Central Park, New York City, one of our dreams has come true, little AEOLA sailing into the Big Apple. The Municipal Marina on the Hudson River near W 79th St is the cheapest and most convenient way to be right in the heart of upper Manhattan. The downsides: a lot of swell from the big barges, tidal currents above 3 kts. Imagine these against a 30 kt wind and you know what a bad night we had had.

Well, it didn´t really put us off enjoying the incredible amount of art that is concentrated in this city: Guggenheim(the picture on the right), Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, Frick Collection, they all left us speachless. Public transport made it possible. Once you realize how it works, it´s really simple. Busses, Metro, all go either East to West, or North to South, every few minutes, but don´t nail them to a schedule. Traffic is heavy all the time and some congestions last 24 hours a day. When we had to go to some small place in Long Island to pick up our new outboard it took us about 10 hours for 60 miles. Coming back we were exhausted. We cannot imagine, how people fare, who have to commute every day...

Times Square, that´s where the media live and tourists go. Brave New World, greedy business, CNN and Time Warner. Drug dealers, freaks, Salvation Army, pick pockets and Big Money, they don´t talk but they tolerate each other. The Cowboy is famous for his underwear, not the music. Word goes, he does it in winter too. Young japanese girls pay him 10 $ to be snapshot in his arms, giggling and blushing.