Dateline New York at the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal
October 28, 2007 1030 Hours
Carol had her epiphany at the John F. Kennedy Library; I had mine this morning.
I can remember from the time I was a little kid watching all of those black and white James Cagney and Pat O’Brien movies, PBS and History Channel shows, seeing the immigrants all lined along the rails of large ships coming into New York Harbor, craning their heads for a glimpse of the famous American Statue of Liberty as their first sight of America. This morning I finally got to realize my dream of experiencing the feeling for real on the deck of a large cruise ship.
We watched Series last night until Boston was ahead 6-0 and then hit the rack early (we assume they won the game but have not heard the outcome yet). Because Carol SO loves to get up with the chickens, I had the cruise control set for O’Dark Thirty this morning. We got up just as first nautical dawn was showing out the balcony windows and hit the ships’ televised monitor. Moderate seas and Force Six winds right across the deck – just the perfect way to begin the day. We quickly jumped into our warmest sweats and sock hats, grabbed the camera back pack, and blew straight for the top of the ship. This is the nastiest place to shoot photos from on-board, as it is the highest point on the ship and the wind howls up there, but if you can gut out the wind and the cold, the reward is the very best photo opportunities you can find on the ship, because a lot of people don’t want to deal with it.
It was no surprise to me that about 1,000 other passengers all had the same plan. For some dumb ass reason the crew at the purser’s desk was not sure when we were going to pass the statue and no announcements were made around the ship, but WE ALL KNEW! Usually at 0645 there ain’t nothin’ stirring on this tub, but the portside deck rails were swarming with passengers, cameras and video cameras as we made out way under the Verrazano narrows Bridge on our entrance into Upper New York Bay and the East River. The skies were a dark and a deep, clear blue, with an almost full moon setting in the west. The light in the east was just turning pink when we got our first glimpse of Ms. Liberty, standing alone on her pillar in the bay. Just about that time two Norwegian Cruise Line ships appeared behind us, moving toward their berths on the Westside along the Hudson River. Princess has built a new terminal facility in Brooklyn right by where the old Navy yard used to be, which made this an extra special experience for me. I stood on the top of the ship, thinking about what my father must have felt in the end of 1945 as he sailed into this very spot past the Statue of Liberty on the Queen Mary when he came home from World War II as a 21-year-old kid. I am sure it made him think very hard about what he had been fighting for the previous three years in Europe. With the two other gaily painted cruise liners running right along side of us, it was a stirring sight to behold. When you added in the obvious “hole” where the Twin Towers once stood in lower Manhattan, it even made it a more stirring sight.
As the sun rose we got a totally unobstructed view of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Staten Island Ferry running in front of it all, Battery Park and the Manhattan skyline, with both the Verrazano and Brooklyn Bridges thrown in for good measure. For me, this paid the price of the entire trip.
We have now sailed over 2,000 nautical miles from Quebec City and it would appear we are about half way to our final debarkation port of Fort Lauderdale in Florida. We have been able to experience everything from a little bit of France, England, Canada, as well as the rough days and nights across the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the Grand Banks and the North Atlantic.
We’re off to get all of this data transferred to the website blog so that can all continue to share this experience with us. Please continue to follow our voyage pictorially through out photos, videos and comments at the Google Picasa Photo Album.
October 28, 2007 1030 Hours
Carol had her epiphany at the John F. Kennedy Library; I had mine this morning.
I can remember from the time I was a little kid watching all of those black and white James Cagney and Pat O’Brien movies, PBS and History Channel shows, seeing the immigrants all lined along the rails of large ships coming into New York Harbor, craning their heads for a glimpse of the famous American Statue of Liberty as their first sight of America. This morning I finally got to realize my dream of experiencing the feeling for real on the deck of a large cruise ship.
We watched Series last night until Boston was ahead 6-0 and then hit the rack early (we assume they won the game but have not heard the outcome yet). Because Carol SO loves to get up with the chickens, I had the cruise control set for O’Dark Thirty this morning. We got up just as first nautical dawn was showing out the balcony windows and hit the ships’ televised monitor. Moderate seas and Force Six winds right across the deck – just the perfect way to begin the day. We quickly jumped into our warmest sweats and sock hats, grabbed the camera back pack, and blew straight for the top of the ship. This is the nastiest place to shoot photos from on-board, as it is the highest point on the ship and the wind howls up there, but if you can gut out the wind and the cold, the reward is the very best photo opportunities you can find on the ship, because a lot of people don’t want to deal with it.
It was no surprise to me that about 1,000 other passengers all had the same plan. For some dumb ass reason the crew at the purser’s desk was not sure when we were going to pass the statue and no announcements were made around the ship, but WE ALL KNEW! Usually at 0645 there ain’t nothin’ stirring on this tub, but the portside deck rails were swarming with passengers, cameras and video cameras as we made out way under the Verrazano narrows Bridge on our entrance into Upper New York Bay and the East River. The skies were a dark and a deep, clear blue, with an almost full moon setting in the west. The light in the east was just turning pink when we got our first glimpse of Ms. Liberty, standing alone on her pillar in the bay. Just about that time two Norwegian Cruise Line ships appeared behind us, moving toward their berths on the Westside along the Hudson River. Princess has built a new terminal facility in Brooklyn right by where the old Navy yard used to be, which made this an extra special experience for me. I stood on the top of the ship, thinking about what my father must have felt in the end of 1945 as he sailed into this very spot past the Statue of Liberty on the Queen Mary when he came home from World War II as a 21-year-old kid. I am sure it made him think very hard about what he had been fighting for the previous three years in Europe. With the two other gaily painted cruise liners running right along side of us, it was a stirring sight to behold. When you added in the obvious “hole” where the Twin Towers once stood in lower Manhattan, it even made it a more stirring sight.
As the sun rose we got a totally unobstructed view of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Staten Island Ferry running in front of it all, Battery Park and the Manhattan skyline, with both the Verrazano and Brooklyn Bridges thrown in for good measure. For me, this paid the price of the entire trip.
We have now sailed over 2,000 nautical miles from Quebec City and it would appear we are about half way to our final debarkation port of Fort Lauderdale in Florida. We have been able to experience everything from a little bit of France, England, Canada, as well as the rough days and nights across the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, the Grand Banks and the North Atlantic.
We’re off to get all of this data transferred to the website blog so that can all continue to share this experience with us. Please continue to follow our voyage pictorially through out photos, videos and comments at the Google Picasa Photo Album.
For those of you who are interested here is a video of our arrival in New York.
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