The Big Apple, Memorial Day

New York, New York
40 47.27 N 073 59.09 W

We usually don't go boating on big holidays like Memorial Day. There are too many inexperienced boaters out celebrating. However, one aspect that we didn't consider was the reduced commercial traffic. Yesterday and today we saw far fewer ships and water taxis and Staten Island ferries than usual. That made navigating this busy harbor much easier. By 9:00 we were secured on a mooring at the 79th Street Boat Basin.

So, next step, find something fun to do. I gotta be kidding right. Fun in The Big Apple? It's all around us. I chose to try to see the Aircraft Carrier Intrepid museum. It was within walking distance. Libby chose to stay with the boat and to rest up after our voyage. She said that perhaps she would do laundry at the marina. (We seem unable to go for more than a week without doing laundry.)

So, I walked down the riverfront path alongside Riverfront Park. NYC was everything one expected it to be. The walkway was crowded with people walking, and jogging, and skating and biking. People watching was great. NYC has some many of the world's most beautiful people and many of the ugliest also.

It turns out to be Fleet Week here. Before reaching the Intrepid, I came to the USS Iwo Jima, a modern aircraft carrier that was on display for free. I had to wait in line for 30 minutes to get in but that was OK. Security was impressive. There must have been 300 uniformed Navy guards with M16 rifles patrolling the area.

The Iwo Jima carries only helicopters and Harrier jets on its deck. Below decks it carries, amphibious landing craft, hovercraft, tanks, personnel carriers, and a huge 160 foot long landing craft. They actually sink the stern of the carrier to flood the boat deck under 10 feet of water to float that landing craft out.

I got to sit in an V22 Osprey. The Osprey is the tilt rotor aircraft for Marines that had such a bad start with many crashes. I must say that sitting in the rows of seats meant to hold Marines ready to deploy on landing, felt much like sitting in the seat of a fire truck en route to a fire. Come to think of it, the roles of the soldiers and the firemen have a lot in common.

What was the neatest thing I saw? A rail gun. Actually it was a scale model of a rail gun that the Office of Naval Research (ONR) is experimenting with. I talked with the officer in charge. His rail gun project sounds really neat. They hope to make a rail gun that is mountable on a ship and that is capable of firing guided projectiles up to 200 miles at mach 7. No explosives are necessary. They would be superfluous if a steel projectile hit you at mach 7. What is a rail gun? In case you don't know, it is a gun that uses a pulse of electricity to energize magnets. The magnetic fields push the projectile out the barrel.

Another neat thing. ONR is working on nanoengineered materials for thermoelectric devices that directly convert heat into electric power. They hope to make the conversion efficient enough to eliminate steam and steam turbine in the propulsion systems of ships. That would be very impressive. If they could do it on ships, then we could maybe do it in power plants. That would make a truly revolutionary nuke.

When I went to see Intrepid next, the waiting line stretched out of sight. Much too long for me. I gave up.

I started out today with a sore heel. I don't know why. I ignored it and walked 21 city blocks down to the ship and 21 blocks back. Too cheap to hail a taxi; that's me. Tonight I regret that. I'm a near cripple. It feels like my Achilles tendon is inflamed. It hurts like heck just to stand on it. I hope it's better tomorrow. Libby and I have plans to have more fun.