Many have tried, few have succeded!

It is the competetive nature of mankind.....we all like recognition for our outstanding efforts.

I thought maybe I set a record today.....not realizing just how far off I may have been..

Anyway, I had a cardiac catherization done earlier today, and as in the past 5 times my cardiologist, Dr. Ong said to me there is still room for another. I give him a nod, and he drops another stent in place. Now as far as stents go, I say to Dr. Ong, geez, this has to be some sought of record.....he smiles and says you are close but no cigar. Apparently having six stents does not even come close to setting a record. Not 12 nor 18 will give you the title either, however if you have a whopping 21 stens in your cardiac arteries, your just one off of the record.....you need to get twent-two of them to capture the title.
Oh well, we all try, but few succeed!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thansgiving to all our friends that follow this blog, and don't forget what this coming Saturday is:

"SHOP SMALL" Saturday. Please forget Black Friday and support your local retailers

Hurricane Sandy's Aftermath

Well, all I can say is, check out the following web album. I have never seen a marina after being damaged by a hurricane, but because the marina we wintered at got wiped clean, I had to take some pictures......
Hurricane Sandy's Aftermath and the Lucky Find III

BTW, the Lucky Find III was one of about 67 boats at the marina that did not ever get a mark on it.....THANK GOD!!


I will have to label these pictures, so you get a full understanding

Fort Lauderdale Boat Show

Again this year I had decided to attend the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, which I think is the best boat show on the east coast. Boats that are on display range mostly from the tenders of 32 feet to the superyachts of 245 feet, and range in price from 264,000 to well over 125 million.

My old boss, Jim McQuade, who owns the Schuyler Hill Funeral Home in the Bronx decided to tag along. We had a great time. We ate like cavaones, drank like fish and partied like true "party animals"

Here are a few pictures of some of the boats I boarded: M/V Aghassi,  M/V Remember When and M/V Diamonds Are Forever.  They are all average "Joe Billionaire Boats", with a lot of granite marble and gold, and I mean real gold.

Jim and I decided to schedule out each day, meaning we would board boats between 10AM and Noon, hit the local floating barge bar at Noon and stay till the show closed at 7PM.

We did meet a bunch of guys from The Locust Point YC, where Jim is a member, and one of them went for a 57' Bertram with a price tage of 700K, of course I had to get involved, showed my broker credentials and he bought her for a mere 455K.

Then we would return to our hotel and change for dinner and partying. Jim must be getting old, because usually by midnight he was shit-faced and I'd have to drive him back to the hotel. I'd go back out and drink till 2 or 3 AM, and repeated this journey for the next four days.

Hurricaine Sandy hit Lauderdale-by-the-Sea on Friday the 26th of October, causing no muss and no fuss.
Jim and I were set to return to NY's LaGuardia Airport on Monday the 29th of October. But, due to the fact tha hurricaine Sandy was to hit the Bronx on the 4 or 5th of November, Jim caught a flight out a day ahead of schedule. He was worried about his waterfront home in Throgs Neck in the Bronx. Late Sunday night, they closed LaGuardia until Thursday the 1st of Novemeber and I did not fet a flight out till Saturady the 3rd of November. Hey, who's complaining, I got almost a full week extra to spend in sunny, warm, Lauderdale By The Sea.

I followed the Hurricaine Sandy storm on the news from Florida, and my stomach was in my mouth by Thursday the 1st of November. All we were hearing was about the devestation and and damaged it caused on the coast, especially in the tri-state area of CT, NY and NJ.
And all I can think about was the Lucky Find III in Stony Point, NY just a tad north of NYC.
Dottie, who did not come along to the show, instead diverted down to the Jersey Shore to help her parents out. She stayed at the shore from Thursday the 25th until Saturday the 3rd of Novemeber.
This storm wiped out the Jersey shore almost completely......if you were just a few blocks inland, you were OK, but anywhere within 2 bloks off the ocean.....and BANG!

More to come on the Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.....

