Dinner at Port Liberty

With Sally Paul

August 29, 2007

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Sally Paul and I wanted to paddle across to New Jersey, but the wind was up on Wednesday, so we drove across instead. I imagined all that water overhead as we went through the Holland Tunnel.

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We went out to the Liberty State Park to meet some local boating experts.

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Peter grew up in Bayonne, New Jersey.

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When Peter was young, his dad, Paul, would drop the kids off at the water with a rowboat on his way to work. And pick them up in the evening on the way home. They would explore the bay all day.

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“Before you give a kid a motor, he should learn how to row a boat.” Said Paul. Here is Paul with a beautiful rowboat that he made for the kids, 47 years ago!

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We took the boats down to to the water.

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The wind was still up, but we decided to set out and see what we could see.

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It was hard for Sally and I to paddle into the wind, so Peter gave us a tow.

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The canals of Port Liberty are shielded from the wind, and we head in to explore.

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“Not many people can say they have been in the canals of New Jersey!” said Peter,”Venice, maybe, but not New Jersey.”

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There is a restaurant at Port Liberty. Peter had been there by land, but he had never pulled up in a boat before…

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He tied up the boats so they wouldn’t hit against each other or the dock.

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Here we are!

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We decided to have dinner while waiting for the wind to die down.

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The view is first rate,

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and so is the food!

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The maître d’ lent us a pair of powerful binoculars.

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And we looked out across the bay. That is Redhook over there somewhere.

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We came back to the boats. Safe and Sound.

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But the wind had not let up.

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Each time we crashed over a wave,

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I could hear the plywood seat in the boat cracking away from the frame.

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But as we came around the breakwater, we were running with the wind.

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“Can we get a little closer to the Statue of Liberty?” asked Sally. She said that when she was a kid her family took a ferry to the statue. When they arrived at Liberty Island, her mother wanted to stay on the boat. “This is close enough, girls.” Her mother said. And they turned around and rode the ferry back.

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“The wind is too strong,” I said “If we made it there we would never get back to Jersey.”

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“You’ll have to come back another time.” said Peter.

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There is something else I want to come back for too.

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Out there are two barges where the Corps of Engineers puts all the floating wreckage that they find in the Harbor.

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Peter said that when he found out I lost my boat last year, he paddled out to see if it wound up on one of those barges. It had not, but I wonder what other kinds of things might be out there.

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Sally and I started to get blown off course again and Peter threw us a tow rope.

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We all made it back in one piece.

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Sally helped dump the water out of the bottom of my boat.

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Peter’s Dad’s boat was as dry as can be. Ship shape after 47 years!

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We packed up the boats as the sun was setting,

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and had some ice cream.

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The tide was coming in and the lights were just coming on along the horizon.

Thanks for a great day Peter!

-Marie Lorenz

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