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April 2018

boatingonthehudson.com

re-designated it the B-26, leading to some confusion with

the Martin B-26 Marauder, infamously nicknamed “The

Widow Maker”, as it was a difficult plane to learn to fly, but

once “mastered”, had a very admirable combat record,

noted for bringing its crews home.

Back to 2017: I thanked the A-26 pilot for his service,

and, as I do for all Vietnam vets, welcomed him home.

Just below the PYC we came across what appeared to be

a trillion-dollar house: all swoops, curves, glass, decks,

patios, and yard sculptures. It was so striking it was

intimidating: people actually live in places like this???

Further south, there was a tall older house, with more

solar panels than I’ve ever seen on a building, with a

trillion-dollar view down the reach.

Beyond the house I thought I spotted Bard Rock, about

a half-mile away,. We had just about maxed out our

outbound energy: “Should we go for it???” “OK, another

10-15 minutes.” Soon, the boat was grounded, the only

thing separating us from landfall on Vanderbilt/Bard Rock

was about a hundred feet of good old Hudson River low

tide MUCK: very ugly. We really didn’t want to deal with

it, but we were sooooo close: we slogged through it. I

smiled (sort of) at the NO SWIMMING sign on shore:

anyone who would be compelled to “swim” in this acres

of mud and murky shallow water hadda be dumber than

someone who just walked across it!

We clambered up on The Rock, then checked out the

groomed, wooded, park-like broad area south of it.

There were a couple of small “beaches”, picnic tables,

and benches. It was very appealing: peaceful, quiet. We

shared it with a half-dozen other people; half of them

had dogs. I couldn’t help but think of the thousands

and thousands of people milling around malls up and

down the valley—indoors—on this picture-perfect late-

summer’s day. Go figure...

We slogged through the muck back to the boat, and

decided to save an exploration of Esopus Island for

another day: a weekday!!! All in all, another Great Day

On The River, and, three bucks well spent..

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