A New Crew Member Arrives

Brooklyn, New York – 12 kilometres walked

After exploring the local neighbourhood yesterday, it was time to go further afield. We were both up early and walked to the Sheepshead Bay Marketplace to start the day with a coffee. Along the way we passed a local Brooklyn swan who had made use of the harbour garbage to fashion a cozy nest on a partially submerged dock, and in the nest were four massive eggs, enough for at least fifteen omelettes. In the market Ana picked up a latte and I went for a super caffeinated, turbo-charged Turkish java, the small sludgy cup of which was sufficient to put me on a caffeine high for the entire day. It was delicious, as was the pistachio croissant we had for a post-breakfast snack.

We got onto the subway, going the wrong direction, so lost half an hour in the turnaround but finally got going in the right way. As the train sped northward we passed the enormous Green-Wood cemetery, at nearly 500 acres and containing more than 600,000 gravesites. Both Ana and I like visiting cemeteries, but this one would have to wait.

After 20 stops we arrived at the neighbourhood of Dumbo, which I learned is a Disneyish acronym for the clunky “Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass” and is one of the most popular neighbourhoods in Brooklyn for visitors. It is located directly south of Manhattan so offers phenomenal views over the city which you simply can’t see when you are on the island.

We lucked out with our timing as the Saturday Dumbo flea market, located beneath one of the massive bridge supports, was in full swing and packed with hipsters, funksters, and groovesters digging through tables and racks of custom jewelry, vinyl albums, vintage clothing, ethical coffee, and flashy handbags. I found a cool vintage jacket with Ernie and Bert macrame artfully sewn into the back, but after seeing a price tag of $250 pinned to a nearby plain, boring jacket on a rack, I directed my interest elsewhere, as the Sesame Street jacket would likely set me back a thousand.

From here we wandered, exploring the streets and popping into shops, crowd-watching, and enjoying the vistas provided by the bridges and Manhattan skyline. Ana eyeballed a Shake Shack so we stopped for burgers and fries and an unbeatable vanilla milkshake. We then started walking towards Brooklyn downtown and walked and walked and walked until we reached the Nostrand Avenue Station. After five minutes, SeaLight’s newest crew member appeared on the station steps – my dad!

I’d had a call from my brother Curtis earlier in the day regarding a potential Mars Volta concert in Toronto in November and he told me that our dad had collected him and his family at the Saskatoon airport at 1am the previous night. They’d just returned from a spectacular two week European vacation and Dad wanted to see the grandkids before leaving for his trip…which began a few hours later with his 4 am taxi back to the same airport. My dad’s always been the master at the all-nighter, and seems to do them as frequently in his 70’s as he did in his 20’s.

We took a long bus ride back to Sheepshead, welcomed him aboard SeaLight, had a lengthy happy hour visit in the cockpit followed up with a nice chicken stir fry, some more visiting, then called it a relatively early night.