after church and it was grand. The sun was shining and there were Warblers (a kind of small song bird) in the trees. Different types of musicians and artists were scattered throughout the park. Apparently, anyone that wants to, can come and pick a spot in the park to play an instrument or do a little show – as long as no amplifiers are used.

 

On another day, we discovered the park’s oldest and probably most generally forgotten treasure: an ancient Egyptian obelisk. (Which of you have read the comic ‘Asterix and Cleopatra’? Well, there were these two huge obelisks in front of a palace and Asterix scolded Obelix and told him he couldn’t take them back to the village).

Over a hundred years ago, the Egyptians tried to offer the US an obelisk, but their offer was ignored. However, when a short time later England proudly set up an obelisk in London, New York was overcome with obelisk jealousy. After a hazardous journey the obelisk ‘Cleopatra’s Needle’ arrived at New York and was set up in Central Park amid great pomp. It weighs 220 tons and is 3500 years old. The large weight caused a lot of trouble in actually transporting the obelisk from the wharf to the park. A minister of Egypt recently threatened to take back the obelisk, claiming the Americans were allowing it to be destroyed by the weather. New York staunchly denied this, however, and to prove it they launched a big project to minutely clean the obelisk and to cover it with a protective layer. Look up its story on Wikipedia, it’s actually quite cool 🙂 .

 

We also did a movie tour through the park. During this tour, the guide stopped at different places and told us what movies had been shot there. It was pretty cool. After that tour we made a point of watching every movie we own that has NY somewhere in it.

We can’t remember seeing this, but apparently in one of the Avenger movies, Thor and Loki use this spot as their portal back home . . .

Who hasn’t watched Enchanted?

 

The last official activity we did in Central Park was ice skating.

Close to winter an outdoor ice rink is set up in the park. It was a lot of fun to ice skate out in the open. The strangest part was knowing that when we left the ice rink it would be just as cold as when we were on the ice. Back home in the mall there was always heat when we left the rink.

It really was a lot of fun ice skating again for the first time since the sailing trip started. I think Marike enjoyed it the most because it’s a lot like dancing, and she really loves dancing.

It was sad to say goodbye to Central Park that last day of our stay in New York. Bundled up in jackets and beanies against the cold, we walked underneath the trees and had a last look at this closing chapter in our lives. Central Park will always have a special place in our hearts.

Apr 08

Rockefeller Centre – by Marike

Close your eyes.

Squeeze them tight.

Now open them.

We are sitting on benches. These are interesting benches. The whole bench curves around a huge, dark brown flower pot. Looking around me, I can see about 5 or 6 more flower pots scattered around the area.

The skyscrapers rise up all around the little open plane, creating a boxed in feeling. Karin, Sophia and I are the ones sitting on the bench. We are waiting here while our Dad is quickly riding the subway back to the 79th street yacht basin. Franci has just left us to go and check if my mom is okay where she is waiting outside the Rockefeller centre.

How did we come to be split up like this? I’ll explain…

We had arrived at the Rockefeller centre some time ago, exchanged our explorer passes for “Top of the Rock” tickets and ascended to the second level of the building – no problem. However, once we reached the security checkpoint, there were some holdups.

Knives.

Pocket knives.

To be exact, those belonging to Karin and my Dad.

We were told, (extremely matter-of-factly), that we had only two options: return the pocket-knives to the hotel or throw them in the dustbin. No alternatives. No arguing.

It was quite a shock. How were we going to get to the boat and back in time to go up the tower? Throwing away the pocket-knives were just not an option…

We were allowed to take our tickets and exchange them for another time-slot, but it had to be on the same day. We figured out that and hour ought to be enough time for my Dad to get to the boat, leave the knives in the dingy and be back in time.

Sitting on the bench now, I’m reading aloud to my sisters from Anne of Green Gables. It has become our New York book. We have lots of little pockets of time where we have absolutely nothing to do but wait. The fact that the book is on my phone makes it easily accessible. I mostly read to them while we are waiting in the subway, but now we also need something to distract us.

It’s not working that well, however. I keep on looking up to see if our dad hasn’t come back yet. After a while Sophia says she’s going to go and check on Franci and my mom. Off she goes across the street. (Yes, all on her own and I’m not even worried. 😉 ) Just as Karin and I start picking up our bags, we spot the rest of our family on the other side of the street. Happily we reunite, pedestrians milling around us as we catch each other up on the details of the last 30 minutes.

