The photo of the transit with seabird and dock reminds me of 1976 or 1977. I was on my boat on Long Island Sound in a dense fog. The sun was not so low in the sky but as the fog burned off you could see large sunspots with the naked eye without needing protection for a few minutes.
This was during a sunspot maximum and we had some weird weather for a couple of years. Extreme summers and winters.
Interesting. I'm also in New York (Queens) and witnessed something similar to what you described during the recent partial solar eclipse. When thick clouds rolled by on the partly cloudy day you could easily see the black disk of the moon over a portion of the sun with the naked eye. Both appeared as distinct/clear disks through the passing clouds. An amazing sight.
Looked something like this...
