Monday July 22 – New York

Today, Bill and I walked from the ship to the High Line.  This was an old railway line that was built up high to prevent the accidents that were occurring when the line was on ground level.  The trains on this line delivered goods from the wharf to the factories.  Now, with truck transportation, the trains are no longer needed and the track has been developed into a walking track, with quirky art works and political statements.  There was a clock face with the letters of the word, organization, where the numerals usually are.  A prisoner with the caption, Tyranny is no joke.  A picture of Donald Trump with the caption, Putin’s useful friend.  A building leaning at a precarious angle.  There were paintings of people on doors and an abundance of wild flowers.  After this, Bill went up to the top of the Freedom Tower.  This was nostalgic for him as in the past he looked down from Windows on the World in the World Trade Centre. Bill here: One of these photos shows the footprint of tower 2. The footprint of tower 1 is closer to the base of the new Freedom Tower. It was in tower 1 that the original viewing platform was located.

We left New York at 5:30 pm sailing towards Charleston.  It was an exciting sail away as we saw many of the places we had explored over the previous days.  There were four members of the New York Police Department and a pilot on board.  Not sure about the NYPD.  Maybe they have to ensure that nobody jumps ship.  They got off as we left New York Harbour, but the pilot stayed on till we were out into the Atlantic.  Between the time that the NYPD officers got off and the time the pilot was to get off a huge storm hit us and the pilot boat had to go to the aid of a yacht that was in distress.  Our captain said that we may have to help as well if the pilot ship was unable to get the yacht to safety, so we were in go slow mode with the pilot still on board.  All went well for the yacht, but the pilot boat had several attempts before he could get the pilot off our ship safely as the pilot boat kept being pulled away by the waves as it tries to hold its position alongside the Sea Princess.  All is well that ends well.

From left to right: the Oculus, the 9/11 Museum, the footprint of tower 2