Friday, July 11, 2025

2025 July: NYC Fireworks & more

 

NYC - waiting for fireworks to begin

July 2025

Our son's family returned for the Macy's 4th of July fireworks and other adventures. It has become a family tradition for the 4th. We had some boat repairs to take care of before they arrived.

The hydraulic pump had been randomly failing in May and needed some taps to get working again. Clark ordered a new pump, but it didn't arrive at our place until late Wednesday. The new pump came with connection ports on the side rather than the top. So, the right angle 3/8" tube compression to 1/4" npt fitting needed to be replaced with straight fittings. On-line, Clark saw that Home Depot stock showed 3 available, and Lowes showed they had them also.

Clark went to Lowes and found one, but another person there was looking for the exact same thing for his steering. He then went to Home Depot, but none of the three listed in stock were actually in stock. It was near closing, but the store plumbing person said that Home Depot in Hazlet had them in stock.

The next day, the hydraulic shop, Ace and Napa didn't have them, and Lockwoods Boat Supply only had stainless steel fittings. Before going to Lockwood's, Clark stopped at the Hazlet Home Depot and found 1 win stock. Now he had two but needed three to complete the job. The Holmdel Lowes had two shown as in stock, so he went there next. Because of 4th of July traffic, it was a long slog to cover a very short distance to get there because the Parkway south was backed up, and cars were being rerouted to 35 south.

The clock was ticking as Clark finally arrived home and got to work on the boat. Family was expected to arrive mid-afternoon and Clark hoped to have the job done or at least mostly done by the time they arrived. The instructions for the fittings said not to use sealant or tape. Clark guessed that would be because it might contaminate the fluid with bits that would clog the one way valves. 

Clark tried the connection without sealant or tape and found it leaked like a sieve. With everything pulled apart, we have no steering. No steering means no trip. Clark added tape only near the thicker end of the NPT fitting and pressurized the system. No leaks. 

By the time he had reached this point, family had arrived. Our grandkids joined us for a test run and found that everything worked, but Clark found a 2" puddle of fluid. He tightened the fittings, and the next day when he checked, the 4th, there was no puddle! However, he did find a drip about to drop on each fitting.

After more tightening, we got underway for the beach at Sandy Hook for some lunch, beach time, swimming and exploring in the dink. The water temperature showed around 72 degrees. Heather and Ev decided they would stay dry today.

Unexpectedly, our trip adventures started only a few minutes out. We heard a noise and there was periodic thunking sound in forward and reverse on the port side. We anchored between the three channels in Pleasure Bay. It was time for Clark to go for a swim. 

Unfortunately, the stinging jelly fish arrived early this year and were pretty thick. Lillian spotted them first and warned Papa Clark! He decided to put on a shorty wetsuit and jumped in ready to cut a line off the prop shaft. Instead, he found a red, metal thing wrapped around the prop. It took 3 dives to unwrap. Clark gave a hard yank on the 3rd dive and it came off. No knife was going through that!


Mangled Crab Trap

We pulled in the anchor and got underway. Unfortunately, we missed the planned 10:00 am bridge opening. Being low tide, we disassembled the mast and lowered it as well as the antennas to fit under the bridge with it closed. Our son did the height check as we went under and reported plenty of headroom. Today we had the current against us and thus did not go under the bridge in reverse!

We made our way to Horseshoe Cove off Sandy Hook and once again dropped anchor. The grandkids could not wait to get wet!

Diving off the boat and swimming near Sandy Hook ...

Jack

Lillian

Chris, Jack and Lillian

We have a small yellow dinghy that we have had for more years than I can remember. We drop it in the water and tie it to the stern. The kids, big and small, love to play in the water with it. After some swimming, Clark connected it to the stern of our dinghy and towed the grandkids to the beach at Sandy Hook for beach time.


Clark and Chris in dinghy
Lillian and Jack in yellow tow

They came back with a container of sea shells and, poor Lillian, came back with a ton of bites from sand fleas. Clark had some too - anywhere covered by bathing attire!

Our daughter-in-law, Heather, and Ev stayed on the boat while the others went to explore the beach. We had a lovely time chatting the entire time they were gone. 

NYC has strict rules for security zones for the fireworks display. Clark did his homework and knew where we needed to go and when we needed to be there. We decided that we would eat dinner underway. Before we left the Sandy Hook anchorage, Clark one again checked for drips on the steering hydraulics. There were no puddles. Yay! NYC here we come!