I love how our family does that. If someone has been separated from the bulk of the family, even for a short time, we need to first catch up on all the details of the time they’ve been gone. It might be just because we’re so nosy, but it keeps us connected too.

We make our way back to the entrance to the Rockefeller centre, only slightly apprehensive. This time, however, there are no hitches. We have to wait a while till we can ride the elevator up, but there is enough to look at while we wait.

As the elevator goes up, I watch the floor numbers flicker past on the digital screen. Disconcertingly, I notice that sometimes it completely skips a number altogether!

The elevator door opens and we pour out along with the other people who rode the elevator up with us. Big glass windows invite us to come look at the view – and we’re high!

I think the best views were from the Rockefeller centre, because of where it’s situated, between the Empire state building and Central park, two of the most typically “New York” features of the city.

Franci with Central park behind her. You can see the gap in the huge glass panels that are designed to keep people from untimely deaths. xP

 

We stayed until the lights turned on. In the end, we got the best time slot. =)

Apr 07

The People of New York – by the Mom

On our whole trip so far, New York was the first place that we blended in completely. Why? Was this because New Yorkers all look like South Africans?

No. It is because there is just no such thing as an average New Yorker. This has to be the melting pot of EVERY culture on earth. Everywhere we went we saw different peoples. Different clothes, different skin, different eyes, different language, different… different. We blended in so nicely because we were just another type of different.

I also thought that we would be seeing a lot of designer outfits and power dressing. We did not. The average New Yorker (which doesn’t exist), wore comfort clothes. Maybe this was just a function of the areas that we frequented… the subways, streets, museums, streets, Central Park, Brooklyn Bridge, the streets…….Maybe it was just because we were there between seasons and it was hard to know what the weather would do.

The bottom line is that only in New York could we get away with being fully dressed in our winter clothes, including scarves and beanies, and yet, wear our Keen sandals on our feet.

At one point, we really believed that New York consisted only of a lot of tourists and that no-one stayed there full time. This was until we attended Redeemer Church in Manhattan.

Greg Healy was our first real New Yorker. Strictly speaking, we didn’t meet him through the church, but we arranged to meet at church. My good friend Adrienne is good friends with his wife. Although his wife was in England for the entire time and Greg had never personally met Adrienne, he really went out of his way to make us feel welcome in NY.

He treated us to a fabulous lunch at The Spring Kitchen on that first rainy day after church. He also gave us quite a few lifts in his lovely big van. Whether it was to the Larger Fairways or to pick up Propane gas in New Jersey, he was always ready to serve. I don’t know if this is typical for real New Yorkers, but he drinks an insane amount of coffee and he ALWAYS listens to the sports on his car radio while driving around. He shared with us that people who grew up in New York City, when asked where they are from, will always answer that they come from “The City”. Never New York City. We miss you Greg!

Mark and Cynthia

Mark and Cynthia Semsel are a couple that we did meet at church. They travel from Sleepy Hollow every Sunday to attend church at Redeemer in Manhattan. What a lovely couple! After treating us to a scrumptious Mexican meal, Cynthia spent an entire afternoon with the girls in Central Park while Marc drove Frans and I to the Costco so that we could stock up on low-priced items. The girls planned to interview different people and put together a short video. They say that if it wasn’t for Cynthia, they would never have spoken to so many people. She was not shy at all and started most of the conversations by introducing the girls to the random groups.(She didn’t know them either).

Both Greg and the Semsels braved the ‘extreme dingy ride’ to visit us on our boat one Sunday after church. One of my fond memories is our discussions on American football. Both Greg and Cynthia are very ardent supporters and Mark even remembered the time that Cynthia went into deep mourning when her team lost. He had to keep the curtains drawn and tiptoed around for a while.

They tried to explain American football to us and it was the closest I’ve ever been to understanding it …. but it is starting to fade already.

Just a short interlude here: The lovely woman that visited us on our boat in Florida, Dianne Martin, sent her daughter to look us up in New York City. The daughter and her two children came for an outing to Central Park. While there, they contacted us through Dianne, saying they would like to meet up with us and could we come to the park? Fortunately, this was the day that Cynthia was in the park with the girls and it was just a question of getting them to meet up. Any other day and it wouldn’t have worked at all. These Martin women have all the luck.

