• Tide and Current Taxi: 2014

I’m kind of cheating here, taking out my boat when I was supposed to hitch rides in others this summer,

but the fact is, no one invited me in any other boat to see the 4th of July fire works in New York City,

and anyway, it was Jeff Williams suggestion.

“Would we be able to see the fire works from your boat?” Jeff had asked.

“Yes!” I said.

It was a perfect time of day to be out in the boat,

except for the wind and waves. My boat was riding a little low in the water,

because we had five people, plus dinner, drinks, and Melissa’s Rhubarb pie baked especially for the occasion.

We tied up to a pier to have some food and wait for sunset.

The fireworks would start at 9pm,

and we had another few miles to go.

I assured everyone that the high wind would stop as soon as the sun set,

but it wasn’t happening.

Thunder storms were predicted for later that night,

but for now the sky was  clear – just in time for the fire works it seemed.

We slowed down after the Williamsburg bridge.

You can’t really see it from here, but up ahead, there were big motor boats queuing up for the show.

I didn’t want to be in the middle of all those boats in the dark, so we hung back.

Even from here though, we had front row seats.

and the fire works looked great with all the lights from the city,

reflecting off the water.

Also, there was something new that I had never seen before;

fire works shot off directly from the bridge!

As the sky darkened after the finale, we could hear motor boats moving toward us.

“Lets get out of here!” I said.

We ducked into the navy yard,

to have some Rhubarb pie,

and wait for the traffic to clear up.

It was still windy as we paddled home,

but now the tide was with us.

This had been a perfect mission for ‘the Tide and Current Taxi’; we rode the ebb tide down to Dumbo,  

and now the flood tide was bringing us right back home.

“Why don’t we do this every night?” asked Carla.

Anytime you want, guys!