• Tide and Current Taxi: 2007

I wanted to go out in the boat on the night of the Lunar Eclipse.

The tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun. The most significant rise and fall of the tide occurs when the Earth, Moon, and Sun, are all lined up in a row – like during an eclipse.

Although it was very early in the morning, I was joined by a hearty crew from Greenpoint: Melissa Brown, Erinn Fierst, Brian Dunn, and Birgit Rathsman.

We set out into the Newtown Creek when it was still dark.

But we could see the sun coming up behind the Pulaski Bridge.

Coming around the Budwieser Peninsula,

we saw Manhattan in the first morning light.

We took about 100 pictures.

The current was pulling us North quickly.

But where was the moon?

We had seen a glimpse of the eclipse as we were walking to go get the boat.

But now it was behind a bank of clouds

Soon it became too light to see the moon at all.

And we headed back to Greenpoint against the tide.

“We should do this every morning” said Erinn.

It is the best hour to be out.

The Budweiser was just getting ready to leave LIC. Some of it might even come to our house!

“We’ll know Greenpoint has been gentrified when there is ‘good’ beer on the Newtown Creek.” said Melissa.

The sun came up.

And we carried the boat out of the water down at the end of Manhattan Ave.

Good thing there are only rubber fences there.

Here is what we didn’t see.

-Marie Lorenz