Saturday 18th January

We slunk into a gloomy grey Hudson with the New York skyline slowly approaching out of the murk to starboard, slipping under the George Washington Bridge with inches to spare (well it looked like inches). Past the statue of liberty and eased into a berth in downtown Manhattan (end of 48th street) right alongside USS Intrepid, a converted US aircraft carrier that is now a museum. On the flight deck, she had a Blackbird stealth plane and would you believe, the shuttle, along with a myriad of other types. Between us there was a British Airways Concorde, which I thought was a bit rich as they never wanted her to land in NY when she flew and there she is, an exhibit in the centre of New York, like a scalp, celebrating the fact that if we can’t build one, we can stop her flying! They learnt something from the native Indian then. Bitter? Me?

We finally struggled ashore through immigration, I felt sorry for those who were not going on organised trips as first off were passengers who opted to carry their own luggage, followed by those on organised trips, followed by the rest of the disembarkers who’s luggage was waiting for them, then following up the rear were the people who were doing their own thing. As visitors to the US know, immigration is a major bottleneck (I won’t go on about that here – might not get back in – or even worse, out) suffice to say the poor passengers who decided not to go ashore here, had to go ashore through immigration and then to rub salt into the wound were not allowed back on board until everyone else had been processed.

Anyway we got out of immigration into the teeth of a snow storm (well it was snowing, but into the teeth of a snow storm sounds better) and we clambered aboard our coach to start our tour of The Big Apple. The temperature was minus one, but we were well wrapped up. Our tour guide was quite funny, she didn’t mean to be, but she was. Her commentary consisted of “it’s nice living here in Greenwich there are lots of lovely shops and things to do” and “all this area was covered in dust after 9/11” but we were soon aboard the tour boat that took us round all the sites, Ellis Island, statue of liberty, the three bridges Brooklyn, Manhattan and Wilbraham. The guide on this part of the tour was excellent, but as is always the case, they tell you so much about the shore lines that you forget a lot of it. We learnt that the berth we were in, was right opposite the part of the Hudson that the Airbus put down on after the double bird strike almost to the day five years ago (Jan 15) temperatures about the same. I don’t think I would have liked going into the water today. He earned his money. We swerved the tail end of the tour on the coach and got off by central park, walked down 5th avenue wandered around Times Square and made our way back to the ship on foot. Temperature had by this time risen to the dizzying heights of plus one, so we needed a hot drink and a meal. For a first visit to New York we did see a lot of the sites that you hear about, but the tour guide on the bus did seem to major on 9/11. She did have the grace to say that those of you from the UK don’t need reminding of the trauma of terrorism.

So here we are with 700 new guests from today the cruise is going to have a distinctly more American flavour about it. At tea we sat with a couple who were new on board who said, “we hear you had a pretty rough crossing to get here” they were worried that there would be more of the same. I was tempted to say “it’s hell out there”, but I resisted that temptation and told them most of it was over on our side of the Atlantic. We slipped out of NY at 9pm and watched the Manhattan skyline glide by, what a difference from the morning. From grey to an amazing light show, like a band of jewels on black velvet. Anyway onwards we go this time heading south and to warmer climes.