Staten Island, the 5th Borough of NYC...

May 26, 2023






         

Our weather worked out well as we travelled our last leg in the ocean from Manasquan into New York Harbor.  Totally different than 2 days earlier.  We chose to stay at Great Kills Yacht Club in Staten Island.  The yacht club founded in 1906 had a beautiful building and grounds.  In addition, the people could not have been nicer.  Our "sponsor" for the holiday weekend, John, had done the loop in 2003.  Since 2008, he rents out slips for those people who do not have their boats in their slip.  The accessibility to the Staten Island Railroad which can take you to places on the island and to the Staten Island Ferry was about a 20 minute walk.  There was also an Italian market, Frank and Sal's which was really good.  Needless to say we got a number of items.  After we arrived, we went down to the Flagship brewery and had food from a tapas place.  Roxanne and David from Beach House went with us.

                     

Saturday was the official opening of the Great Kills Yacht Club for the season and John was kind enough to invite us to the festivities- music, food, drinks, and flag raising!  We enjoyed it very much.  While we were there, we found out that John and 2 of his sons were members of the IBEW #3 which is the electrical union that covers all of NYC.  John actually was the person responsible for the local members benefits.  They  treated Danny like a brother when they found out he was in IBEW #1340.  While we have seen many businesses needing people to work, he told us that they have 10,000 applications for 300 apprentice positions the last 2 years.

John and myself at the picnic outside Great Kills Club.       

Great Kills Yacht Club                   

I talked to Roxanne about an interest of riding the Staten Island Ferry over to Manhattan and back as the sun was setting.  The ferry comes closer to the Statue of Liberty on the return from Manhattan not to mention getting good views of the lights of the Manhattan skyline.  The four of us went and had a great time.  The trip is free and when you get over you have to get off and then get back on board.

 


On Sunday, I had a number of places to see before we left Monday morning.  We went to Fort Wadsworth(earlier known as Fort Richmond) which was a fort to protect the city from the anyone entering the harbor.  The fort we saw from land looking down and later would see from the water as well.  Numerous forts were built in and around Manhattan to protect the people of Manhattan. The eastern area of Staten Island comes very close to the western side of Brooklyn and was known as the "narrows".  The powers within the city wanted fortifications here to provide defenses before arriving in the city.  The National Park Service covers the area of all of the forts going as far sound as Sandy Hook under the Gateway National Recreation Area,  I thought it was interesting that a board was posted saying in 1841, Robert E. Lee oversaw the fortification improvements at the fort.  The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is now right next to the fort. This bridge finished in 1964 connected Staten Island to Brooklyn.


While walking back, we also saw a formal looking building which was considered the infirmary.  Apparently, this building housed medical personnel who would go out to ships prior to entering New York at the "Narrows" to determine if anyone on the ship had disease and needed to be quarantine.  If the ship was cleared, it would proceed into the city.

We then rode down to St George where you catch the ferry to go to the Staten Island Borough building.  Unfortunately, we did not get there before 5pm on Friday.  Inside the building there is artwork on the walls which was done as part of the WPA project doing the depression.  I had to look at pictures on the internet.  We ate pizza at Pier 96, thin, thin crust pizza which was great!  Another place I would have liked to eat was Enoteca Maria.  Interesting place as they have "nonnas" come in and cook lunch and dinner.  Nonnas in Italian are grandmothers.  So these grandmothers come in and cook lunch or dinner for the people with reservations and next day is someone else's turn.  They were sold out Sunday.  Definitely a different concept.  We ended the day at the Tiki Bar down on the water in Great Kills.  Now we can say we have been to all 5 boroughs of New York City. 

                            Beautiful white swan and 5 babies passing our boat on Saturday morning.

TOTAL MILES TRAVELLED   3094.90 miles
TOTAL DAYS 196















 

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