Ellis Island to Haverstraw, New York - 33 nautical miles sailed, 2 miles in dinghy, 4 kilometres walked
As we watched the towers and hubub of Manhattan slowly disappear behind us, I did some morning stretching while Dad took the wheel, both of us packed full of the morning breakfast burritos we'd enjoyed before pulling anchor.
The sail north was nice and the heavy boat traffic cleared up almost immediately as we passed the north end of NYC. Having Dad at the wheel freed me to do some boat jobs. I first removed two of the cockpit enclosure panels and redid the snaps as the old ones had failed. As I was looking for the next task, I noticed a little mini-Ana sitting on my shoulder. At first I was startled as this had never happened before, but when it started to whisper into my ear I calmed down and paid attention.
"Boat's looking a little dirty, hey Captain?"
"What, really?" I said out loud.
"Whadja say?" asked my dad.
"Oh, nothing Dad," I deflected as I covered up the shoulder apparition with a People magazine. "But I have to head down into the cabin to do something."
"That was close. He's going to think you're crazy, talking to yourself like that," said mini-Ana.
"I don't think so. He's mostly deaf and I'm sure he gets old man hallucinations frequently, especially with all that boxed plonk he's been consuming. It's me I'm worried about."
"Why?"
"Cause I haven't had a drop today, never suffer from hallucinations, and I'm talking to a ghostly apparition on my shoulder."
"What you should really be worried about, Krissy-boy, is the state of this cabin. What's that smeared on the counter?"
"I think it's peanut butter. And there's a long chunk of your hair stuck in it. For your information, I have been cleaning, but your hair is still appearing everywhere like it's breeding."
"Have you been vaccuuming ten times a day like I do?" mini-Ana said as she fluffed her hair then swung it like she was in a Pantene commercial.
"Umm, well, not really. Maybe once a day."
"Ten times sailor. Get on it."
"I still don't know how your hair can be all over the place. This morning there was a long piece threaded around the bristles of my toothbrush and I didn't notice until I was halfway done and it had gotten all tangled in my teeth. Do you know how gross that feels?"
"Don't be a wimp. If you want to have a beautiful wife with long and luscious hair, it's the price you have to pay."
"I'd still love you with short hair."
"Not as much. OK, you need to clean this boat and I mean now. I know you are incapable of cleaning to the Portuguese standard on your own so I'm going to guide you through step by step."
"OK, what's first?"
"Put on an 80's playlist."
"Why do I need to do that? That music sucks."
The apparition made a mean face, gave me an evil stink eye and said, "Are we going to have a problem here?"
"Let's start with Tears for Fears," I said as cued up the 80's Hits, forever perverting my Spotify algorithm.
The apparition led me through the cleaning procedure, step by step as promised. I wiped down every hard surface in the cabins with disinfectant wipes. I removed the composting toilet and vinegar-scrubbed it. I shook the carpets, vaccuumed the floors, wiped the floors, then vaccumed again to be sure. I cleaned the windows. I scoured the sinks. I cleaned and defrosted the refrigerators. I cleaned the heads to Portuguese perfection, which required wipes, scrapers, brushes, detergents, a toothbrush for the fine work, and drying towels. I put on the white gloves and ran my finger everywhere. It came up clean.
"I think I'm done," I said to min-Ana, sweat driplets rolling down my cheeks. "Can I go back outside?"
"You have done well," said the apparition as it looked up from doing its toenails. "It's not exactly up to Portuguese standard, and my mom would not be at all impressed, but it's a good effort for you. Toodle-loo!"
And with that, the apparition was gone, the boat was sparking clean, and we had arrived in Haverstraw.
Haverstraw has the only large 360 degree anchorage on the Hudson and it is just a short dinghy ride to the free town dock. Unfortunately the dock was not yet open for the season, but we tied up anyway and jumped the fence beside the locked gate leading into the park. Dad managed to swing his leg up and over (thanks to his Urban Star stretchy Costco pants, great for scaling fences, doing yoga, and delivering devastation flying side-kicks during bar fights) and made it down the other side without injury. Goes to show the endurance of those teenage lessons he learned in Foam Lake, with his buddies, running away from the cops after stealing stuff and blowing things up.
Haverstraw was just like I'd last left it - a refuge of Latino culture nestled into New York state and the best place to go if you need a haircut or your clothes cleaned as they have more barber shops, hair dressers, and laundromats per capita than anywhere else in the world. And a lot of bodegas too.
Dad and I walked around town until we got bored then returned to Sealight for an extended happy hour, delicious dinner, then a second happy hour that took us way past Mariner's Midnight.
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