Night...Night, Sweet Baby

The title of the post is what we said today as we left the marina. We spent the last week aboard the Lucky Find III at the slip in Patsy's Bay, and what we learned is this....in the NYC area no one spends nights on the boat at the marina. Here is a marina with over 200 full slips and we are only ones here.
Apparently it confirmed my beliefs....
In Upstate, NY most boats stern in to their main dock, people stay on boats like it is a their cottage.
You need to remember that both Dottie and I are from down here originally, and we had never heard these.."traditions" and money
\

Most boats "bow" in in the NYC area

Uptaters almost always stern in at their slip.

Well, this is what I learned, it is true that it is two upstate traditions, backing in, then spending your weekend aboard doing nothing. In this area, you get to the marina where your boat is "bowed" in, and you take off and go....go somewhere but go, and when you return you bow in, hose her down and go to either your home or summer cottage.....but you never, but never spend your weekend at the local marina, sitting around and drinking beer.

Of course, that is the third tradition that upstate has....drinking beer.
Down here you only drink beer if.....it is so freaking hot out that it quenches your thirst and then it is only one or two nips, or your upstate family or friends show up for a day out on your boat with a cooler of beer. After 5:00PM, it is strictly vodka, scotch, whiskey or an after dinner cordial, such as Ameretto, Midori, Drambuie or a brandy. Same in restaurants, never a beer alweays a wine or cocktail.

In the past three days fall foliage season begun down here, and what a beautiul sight it is:



Here is how the Hudson Valley looked just last week




and here is how it looked on 10/11/12....what a difference a week makes!



Bear Mountain Bridge on 10/11/12

OK...so, we spent the last few days aboard the boat and got her ready for haul out which is scheduled with marina for Wednesday the 3rd. By Tuesday it's ready, and I had 3 funerals to take care of in Clyde, so they hauled it without our help, and here she sits wainting for us.

Notice the complimentary steps and step ladder

We returned to the marina on Sunday the 7th, and we took the last items off, pressure washed the bottom and hull and cam back to Clyde on Wednesday, October 10th...almost with tears in our eyes

Dottie doing the pressure washing of the bottom and hull




Today is Monday, the 15th of October and our 35th wedding anniversary....it is also the day that the 4th funeral in a row came in and as Dottie has said each October 15th since 1977, "Damm, this business, can we ever have a day to ourselves...and I respond, "Maybe next year baby....Maybe"!
Anyway. this funeral reminds me of just how lucky we are and were in the past years. It is also a time to Thank Our Lucky Stars... It is a funeral of a stillbirth female.....I hate doing baby funerals

"Night Night Little Baby" or "Night Night Sweet Baby Girl" 

It's Winding Down....and a great summer it was!!

We returned to Tarrytown on Thursday, but a day late is better than never.

A Week ago Monday we took our last cruise with the Lucky Find III for this year.
We cruised from Tarrytown to Stony Point, and although it is ony 8 miles, marina to marina, it was a sad cruise because both Dottie and I knew she would be on the hard in a couple of more days. We wondered around the Hudson River like we did not know where to go, and it was a straight run from Tarrytown to Patsy's Bay.We made it OK, dfound our slip and tied it off......now, to get back to Tarrytown and get our car.

We arrived at about 3PM and had to kill about  an hour so we could take the ferry from Haverstraw to Ossining, and then the train from Ossining to Tarrytown. Luckily I planned on the first scheduled departure of the Ferry which was at 4:30 PM. (they run every half-hour, on thehour and the half hour)I called a taxi company which was about a 3 block walk from where we were. I told them we needed a cab from Patsy's Bay Marina to Haverstraw to the ferry terminal. He said OK....we will be there in 10 mins. Well, after about an hour of waiting (it's now 5:15pm) I called a different taxi Company and they picked us up within 10 mins and we're on the way to the ferry terminal for the 5:30 departue.

Now, let me remind you....the ride from Haverstraw is a 15 min ferry ride across the Hudson, and then a 10 minute ride via the Metro North to Tarrytown...here is where we get screwed for time......the train made us wait about 45 minutes for the ride to Tarrytow, so we did not arrive in Tarrytown until 6:45PM....and I am starving, cause I usually eat at 6:00PM. Thank God, Striped Bass restaurant is about a one minute walk from the train station. By 7:00PM, the food was on our table, and I devoured a couple of dozen of raw clams, mussels, lobster and shrimp, all served over cracked ice, Ice Cold.....Delisious.

