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April 2018
30
Fresh Water Boats For Sale
fine, fine September Saturday: we were going out on
The River.
We swung south around the breakwater, out into the
gleaming, calm, empty Hudson: we saw about two or
three other boats in the whole two hours we were on
the river. On a day like today,
in the Old Days there would
have been dozens of boats
out there. C’est la vie...
There were several men
fishing from the shore just
past the breakwater. We’re
always careful of fishing
lines, and swing around
them, giving them a wide
berth. We waved: nobody
waved back. I just have to
say this: fisherman rarely
nod or acknowledge us; it’s
pretty much as if we are
some kind of pests. OK, I
said it, and I’m glad.
Beyond the fisherman, we paddled past a docked
sturdy-looking “working boat”, the John E. Flynn(?),
with PILOT in big red letters on its cabin, then, around
the bend, in an ideal location, what appeared to be a
restaurant, with a broad deck, facing down the reach.
There were some people fishing off the deck, but to me
there was absolutely no sign of life inside the building
(It’s the Environmental Center).
Next we paddled down towards the PYC—
Poughkeepsie Yacht Club—and the bay below the
“restaurant” was filled ‘way
out with that ubiquitous green
“seaweed”—probably
some
kind of invasive—that we now
see all over the place along
the shore of the river. When
we reached the Yacht Club,
a guy was standing on one
of the docks sweeping away
debris piled up against it.We
talked to him, and it turned out
he flew Douglas A-26 Invaders
in Vietnam!!! Wow, I had never
talked to an A-26 pilot. Let’s
talk about the A-26 a little bit:
The A-26 Invader was a
fast, nifty twin-engined light
bomber/ground attack (thus
the “A” designation) aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft
Company late in World War II. It also served in both
Korea and Vietnam, and as a civilian forest fire fighter
aircraft (as in the movie Always). In 1948 the Air Force