Trapped in New York

The blog title is probably a bit misleading as it was our own decision to stay in New York for another two weeks due to a delay in the delivery of the propellor blades to St Lucia.  Latest news is that the prop parts will arrive probably tomorrow at the shipyard if they can clear customs .  Amazingly it was dispatched from Ipswich on Jan 9th one day ahead of schedule.  It then went to Heathrow, and was in Barbados the very next day, only 80miles from St Lucia.  However from there things went a little awry.  The package went onward to Venezuela (approx 500miles from St Lucia), then further away to Panama (over 1000 miles from St Lucia), before coming back to Venezuela then onto Trinidad and finally arriving in St Lucia.  Am sure there are some good reasons for the circuitous route to do with transport efficiency and central distribution hubs etc but it is very frustrating when you are trying to track your shipment and it seems to be following a tourist route rather than a direct course.

Anyway there are certainly much worse places to be stuck than New York.  

Red Mill at Clinton NJ, near Lars and Diana's house.

The big dump of snow which they had forecast did eventuate later in the week and we had around 8 inches overnight to wake to a fantastic sight the next morning.  It really is a beautiful scene with the landscape covered in thick snow and a clear blue sky.  Unlike in the UK, the US authorities had done a superb job on the roads and there was very little disruption around our area. I guess its great as long as you are not the person who has to clear the driveway.  Lars was out for nearly an hour at 0700 with a mechanical snow blower trying to clear his driveway before managing to get the car out and get off to work!

The Morning After

Man vs Snow

It was however bitterly cold but that did not stop the kids from going sledging on the first morning with us all rugged up as if undertaking an expedition to the South Pole.  

Calley sledging 

Under those clothes is Sam

We had decided against the drive to Canada and instead took ourselves into the city and stayed there for the following week.  It was a great choice as even though we have been to New York many times we have never stayed in Manhattan and there were lots of things the kids had not seen.  Nic found a nice hotel in Midtown between the Empire State and the Chrysler Building close to Central Station.  The next few days were spent walking the city, visiting various museums, buildings, toy stores and eateries and all the time trying to stay warm.  

Wise words from the Guggenheim

The temperature at the beginning of the week during the day was down to -15deg C at one point due to what the weathermen were calling a “Polar Vortex”.  Not sure exactly what a “polar Vortex” is but it is certainly very, very cold.  Any exposed skin as dangerously cold after only a few minutes of exposure.  We were lucky that Lars and Diana had plenty of ski gear which they had loaned us for the trip to boost our flimsy bits and pieces we had brought from the boat.  The high point of the visit was a walk around the Guggenheim Museum and taking the kids ice skating on Wollman Rink in Central Park on a glorious sunny day at the end of the week when the temperature had risen to a balmy 0degC.

Skating at the Wollman Rink in Central Park

So into our final week in New York.  We are again based at Lars and Diana’s house and will do a couple of day trips out and about the adjoining states.  We are scheduled to fly to St Lucia on Monday 20th Jan and hope to be in the water again the following day.  We need to get back soon because apart from the cold, our bodies recognising the onset of winter have begun storing up the fat at an alarming rate in preparation for the anticipated bleak months ahead.  I think we will be twice as heavy getting back on the boat compared to when we left.  Luckily while we are here the layers of clothing mask the effects but the first few weeks in the Caribbean are not going to be pretty.