Now, let me remind you....the ride from Haverstraw is a 15 min ferry ride across the Hudson, and then a 10 minute ride via the Metro North to Tarrytown...here is where we get screwed for time......the train made us wait about 45 minutes for the ride to Tarrytow, so we did not arrive in Tarrytown until 6:45PM....and I am starving, cause I usually eat at  6:00PM. Thank God, Striped Bass restaurant is about a one minute walk from the train station. By 7:00PM, the food was on our table, and I devoured a couple of dozen of raw clams, mussels, lobster and shrimp, all served over cracked ice, Ice Cold.....Delisious.

At 8:30 PM, we left the Tarrytown maina in our car to take the 30 minute ride across the Tappan Zee to the Thruway and to Stony Point. Back to the boat by 9:00PM, and in bed by 9:30....LOL. I need my beauty sleep.

Sunset on Hudson from Tarrytown to Ossining, NY

OK.....All Decisions are Final

The decision was made last month to winter the Lucky Find III in Stony Point, NY at Patsy's Bay Marina.
Check out their website, as it is a real nice, affordable marina specializing in winter storage. I did not want to say anything earlier because the manager of the Tarrytown Marina is also a part-owner of Charles Point Marina, which is where we told them we would winter the Lucky Find III.

Our plans, and they are final, are to return to Tarrytown this Wednesday, stay aboard the Lucky Find III until the following Tuesday or Wednesday and then bring the boat over to Patsy's Bay. Our in-water storage is paid through the 15th of October at the Tarrytown Boat Club and Marina, but the manager of Patsy's Bay said we could stay there, in the water, until haul-out season begins in Mid-October at no charge. I guess boating south of Albany automatically adds a month or two to the season. Being back homne this past week, I stopped at Oak Park Resort Marina, and they are already hauling out, winterizing ands shrink-wrapping boats.

Also, we have made plans and bought tickets to attend Progressive Insurance's  Norwalk Boat Show.
The show begins on Thursday the 20th and runs through Sunday the 23rd of September. It bills itself as the "Premeir Boat Show of Northeast", and we will see just how true that is by next Saturday.

I would have liked to return a day or two earlier, but work is work, and I have funerals scheduled for this coming Monday and Tuesday.

And Back Home Again for a While

Let me sum it all up by saying that this has definitely been a summer to remember. On Monday we came back to Clyde and found everything in order. A special thanks goes out to Ms. Andrea Steele for keeping the house in order for us.

We forewent the Forrogasto Festival on Sunday. My friend Karen called and said that her sister had invited her and Gary to dinner in Rockland County.

So, we had taken a ride out to City Island instead. There was an arts and crafts festival going on with plenty of arts, crafts and my favorite......food!!

But after eating like pigs and feeling stuffed we stumbled upon a clambake. It was being held at the Leonard Hawkins American Legion Post 3253 in City Island. After a bit of persuading (Dropping a white lie or two) we were in. For $15.00 per person we ate, and drank....all we wanted. The reason it was so inexpensive was that the party was scheduled for 1-7 PM for $50.00 a ticket. But we did not get there until 4:00PM. so they discounted the entry fee. Raw clams, steamed clams, mussels cooked 4 different ways, hamburgers, hot dogs, liver w/bacon, corn on the cob and numerous salads were on the menu, and they served you as fast as you could eat it. Of course there was an OPEN bar also, but being that Dottie and I don't really drink we had homemade fresh brewed iced tea. They had a live band and they were fantastic.
Anyway, I want to thank all of their members for making us feel right at home!!

After the clambake, we continued walking down City island Ave, but it was dark by 7:30PM, so we found our car, and headed back to the marina in Tarrytown....with overly full bellies of clams and mussels.

Back to Tarrytown...AGAIN!!

