Annie Pearlman wanted to book a ride in the Tide and Current Taxi as a going away present for her Friend Leah Schuchter.
Actually, we had been panning the trip for a year, but luckily, Leah was still in town.
She is moving to Portland.
“I will sure miss her.” said Annie.
The clouds were huge and low and they made the skyline look moody and beautiful.
I had one stop to make before we started up the East River.
My friend Jeff Stark had arranged a tour of the waterfront for that day.
He thought it might be fun for the group to meet us along the way.
About 40 people all piled onto a new boat dock in L.I.C.
They hung their feet off the dock and I answered questions about my boats and the tide.
They all wanted to know about the worst thing that had ever happened to me out in the boat. I didn’t really want to talk about it in front of Annie and Leah, so I tried to steer the conversation away from sinking.
The left the dock – on their way up to Beacon.
We headed North as well.
The boat was moving along with the tide at about 5 knots without much paddling.
This is the fastest part of the East River.
Although the surface of the water was glassy and calm,
huge forces were at work below us.
We paddled into an eddy at Hallet’s cove,
and we noticed something that I had never see before.
A large sewer tunnel. A perfect echo threw our voices back out of the darkness.
So although we couldn’t see the end, we knew it must be down there somewhere.
Brown stalactite dripped from every seem in the cement,
and we could hear the sound of other sewer tunnels rushing past around us.
We headed back out into the daylight,
past Mark di Suvero’s sculpture yard,
and the park he started in the 80’s.
Here is his house and studio,
and a pretty little rowboat tied up to his dock.
We pulled ashore in Hallet’s Cove.
The water was clear and cool and you could see right to the bottom.
Leah and Annie waited with the boat while I went back to get the car.
-Marie Lorenz
↑ Return to Top of Page ↑