Redeemer church in itself says a lot about New York and its people. While we immediately felt very at home with fellow believers in Christ, it is a far cry from our own Midrand Chapel at home. Before the start of every service, they always have a short concert by very accomplished musicians. This sets a beautiful atmosphere and entices people to come early. A wide variety of classical instruments were on display during the few weeks that we attended and we even once had a whole string orchestra! New Yorkers do not do things in half measures.

The children also wanted me to mention that there is always tea and coffee and chocolate muffins after church for those who want to meet and greet.

It was at just such an informal gathering that we met Carolyn Jacobs. She met the girls first and they introduced her to us. She is from Dutch descent, but has been living in New York for a long time. She delighted us by an invitation to dinner. This was our first inside look into the apartment world of New York.

There is strict security at the entrance and they called her before letting us in. Her flat is a lovely, welcome place with a beautiful view of the Hudson River and East side park. It was just not possible to see Shang Du from her apartment. She has a balcony with a little garden and even has a tree that was planted by a bird carrying the seed. We had a very tasty dinner and the company was great.

When we expressed how safe we found New York, she shared with us that when she first moved there, it certainly wasn’t the case. As we looked out from her balcony onto a little intersection and bridge, she told us that they warned her then not to go near that spot, because it was well known for drug-trafficking. Nothing of that remains today.

Carolyn never made it to our boat for a visit, as by then, the ‘extreme dingy ride’ was becoming downright scary with the weather deteriorating more and more. Carolyn, we would love it if you could visit us in South Africa!

The last real New Yorkers that we met were Mary Adams and through her, her husband Tom. Mary has been attending at Redeemer church for the last 15 years and they have been staying in New York, in the same apartment, for more than 40. When they invited us for tea we found out that they live at the very top of one of the buildings that lie in direct view of our anchorage in the Hudson.

Their tiny, little flat has the most astonishing view. There is a huge, round window in their sitting room that takes up the whole wall. I met Mary when we sat next to each other in church. When she found out that we were anchored on the Hudson, she was so excited to tell Tom that she actually met the people living on Shang Du. They had been watching our boat from their flat for a while.

We had a great afternoon drinking tea and appreciating the view. The flat does not have air-conditioning, so Mary and Tom try to spend their Summers in Florida, where they have another apartment with AC.

After our visit I made a point of waving in the direction of that round window whenever we left our boat in the dingy or returned from a trip. Just in case they could see me. Mary and Tom, we will hold you and your amazing view in our hearts forever. We pray for you often.

The girls will never forgive me if I do not mention our Asian family. They stole our hearts with their adorable two little ones. They were just as new to the New York scene and to the church as we were on that first Sunday. While they are not ‘real’ New Yorkers, they are extremely typical of the big melting pot called New York and the way in which people from all over the world gets drawn here for whatever reason. They were our regular meet and greet family around the coffee and muffins and it was always good to see them.

I cannot end this blog without mentioning the insane people. Everywhere we walked, we came across them. They look normal at first glance, but very soon you realise that they are talking to themselves. Really loudly. Not only do they talk out loud, but they gesticulate and frown and laugh too. Once, I was sure that one of them asked me a question. I was just on the point of asking them to repeat it, when I noticed that they were staring straight through me. Really eerie. It took a while for us to realise that they are all just talking on their cell-phones with little earplugs and speakers. I think these insane people are really all part of the real New Yorkers, because they all spoke English.

New York has amazing architecture, a very rich history, great landscapes and incredible museums. But, without the people, it would be a very empty husk.

I really enjoyed our people watching stay in New York.

Apr 01

New York overview – by Karin & Sophia

Joint Blog

 

Sophia:

    Hey guys, you might not have known this, but there are actual dinosaurs in New York. Ok, so they don’t have meat attached to them, but still, they were real dinosaurs.

   

Karin:

    Yeah, the dinosaurs are located in the Natural history museum. They’re quite cool, and awesomely big. I’m not sure how natural a couple of skeletons are but they’re definitely history.

 

    Apparently the latest fad is that dinosaurs had feathers. Imagine if a T-rex was all covered in pink feathers! I think they look much better in the traditional colours and scales.

    There was this one skeleton that I thought, “Oh, that’s a cool dinosaur skeleton.” Then it turned out to be an actual animal that hasn’t gone extinct yet.

 

So Sophia insisted that this start with Dinosaurs-

 

-Hey I just started it! There was no argument!