The 4.5 hour ride from Clyde to Tarrytown was uneventful and easy-going. There is no such thing as traffic in upstate NY and I did not hit any real traffic the whole way down. I left Clyde at 7:30 AM and arrived back to the marina at 12 Noon. Dottie and I had a nice lunch at the El Dorado in Tarrytown, and then it hit....a storm from the south with as much rain, wind and power as we had never seen.....5 minutes later it was over and the sun was out.
Due to the storm, a scheduled "Chili Cook-Off" at the marina was cancelled, and re-scheduled for the following day.
At 5:30 PM, Karen Berlingo and her SO, Gary, showed up bearing gifts of wine and wine glasses. After a few cocktails aboard the Lucky Find III we headed out to dinner at the Red Hat Restaurant and Bistro.
Dinner was good and company we had, even better. The Red Hat Restaurant is a nice place for dinner, but truthfully, nothing spectacular. It tries it's hand at a French-Italian menu, but at a cost of about $100.00 per person ($375.27 including tax and tip), it could have been a lot nicer and the food could have been a bit more traditional for restaurants in that price range. I had the Mussells and Dottie, Karen and Gary all had Osso Buco. We had a great time, but I was really disappointed in the restaurant. Oh well, we live and learn! I'll rate the food as OK.
Karen and I had dinner about 5 or 6 years ago at a place called Harvest on the Hudson, in Hastings-on-the-Hudson, NY and Harvest ran circles around Red Hat in it's quality and service.

Later on today we are heading to Arthur Ave. in the Bronx for the Ferragosto Festival and plenty of really good and authentic Italian food. Karen and Gary will join us there.

Thursday, September 13 through Sunday September 23rd is the 11 day Italian Festival on Mulberry Street in Manhattan. It is well known as the Feast of San Gennaro.....and I plan on being there......LOL

Again, The Best Laid Plans.......

Wednesday afternoon I had to return to Clyde on business, so instead of both Dottie and I going back on Saturday, I went solo.
On the way home, an old friend of mine called to say she received my e-mail invitation to come to dinner with us while we stayed in Tarrytown. My plans now are;
to return to Tarrytown on Saturday, go to dinner Saturday night at a restaurant called Red Hat on the River in Irvington, NY (well recommended by others) with Karen Berlingo and her date, and then on Sunday go to Arthur Ave. in the Bronx for the  Ferragosto Festival   (End of the Harvest Celebration)....more to come on Sunday.

On to Connecticut and a Great Dinner

What a fantastic day we had on Tuesday. We left Tarrytown at 9AM and drove to Connecticut, which has some beautiful marinas along Long Island Sound. We also stopped at Bryam PArk in Bryam CT, a place Dottie and I had been to many times as kids to sleigh ride. It was really more of a day of memories, than anything else. But first marinas....and there are hundreds of them in CT.
Here are a few pictures:

The Del Mar Marina in Greenwhich CT caters mostly to Super or Mega yachts. Pictured is a 181' Benetti Yacht




A Westport 112, my favorite and most sought after yacht





 .

Cost....$22M new... this one happens to be for sale, at a mere $12M.

From Greenwich, we drove a few minutes north to the Stamford Landing Marina where we had a terrific lunch at the Crab Shell Restaurant. I had the Crab Shells Lunch and Dottie had a salad. Stamford is noted for both it's boats and cars, like the yellow Ferari pictured below.

In fact, Route 1 between Greenwich and Stamford boasts a Rolls Royce dealer, a Ferrari, Maserti, Bugati, McLaren,and Bentley dealerships along with numerous Lexus', Mercedes, and whatever else type of luxury car "you can think of" dealerships.

Of course a yellow Ferrari complements either of the two yachts pictured above.

After lunch we drove south on US 1 to Rye, NY, Mamaroneck, Larchmont and New Rochelle. I stopped at my high school Alma Mater in New Rochelle, Salesian High, just to reminise a bit with Dottie. Nothing much changed at the school as it looked exactly the same as it did when I attended in the late 60's.