This year, there was a new venue on the south side of the Brooklyn Bridge rather than up the East River by the Williamsburg Bridge. For our size vessel, we were designated to the Echo zone in the Buttermilk Channel between Governors Island and Brooklyn. The larger boats were assigned to Delta between the Battery and Governors westward. This was a much better venue for us especially because there was much less craziness afterwards due to everyone not heading the same way to leave on the East River after the show.

The show would not start until 9:30, but we had to be in place about two hours beforehand. For our designated zone the water was over 40 feet deep - no anchoring. We would need to "station keep" until the show ended, and it was time to head home.

With each year, the grandkids have become more interested in their surroundings. 

Approaching NYC ...



Lillian tried many times to point out Lady Liberty to Jack. He kept saying he could see it, but we knew he was looking in the wrong direction. 



Finally, we got close enough that there was no mistaking it!



While waiting for the show to begin, we were entertained by the "goings on" around us. 
There was the usual craziness with a boat with a deck fire, people in the water by the Brooklyn Bridge, and the USCG keeping busy.

An NYPD police boat went by and the men on board waved to us.



Fire boats came out to entertain us with red, white, and blue water streaming from their hoses.


We found a spot for ourselves near a tourist boat for the evening.

Next to this sailboat looked like a good place to watch

Helicopters flew overhead.



It never got boring just sitting there. We had the VHF radio on and could hear the chatter. While we listened, the Coast Guard came on to tell a vessel to "back off". The man told the captain that he was tired of telling them to stay back as the boat was too far forward. The female captain decided to yell at the USCG rep. Not here wisest decision. "I'm not crowding you!" 

The vessel, "Calypso", was too large to be in this zone. The USCG decided she had to leave and told her so. She said, "Fine! Get this boats out of my way!" The Coast Guard led her out to open water and then boarded her for being belligerent and not following their orders. Three USCG boats surrounded her boat.

She clearly had a crowd of people on her vessel. We wondered, "Does she have a Captain's license?" "Does she have paying guests? Will they get to see the show? Will they get a refund? What do her guests think of being boarded by the USCG?"

A short while later we saw the USCG chasing a jet ski out of the zone. The vessel had no lights after sunset! Oops! Time to go home!

PWC being escorted out by USCG

After that we watched the USCG approach two kayaks on the side of the river. Some people are just plain crazy! Kayaks in the dark on the river with many, many vessels around and folks probably having a few too many drinks?! One of the kayaks had a white, all-around light showing. He was fine. The other had no lights, but added one when the CG showed up. They got to stay for the show.

As with other years, AM radio 1010 played American Independence Day themed songs for the duration of the fireworks show. Clark and Ev stayed at the upper helm to watch and station keep. Chris and family sat on the bow for a close-up view.


Night view before the show began


Lillian and Jack enjoying the show

From the moment they started, the fireworks ran nonstop, with no breaks for smoke to clear, right through to the finale.


Drooping Flowers



Dandelions!





Weeping Willows!




The Brooklyn Bridge added to the show.


Boats admiring the show


Bridge, ground and aerial all at once.

 Prior to this year's show, the Macy's Bi-Centennial fireworks in 2000 were the best we had ever seen with synchronized displays from the Hudson R., the East R., the Battery and the VZ bridge. At that time, fireworks fired from near Lady Liberty were going off at the same time. Our guests said this was the best they had ever seen. It would seem that this year's very different display may have edged the centennial out as the GOAT.

The first times we took the grandkids to NYC for the fireworks, they could not stay awake. One year Lillian fell into such a deep sleep before the show started, we could not wake her up. The next year she vowed to stay awake. She did. She saw one firework go off and passed out for the rest of the display! For this year's show, both Lillian and Jack stayed wide awake for the entire event but quickly crawled into sleeping bags for the trip home.

We got home just before 1:30 in the morning. I had packed up everything from wet towels to left over food from the fridge and had it stationed near the salon door for easy pickup for the walk up to the house. In short order everything was off the boat and the kids were in bed.

With a block party planned for all day Saturday, Chris and family got underway for the drive home right after a quick breakfast. 

With the fourth of July behind us, we had one more major boat problem to investigate. In Florida Ev found the washing machine had a pool of water under it after doing a load of wash. One an earlier occasion, I noticed some small amount of moisture on the floor, but on the next occasion, I had a pool! Clark decided we could not investigate the problem as long as we needed to use the boat. Once the washing machine got pulled out, half the boat would be inaccessible!

With no boating plans for the next couple of weeks, now appeared to be the time to dig into the washing machine issue. Clark and I pulled the boat apart to get to the washer and then enlisted the help of a neighbor to help us pull it out of the well it sits in.