 

Ignore that interruption. So Sophia insisted  about the dinosaurs, but let’s just continue with-

 

  -Dinosaurs!

 

No! we’re going with the Subway. The Subway is awesome, I personally liked the Subway.

Karin? I thought you were claustrophobic!, I personally didn’t like the Subway, unless I had a seat. Otherwise you had to stand and get squashed.

 

 

Yeah, but only if there’s lots of people. We were only on the subway two times when it was squashed like that.

 

    I’m sure it was three! Or five.

 

No it wasn’t! it was just two, plus the time when we went to Coney Island the subway car was mostly empty all the way except for us! Anyway, we should start telling them about NY now, because at the moment we’re just arguing.

Ok (sigh), you’re right. All they know so far is that dinosaurs might have had feathers.

 

So , Ahem. I will start. I think Franci wrote about Central Park, And Marike wants to take Coney Island, but luckily there is a lot to tell about NY.

    So there are a lot of well stocked museums around here. Like a lot! And when I say well stocked, I mean soo much that you can arrive when it opens and stay so long that they have to lock the doors behind you when you leave. Even when you skip lunch and just browse and read everything you can, you still won’t be able to learn even half of what’s available.

 

  Except that you can’t survive without lunch, I’m sure it would mentally disturb the artefacts if they had to listen to my stomach growl.

 

Sophia is right. I’m sure it did bother those little blue hippos that the Egyptians buried with them, when my stomach growled at them.   

    But it was worth the wait. Lunch was delicious.

Talking about the hippos. The Egyptians knew that hippos were very dangerous, of course they’re still dangerous today.

    Back in the day, the Egyptians had these little hippo statues that they painted blue with a pattern of flowers on them. Apparently the lucky for the dead person whom they bury them with, because of the paint job. But hippos are dangerous, so they break off three of the hippos legs. That way the little hippo, who is roughly the size of a duckling, can’t seriously harm the dead person when it “comes alive in the after life” 

Look closely – three of the legs are a slightly different blue. The restoration team wanted people to see what had been added on.

 

There was this female Pharoah once, she was the only female Pharoah. There had been queens but not female Pharaohs. They found broken statues of her and made them whole again. It was interesting to see, because the longer she was in power, the more of the official dress she started to wear. In the end she actually wore the beard thing!

Here she isn’t wearing the beard but she is wearing the head-thing.

In some of the statues she looked like a man because she was wearing all the official Pharoah stuff. I would have thought it was a guy if the audio guide didn’t tell us differently.

    I’ll tell you about the the gold stuff after Karin’s next paragraph.

 

Yeah, the Egyptians buried all their gold! They made a lot of ceremonial stuff. Like Sophia wanted me to mention a couple of stuff..

Oh yes, the finger and toe coverings. They would make golden fingers, that would look like fingers to put on the dead persons fingers. They’d do the same for the toes, and even make the dead Egyptian very unpractical sandals made of gold.

    And now we shall move on to the golden egg.

 

Those eggs have nothing to do with the Egyptian culture. I don’t even know what those were for. I think it was art. It was just art.

    I Don’t know why Sophia brought that up, but I found the armour cool. They had swords and jousting sticks.

I thought I said we were going on to the golden eggs! Karin how could you go to armour?

    Technically the eggs weren’t even solid gold. I think it was made of some green stone touched with a little gold leaf.

Well the armour was way more awesome than that egg. And I think everybody was sort of expecting still to hear something about mummies before we moved away from the Egyptian stuff.

 

   I wasn’t expecting to hear about mummies.

  Well I will, for the sake of everybody who did expect that, say a few words in their honour.

    Mummies are dead.

 

Thank you very much for those very inspiring words Karin. I wil never forget them! Three cheers for Karin and her insightful speech! You’re not cheering? Ah well, it was worth a try.

  

  To all of you who cheered. YAY!!!!

    Now getting back to more practical stuff. I think we can move out of this museum since there is still a lot of NY to cover.

 

But there’s still the armour! And the El dorado section! And there’s this great photo where I’m “holding” a gun! And the prince’s letter opener which is covered in diamonds. We can’t stop now! I won’t be dragged out.

No! No! ah man!! How could you Karin?

 

As you can guess I dragged her out. But no worries, she wasn’t hurt in the process.

 

Ow! My foot hurts! I need to go to the hospital!

 

    I guess we can move onto some other museum… How about the Empire state building. It’s not a museum, but it’s New York.

