Kudos to Bowsprite for her tribute to Lilac and benefactor, Gerry Weinstein.  Lilac, an amazing name for a vessel that would today be part of Homeland Security, lies just north of Pier 40.   I cannot, but if you can, come to her 76th birthday party tomorrow evening.

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And speaking of Bowsprite some more, she snapped me this foto of my ex- . . . Alice Oldendorff.  But I’m resolute . . . it’s over between me and Alice.  And a tantalizing foto,  . . .I’ve evolved past this and will only say kind things about Alice, but it could not be…   Besides, it looks like she has myriad suitors who, like me, adore the sculpture on its deck hatches.  Alice might just be an art-boat.

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This summer will feature many historic craft on the river and in the boro.  Flagship,  I’m told, will be Erie Canal motorship Day Peckinpaugh.  See a better foto and schedule here.  Fred Tug44 has great fotos here.

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Besides Onrust, another one of the historic craft is Half Moon.  Foto below was snapped mere hours ago by Jed, just north of Poughkeepsie.  What looks like smoke from a campfire on the far bank is actually my clumsy attempt at eradicating all traces of civilizations, trying to give the illusion of the primeval river system Henry saw 400 years ago minus a few months.  A new book called Mannahatta by Dr. Eric W. Sanderson attempts the same.  Bowsprite and I–as I mention maybe too often here–are attempting the same in our own modest fashion.  Could you help sending the link to henrysobsession around?

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Fotos 1 and 3 by Will Van Dorp;  2 by Bowsprite and 4 by Jed.