The washing machine is hidden inside a cabinet next to the engine room. We had to remove all the woodwork surrounding it




including the steps to go up to the pilot house from the staterooms and heads. 


The wooden trim around the washer had to be taken down so that the washer could be removed from its closet.

About 3' step down into area in 
front of washer




With the steps removed it was a long step up to the pilot house. We had a small stepstool to help. With Clark's long legs he could climb out. I could get a knew up and than had to have a "tush push" from Clark to get the rest of me up and out! 

To push the washer forward, Clark got access through a tiny opening inside the closet in our guest stateroom. The opening was no more than 18" wide. Somehow he managed to climb in there with the washer! He was able to push from in there to get the washer out into the open. He told me "no pictures", but I could not resist!

He fits!

Once the washer got pushed / pulled out, the only way to get to the back side was to drop down into the engine room via a hatch in the galley and make our way forward from there. We got a lot of exercise crawling into and out of access points. Boat yoga! (A couple of days later my thighs were complaining of the abuse!)

Long step up with the stairs gone!

Even with the washer pulled forward, Clark could not get access to the workings of the machine to check for bad seals or leaks from hoses. We had to lift the washing machine up onto the landing area. The washing machine had to be tipped forward as we lifted it as we only had two inches of space above the washer without the added slant to the machine. 

We decided and got confirmation from a Krogen Express rep that we needed at least 3 people to do the washer lifting. Our neighbor said he could come over and lend some strength to the job. Clark tied lines around the feet of the washer, so he and our neighbor could use them to lift. I had the tip and lift job from the engine room. We almost did not succeed. 

Bob had reached the end of his rope and had no more strength to pull up with. I heard him say, "I think we have to lower it back down." and thought "No way do I want to start over!" With the machine tilted, I had free hands and was able to get under the machine and lift. My help gave the added oomph needed to get the washer up on the landing on three of its four feet. Clark put a cabinet in place under the 4th foot and we were ready to start taking the washer apart! 

Washer ready to be worked on!

Bob left but said he could come back to help put it back in place if we had it ready by Friday. After that he would not be available for some time as he had conflicting plans.

We hoped that the washer problem would not be anything serious. We did not want to have to take the machine off the boat and get a replacement. The horror story we were told about what we would need to do for that swap to happen was beyond anything either of us wanted to hear or partake of . Basically, taking the closet apart would seem like child's play compared to taking other parts of the boat apart.

The good and the bad news is that we found no "smoking gun" as Clark likes to call it. We did manage to do a lot of cleaning of the floor under the washer, checked the seals and hoses, leak tested various things, ... We found nothing of note. Clark did drill a hole in the floor to allow any water that might leak to drain to the bilge pump. I think he put in a couple of new washers for the hoses. 

It is disappointing that we went to all that effort and found nothing wrong. While at the same time, it is quite a relief that the washer has no major defects or apparent problems. As a test, we washed a very large towel that had been used during cleanup in the washing machine. All went well. 

Clark noted that on the "large" load setting the water comes up high close to the brim. We had some pretty rocky days in Marathon. That, plus the wild rocking the machine does on the spin cycle, leads Clark to believe that the water I found was overflow from the top of the drum. That is our best guess. He said I should use only small or medium settings - basically one towel at a time or underwear only! With the washer and dryer that Marlin Bay installed this past season, I am thinking I will not be using our machine at all unless totally desperate. 

With the difficulty we had getting the washer out, I was concerned about getting it back down into the "well". I had visions of crushed fingers as gravity helped with the downward motion. I convinced Clark that we needed more male help. He called upon another neighbor. Now we had 3 men and me. Clark gave us all assigned positions. I got put on tilt duty again. Clark took the "Watch your fingers" position. Our two neighbors took hold of the lines to lower the washer down. 

Gravity helped a lot. Clark had a board in place to prevent his hands being crushed. Getting it down took no more than 10 or 15 minutes - most of that was getting into position. Our neighbors left us at that point, and we called it a night. The guys came over at 7:30 to help (after work). Clark and I would tackle putting it away the next day.

In fact it took us two days to put it all back together. When we pulled off the screwed-on trim, we heard a piece of trim crack. Someone had glued it to the wall! Before we could reassemble everything, Clark did a repair job with Elmer's glue. He had to leave it 24 hours to dry. 

It was like putting a puzzle together to put it all back in the right order. We had to take out a couple of pieces that went in prematurely such that the next piece would not go in. Eventually, we got the job done. I hope never to need to do this job again. 

Meanwhile, Clark keeps checking the connections for his steering hydraulics and keeps finding drips. The boat jobs never end. One thing comes off the list and another is added. Yet another takes forever to complete!

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