Before recounting our fabulous day in NYC, time for the news we got from our insurance company the day we passsed the Tappan Zee bridge (Sept 19). Our Insurance company had our complete trip plan, including approximate dates, which were included in the voyage plan we had to submit. We also had to provide a hurricane preparedness plan, ie what we would do try to avoid one etc. All duly filed and accepted. We accepted the fact our premium would double once we crossed the Tappan Zee bridge, covering being in “hurricane area” and the fact that our boat would be in the water all year. There were no exclusions around dates. We had to let the company know 24 hours before got to the Tappan Zee bridge, which Bob did.
The next day Bob got an email from the insurance company saying thank you for letting us know, and by the way, because of all the claims we’ve had to pay for the recent hurricanes, you will not be covered for any damage from named hurricanes south of Norfolk Virginia until Dec 1. Our travel plan had us being at Fort Pierce, Florida by December 1. Norfolk is where would enter the inter coastal waterway and then take 5/6 weeks to travel through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and half way down the east coast of Florida to get to Fort Pierce where we have a slip booked for the month of December.
Bob has exchanged emails with the insurance company, there is no movement on this issue. In talking to some people here, some US insurers have a prior to Nov 1 date for not being covered south of Norfolk. Our friend Chris, who lives in St Petersburg FL and is making his way back to Florida, having spent the summer in the Long Island NY area, has no date restrictions on his coverage. Bob has contacted a company Chris recommended and they can insure Canadian boats in US waters. If they do, they would probably have a Nov 1 restriction but that sure beats Dec 1. We should hear back from him fairly soon, fingers crossed. The time of course is a big issue but so is the weather. Hanging around in the Chesapeake area even to the end of October means colder weather. We’ve been lucky with amazing sunny warm weather so far but that’s not going to last. We talked about parking the boat somewhere sometime in October, renting a car and doing some touristy stuff on land, staying in hotels with heat! It’s all up in the air for now ☹️.
And now to good news. We took the Liberty Landing ferry from the marina to the World Financial Centre at the tip of Lower Manhattan, a very short trip. It was interesting listening to the people around us. We were the first stop, the second one was still on the Jersey side across the channel from the marina. A lot of business people got on at the second stop, commiserating about the traffic that morning on the turnpike. I imagine being able to use the ferry makes it manageable to get from somewhere on the NJ side to Manhattan without having a daily mental traffic breakdown.
We were on a mission to try to get tickets to today’s matinée of Come From Away. The box office opened at ten to sell rush and standing room tickets. We knew we’d never get those but hoped there were regular priced seats still available. I chatted with a couple of women who were fairly close to the front of line, they had been there since 7am, we got there at 9:40. Luckily for us, most people were looking just for rush or standing room tickets so we got a pair to tickets four rows from the front and close to the centre, it was worth the hour we were in line !
We had talked about going to the Frick Museum but with the 2pm show we decided against it. We meandered to the Rockefeller Centre, had a leisurely lunch at the Rock Summer Cafe – it’s where the skating rink is in the winter. Bob did some shopping at the GAP on the way back to the theatre. The show was wonderful, worth every American penny. I was in the usual line at the women’s washroom (17 stalls, only minimal waiting according to a staffer) after the show, when an usher walked by heading for the staff locker room. As she excused herself to get past a woman in line, she asked her if she had enjoyed the show. The woman said yes, and also that she was from Newfoundland. The usher hugged her, which is a perfect illustration of what the show is all about.
A happy coincidence, our friend Paula was in was town doing a couple of training sessions for TD staff at the NYC office so we had a made arrangements to meet her for dinner near the theatre. She was going to the evening performance of Come From Away. We had a fun 2.5 hour, two bottle wine dinner. We took the subway back to ferry terminal and ended up wondering through a number of buildings including a very large shopping area. We were astounded at how much this part of the city had changed since we were last here – but it had been 12 years. It’s very built up now, condo/office towers, lots of restaurants, many people around, I’d say it was an improvement and there are still green spaces. We caught the last ferry back and I got a fabulous shot of Lower Manhattan all lit up. I Love ❤️ NYC !
