Todd Dayton wanted to take a tour of the New York Harbor and see if we could find anything to eat out there.
He wrote me an email a few months ago saying how he was interested in the history of the bay – he heard about the abundant clams and oysters that used inhabit the area, and wondered if we could take a tour to find out what remained of the shoals and beds.
There are still some things alive down there – in the most unlikely areas.
Here is a blue crab for instance.
They are all over the Gowanus Canal, right around the area of one of the biggest chemical disasters this century. You look down at them just getting by in there, and you don’t know whether to hope or despair.
We came out into the Gowanus Bay and were immediately struck by wind and wake.
I thought it might be possible to ride the tide out under the Verrazano Bridge,
but the wind was blowing us North just as fast as the tide was pulling us South.
In fact, we were holding our position fairly well out at bouey number 7.
All considering, it seemed like a nice place to be, with the Verrazano on one side,
And Manhattan on the other.
There were some people fishing from small boats.”Not much out here today,” said one man. passing with his family.
“But Good Luck!”
My friend Mathew Paulson lent us a pole and some tackle.
He recommended this one for the upper bay. Jeez – I thought – the fish that would eat that must be HUGE.
Maybe we are better off with this little buddy.
“What do we do now?” I asked.
“We wait.” said Todd.
Just then something wonderful happened.
We saw a barge passing, filled with gravel. There was a man jogging around on the gravel – doing laps atop the level mound.
When he jogged to the bow, he must have felt like he was racing,
and when he was jogging aft it was like he was standing still.
Then we saw another boat, coming up quickly.
The US Coast Guard, performing a routine inspection of the boat.
We held on to ropes along the side while they checked our identification and asked all kinds of questions about the boat.
They also erased some of the pictures on my camera. All the ones of oil tanks and bridges.
Being so close to the rocking boat, and the smell of exhaust was making us feel a little sick.
“Its just a routine inspection” they said. “With times being what they are, I’m sure you understand.”
We passed by some people fishing off the pier in Red Hook. I bet they have beer, I thought.
I couldn’t help but sneak a picture to replace the ones that were erased.
Coming back into the canal, the oil spill looked just like confetti.
We got back to 2nd street just as the day was warming up.
Sometimes you don’t do exactly what you set out to do. In fact, sometimes it is more important just to set out.
Here is my end of the paper work generated by the inspection of the Tide and Current Taxi. All safe and in working order.
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