    The Empire state building is taller than the Eiffel tower. It’s not the home of King Kong, but we saw an employee who was crazy about him. He was dressed in full suit as King Kong. We took photos with him.

I guess not everybody has the chance to visit the Bronx Zoo, and see the real King Kong, like we did.

  Yeah! let’s tell them about the zoo!

    It was a long Subway ride away. But we got to see two snow leopards, wild dogs, a polar bear, and a red panda! There were field mice and a tiger, some sort of special wild horses.

They had this building in which you could go. In this building they would imitate the bird’s habitat as much as possible. The halls were empty, even of trash cans. You weren’t allowed to eat in there. The bird cages didn’t have any bars or anything, they could fly out of their cages and join us if they liked, but there’s no point in it for them. Because the halls are empty, there’s nothing there for them, so they just stay in their  cages.

    They do put a see-through mesh there when the birds learn to fly, so that they don’t actually fly out, but they take it away as they learn.

 

What else did we see? There were Giraffes and a few Zebras. I always feel proud of our African animals. Because they’re so exotic to the rest of the world. And they’re super awesome if I do say so myself.

Ok Karin, it’s my turn to drag you away to the INTREPID! I might still be limping from the time you tried to drag me away, but I’m still strong enough to get you there!

 

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

So, the Intrepid was one of the special places I liked very much. It’s an aircraft carrier.(It’s a ship that carries fighter planes around on its back like a mother swan. The airplanes get launched off the deck of the ship.) Well, because the ship’s deck isn’t long enough for an airplane runway, they use steam that they build up, they push the airplane with the steam as it puts full power into getting launched. Even with the help of the steam it’s quite tricky to actually launch the plane. Now, naturally if the runway is too short to launch from, it’s too short to land on. Plus the ship is rocking because of the waves. When the plane lands it puts out this stick with a hook at the end to scrape on the deck behind him as he goes across. He lands at full speed. There are three ropes tied on the deck for the plane to hook onto with its special hook. If it hooks, all is well. The plane is able to slow down fast enough. If not, then the plane has too speed up again as much as possible in order to be able to launch again for another try.

    So yeah, that was cool to learn.

There were airplanes on display on deck. Among them the blackbird spy plane.

It was an awesome museum and it was pretty cold.

    Sophia, I don’t feel inspired to talk about the Intrepid at the moment. But it was an awesome experience, the moving way in which they told us about the kamikaze attacks. The space exhibition. I don’t know why there was a space exhibition on the ship but it was cool, and the kitchens were the best.

    I will write about where we’re anchored. The Hudson. What I never knew before, was that New Jersey –It’s not in the shape of a Jersey- Is right opposite Manhattan. Well, from where we were anchored you could see the Jersey shore and of course we were closer to Manhattan.

    We were staying at a place called 79th street Marina. But because the Hudson is a river with lot’s of barge traffic, the anchorage is all against the one side. We were too heavy to stay on a mooring buoy so we had to anchor out. It was probably a whole nautical mile of a dingy ride to the Marina.

    We stayed in New York as it was becoming Autumn. It was amazing to see the green turn to orange and red. The colours were awesome.

    Along the side of the Hudson, all the property belongs to the government. They made a park all along the rim of Manhattan, it’s a wonderful jogging place for people who take a morning jog or to ride their bikes to work. Riverside park is filled with trees, and you can see all the awesome colours.

  The dingy rides back and forth were terribly cold!!!

 

Now we will write about YANKEES!!! The baseball team. YAY! YAY! YAY! GO NEW YORK YANKEES!

 

BOO! BOO! NOT THE YANKEES, BOSTON RED SOX RULE!

 

We went to see a baseball game at the Yankee stadium. The game was cool, but that’s not the point. We got a Yankees cap and ate hot dogs while watching the game. They were home made, but we ate them at the game so it was cool.

    It was some pitcher in the Red Sox team’s last game. So they did a mini ceremony for him, everybody stood up for the anthem before the game. And the game was cool. I’ve never been in any kind of official stadium for big league sports and it was a lot bigger than I thought it would be.

It was cold!

    The seats down where they were batting were more expensive. This was because if the batter, hit a foul ball, It had a chance to land in the crowd and If you catch a ball you can keep it.

    Something like five balls were given away that night.

 

Ok, I think this blog is done. Sophia, your opinion?

 

Yeah I guess this blog is over. If you want to know more about New York go visit it yourself.