From New Rochelle, it is a 10 mile ride along Shore Road to the Bronx, and on to the Parisi household, where we picked up Jimmy and Helene and went to dinner at a small, quaint neighborhood restaurant called Rino's Ristorante. These are the type of places I miss the most of living in upstate, NY. The food and service is nothing short of excellent.

Dottie and Helene both had the Osso Bucco, and Jimmy and I had Veal Sorrentino. Many thanks to Gaspare and his staff, especially Arturo.

We were back in Tarrytown and on the Lucky Find III by 10:30PM, all in all a great day.

P.S. I lost my cell phone, somewhere between CT and "Da Bronx", however, I dialed my number from Dotties phone and a Latina woman answered, explained she had just found it outside the Dunkin Donuts in New Rochelle, and I could meet her at a place called Chat 19 in Larchmont, NY. at 9PM.....I did, she did and the rest is history.

Thank you very much for returning my phone.

Labor Day Weekend

What a quiet weekend it was here in Tarrytown. Everyone that we met here told us that this past weekend was the quietest it has been in years. They blame it on the economy....oh well , so is life.
Even the guy working the fuel dock brought in some extra help, and they sat around all day pumping fuel in only a handful of boats. Monday morning there were a total of 6 cars in the marina parking lot.....it kind of reminded me of Oak Park Resort Marina.... LOL



My father, who passed in 1968 at the age of 50, is entombed in an underground vault in  St. Raymond's Cemetery, in the Bronx
(Click on the picture for a larger image)

 On Saturday, we drove to the Bronx, stopped at St. Raymonds Cemetery to check on my dad's grave, and then on to visiting some of Dottie's family at Askov Hall in the old neighborhood of Throgs Neck. Sunday and Monday was spent driving around the Hudson Valley looking at different marinas in which to keep our boat. It is still up in the air.
We hit upon some very nice marinas in this area, so now it really just becomes a matter of cost.

We made plans to drive to Connecticut to see a few more marinas then meet our friends, the Parisis' for dinner on Tuesday, and we will be returning to Clyde on Thursday.

Once in a Blue Moon

We drove back to Tarrytown yesterday to spend another week on the Lucky Find III.
We left our home in Clyde at 10:00AM and arrived here at about 02:15PM, after a stop for lunch in Schnectedy and a rest stop in Poughkeepsie. Traffic was a bear with Labor Day coming up and the constant construction on the Thruway between exits 13 and 10. We exited the NYS Thruway at exit #14 and took Route 59 southeast to the Tappan Zee Bridge. We had avoided all the traffic that way.

Anyway, we are here and last night was the second full moon of August. That is better known as a blue moon, and the expression "Once in A Blue Moon"stems from this fact. The next time this will happen will be 4 years away.

What is really coincidential about this Blue Moon night is the fact that Captain Neil Armstrong's Memorial Service took place yesterday in Cincinnati, Ohio. Captain Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon.

The Blue Moon shown brightly at 5:30am on Saturday

Photo Albums of 2012 Boat Trip

There are three albums below. Each album contains all of the pictures we took during the trip. They are not the specific pictures that you have seen while reading the blog:

1- 2012 Boat Trip along Erie Canal - Photos = 45

2- 2012 Boat Trip along Hudson River - Photos =109 

3 - 2012 Boat Trip to NYC -0 Photos = 112 

4 - NYC back to Tarrytown, NY via Harlem River

5- Miscellaneous and Repeat Photos - Photos = 405


The fouth album will have the photos uploaded on Monday, August 27, 2012. This is the final leg of our 2 month adventure

Final Post to this Trip

It was an uneventful 5 hour car ride back to Syracuse, picked up my Chrysler Sebring Convertible and followed Dottie to the Spaghetti Warehouse Restaurant for dinner then onward to the Enterprise Car Rental at Hancock Airport.

We arrived back in Clyde at about 9PM......however, the memories of this trip will last a lifetime!!

The End is Near...My Friends

Today  is our last day of this leg of our Loop Trip, and the end of our 2012 cruising season.
We will go from the Bronx back to Tarrytown, call Enterprise, get a car and tomorrow drive back to Clyde.

Sometime during the coming month, we will drive back down to Tarrytown and ready the boat for the winter.....It's a SAD, SAD, day for us.

