I took a cruise the other day. It wasn't on one of the cruise lines
you deal with and I couldn't book it with an agent but I took it
anyway because it was only for two hours and it provided a preview
of Op Sail, the spectacular parade of tall ships that celebrated
the Fourth of July in New York.
The cruise was on the Royal Teal, one of several party vessels
that take people on brief cruises from Atlantic Highlands, a Jersey
shore town about half an hour from where I live.
On Monday, the day before the big procession of ships, most of
the visiting vessels were sitting out around Sandy Hook, N.J.,
preparing for the holiday parade.
A number of the party-boat owners who usually cater to the
day-fishing crowd offered two-hour swings out to Sandy Hook for a
close-up glimpse of the international collection of sailing ships
that had come in for America's birthday bash.
A hundred or so of us aboard the Royal Teal had a chance to come
alongside ships from as far away as Indonesia. We waved welcomes to
sailors from Venezuela, Colombia, Uruguay, Ecuador, Denmark,
Germany, Poland and Japan as well as our own representatives
including the crew of the Coast Guard sailing ship, the Eagle.
This was the third time I'd had the chance to see the tall
ships. The first time, during the bicentennial celebration in 1976,
Carla Hunt of the Travel Weekly staff invited some of us to her
West Side Manhattan apartment to see the ships from her comfortable
living room.
In 1992, on the occasion of the quincentennial of Columbus'
discovery of America, many of the ships were back. By then, my
family and I had moved from Manhattan to central Jersey, not far
from the shore, and we took a party boat out to Sandy Hook.
This time around, it was neither a bicentennial or a
quincentennial but it was the first Independence Day of the new
century and that was reason enough to invite the ships back.
Some 4 million visitors were predicted for the big Fourth of
July gathering in New York so prudence suggested that we take a
look on the day before, without the massive traffic and crowds that
accompanied the event in the city itself.
It was a beautiful afternoon and while the tall ships weren't
all flying their full rigs, we were able to get quite close and
watch the sailors put the finishing touches on paint jobs or relax
on deck as they awaited the main event.
There was no first or second sitting aboard our Royal Teal, no
outside cabins, no after-dinner show or casino. But it was a
memorable two-hour cruise.