This has to be the best thing I've ever done in NY. Even though I've been to "the City" at least 20 times, my trip this summer was the best yet. I was downtown walking along the esplanade in Battery Park City waiting for an outdoor concert to start when my girlfriend saw people getting checked in on what looked like a private yacht. We went closer and saw that people were paying for tickets...Captain Chris told us there was space available and we paid and jumped on. The Captain gave us a quick intro to the bartender and we were underway.
I had no idea you could enjoy the city this way. It was a terrible heat wave and the air was muggy and stifling, but...as soon as we set sail and left the dock, there was this cool sea breeze. It was like we were a million miles away—there were seagulls and fog horn blasts (the Captain said it was automatically activated from the humidity), but the city skyline, the statue, Ellis Island—it was really incredible.
They served refreshments—the beer was super cold and the crew and service staff were cute, friendly, and informative. It was very low key and I got to "take the helm" and steer the boat (under supervision of course). I found out that Walt Disney and Rocky Marciano had been imprisoned on an island in the harbor that we passed during WWII. It was also the boat that I had seen on the Apprentice—a Gatsby era yacht that had been owned by some millionaire banker from the 1920s.
The cost was about $50 for a 2-hour sail. I just wish they'd had T-shirts I could have bought as a souvenir.
Just awesome!! I could not recommend anything more.