Getting ready to wind down the season

We left this AM at around 9:00AM and headed across NY HArbor to the East River.....up the river and through Hells Gate (an area of about a dozen whirlpools) and on to "DaBronx". As we passed through Hells Gate, I called my old boss and he arranged for us to spend the day at the Locust Point Yacht Club.

We had arrived in the Bronx at about 11AM, but we had to wait for the tide to rise so we could enter the channel to the Yacht Club.

NYC or bust.....and we did it!!!!!!

And off to NYC we go.....we left the dock at 9:15 Am and made the 40 mile run to NY Harbor.....it really was a thrill for us.......as we saw so many of the sights that we had seen before, but have not re-visited in the past 35 years or so. We arrived at the Liberty Landing Marina at 1:00PM. I guess I am no longer use to NYC and it's prices. This was the most expensive marina to date, costing us $167.80 for one night's dockage


Tappan Zee Bridge in background



The Mercy Motherhouse

Spunten Dival Bridge, seperating the Bronx from Manhattan, and crossingthe Harlem River.

First we kissed the Tappan Zee good-bye, and through the haze and light fog the GW Bridge came into view. On the way south we went throgh Dobbs Ferry, NY and as I remeber it, The Mercy Motherhouse, where my sister Angela entered the convent was now a group of condos. 
Then came the Sputen Dival bridge, which seperates the Bronx from Manhattan.....via the Harlem River.


George Washington Bridge, the first two layered bridge in the Tri-State area.






Palisades Mountains in New Jersey

 



Carnival's Glory at the 34th St. Pier



The Space Shuttle is now a musuem in NYC at 32nd St.



Ellis Island Immigration Offices




The Statue of Liberty completely re-done with pride, by my father in law, Frank Messmer and brother in law, John Messmer and 100 other union sheet metal workers

 

Dottie on the bow as we approach the Statue of Liberty







 

And on the Seventh Day, we Rested

Sunday was a day to do nothing, however that changed because Dottie called her parents in Toms River, NJ and invited them up for a leisurely lunch. Then she also invited her brother John and his family to join us. John said that his wife Peggy and son Johnny were working, but he and their daughter Laurie would take the 1 hour car ride to meet with us and his parents.

At about 1 PM everyone arrived and we sat around and chatted for over two hous. Then it was off the Sunset Cove for cocktails and a restaurant named "Striped Bass" for dinner. Striped Bass is on the marina premises, and it too was a real nice reataurant. In this area on NY, seafood is king, and all reataurants serve huge portions of it.

I had their cold shellfish platter, which  included a whole 1.5lb lobster, 1lb of shrimp, a dozen raw clams and a 1/2 dozen raw oysters. All served "Iced Over"....mmmmmmmmmmm good.
A bit pricey ($44.00) for this dish, but an excellent choice.
Dottie, and my mother in law and father in law all had Seafood Linguine, John and Laurie had Shrimp Appetizers and Giant Diver Scallops, served with a huge salad, which they both shared.

Like Sunset Cove, which is right next door, they too have an outdoor tiki bar and cabana.

Tiki Bar with Live Entertainment

Tomorrow it will be a trip into NYC.....more to follow

Later On...the same day

Although we arrived here at 2PM, by the time we tied up, got our electricity and water hooked up and actually rested, it was 3PM.
I called my friend Jimmy Parisi and invited him and his wife Helene Zeiss Parisi to dinner. They arreived at 7:15 PM and we went to Sunset Cove for dinner....an excellent Mediterranean restaurant. Both Jim and I had their Mediterranean Bouillabaisse  and Helene had a rib-eye steak, while Dottie had an order of ahi tuna.....great NYC style food. We all had a fantastic time together!!

Outdoor Tiki Bar at Sunset Cove Restaurant in Tarrytown, NY

As we were waiting for the valet driver to return the car, I found out that this restaurant serves approx 500 dinners each Saturday and also serves avout 1000 people on Saturdays at their outdoor tiki bars......PHENOMENAL!!
I am llooking forard to the food in the city............