“Keep spreadin’ the news, I’m leavin’ today . . . New York, New York”

ears ago, like so many tourists, I did the Circle Island tour of Manhattan. Today, on a gloriously sunny Spring afternoon, I’m sailing down the Hudson on the Silver Whisper on a 12-day trans-Atlantic voyage (my first), bound for Canada, Ireland and the UK.

The engines are purring with a gentle vibration beneath my feet as the ship’s whistle blows . There’s no streamers as we cast off and pull away from the dock, but the familiar strains of Frank Sinatra’s “Keep spreadin’ the news, I’m leavin’ today . . .  New York, New York” is blasting forth around the decks. What’s there to do but sip champagne and watch the skyline of Manhattan slip past as we head down the Hudson to the open sea?

Sailing past Lower Manhattan with World Financial Centre in front of Freedom Tower

New residential skyscrapers dwarf the still mighty art deco Empire State Building. The skyline of Lower Manhattan with Freedom Tower taking shape is so different from when I still had my apartment in Manhattan nearly twenty years ago.  And I feel like a child.

Sun in my eyes, I wait till we pass the Statue of Liberty to see the green colour and the outstretched arm with the gold-leafed flame welcoming generations of Europeans to these shores (and farewelling one Australian!)

As I step out on the forward deck under the bridge of the ship to see the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, strong wind from the open sea rushes right through the grommet in my left ear deep inside my head and fells me in my tracks with such an ache for a few moments. Farewell New York. Time to go inside and prepare for dinner.

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Silver Whisper leaving New York