Songbird’s essential electrical systems have been repaired and/or replaced and on Tuesday, 8/12, we slipped our mooring at Petersen’s Boat Yard (on the Hudson River) in Nyack, NY. After passing the Tappan Zee Bridge, we were given a most hearty send-off by our friends from SAUNDRA MESSINGER and their families, who had come out to see us sail past the Piermont jetty. It was a truly heart-warming gesture.
Fair but faint winds followed us to our first stop, the 79th Street Boat Basin in Manhattan, NY. Here we’ll spend a couple of days in the Big Apple seeing friends and further provisioning Songbird (mainly buying wine).
Some wonderful things occurred during the month we waited to depart. We became well acquainted with our home town surroundings and all the wonderful things it has to offer … and fell in love. Pam found a fellow Shambhala meditation practitioner living in Nyack who she’d lost contact with for years (a very interesting story) and we became closer to friends and acquaintances in our home town. Priceless!
The interesting story: We were sitting in the cockpit one evening, just relaxing, when Bill spotted a person swimming in the river, appearing to have some difficulties swimming back to shore. No matter how strong and hard she swam, she made no headway - the current was against her. We didn’t feel right about just observing because there could have been a presence of real danger. Bill dropped the dinghy and motored to where she was swimming, asked her if she needed any help. She said, “Yes please.” She pulled herself into the dinghy and they motored to shore. When he returned to Songbird, I asked him who she was. “Her name is Joan” he said. “What did she look like?” I asked. He described someone we know and the description fit Joan Whitacre but how likely would that have been? Some days later we were in the Nyack Library, standing in line. The person in front of us was Joan and it was so good to see her again. I asked her if she had, by any chance, been swimming in the river a few days before, when a person plucked her from danger. “Yes” she said, “and his name was Bill”. Wow! What a way to reconnect.
Fair but faint winds followed us to our first stop, the 79th Street Boat Basin in Manhattan, NY. Here we’ll spend a couple of days in the Big Apple seeing friends and further provisioning Songbird (mainly buying wine).
Some wonderful things occurred during the month we waited to depart. We became well acquainted with our home town surroundings and all the wonderful things it has to offer … and fell in love. Pam found a fellow Shambhala meditation practitioner living in Nyack who she’d lost contact with for years (a very interesting story) and we became closer to friends and acquaintances in our home town. Priceless!
The interesting story: We were sitting in the cockpit one evening, just relaxing, when Bill spotted a person swimming in the river, appearing to have some difficulties swimming back to shore. No matter how strong and hard she swam, she made no headway - the current was against her. We didn’t feel right about just observing because there could have been a presence of real danger. Bill dropped the dinghy and motored to where she was swimming, asked her if she needed any help. She said, “Yes please.” She pulled herself into the dinghy and they motored to shore. When he returned to Songbird, I asked him who she was. “Her name is Joan” he said. “What did she look like?” I asked. He described someone we know and the description fit Joan Whitacre but how likely would that have been? Some days later we were in the Nyack Library, standing in line. The person in front of us was Joan and it was so good to see her again. I asked her if she had, by any chance, been swimming in the river a few days before, when a person plucked her from danger. “Yes” she said, “and his name was Bill”. Wow! What a way to reconnect.
Photos: Songbird sailing by Piermont, NY; View of the Hudson, Petersen's Boat Yard and the Tappan Zee Bridge taken from atop Hook Mountain in Nyack, NY.
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