The “Boatbusters! Halloween Parade, Race & Fundraiser” sure was a success! According to the History Channel, Halloween tradition is dated back 2000 years ago, where the Celts marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter. This tradition was spread through Europe and was modified by the church and different ethnic groups. In America, as the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups and the American Indians meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included “play parties,” which were public events held to celebrate the harvest. Neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other’s fortunes, dance and sing. In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts, pranks and witchcraft. At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season and festive costumes. To me, Halloween has always been a holiday I had mixed feeling about. On one hand – I am all in when it comes to wearing costumes, decorating houses and having fun. On the other hand – I always felt a bit quite uncomfortable with the Trick-or-Treat tradition, as kids who are Trick-or-Treating are expecting to get candy, get upset when they don’t get enough and get pulled into crazy sugar-rush caused tantrums.

If there’s one good thing that came out from 2020 is a shift in attitude. Some sociologists and politicians thought that the long months of lockdown, learning, adapting and becoming accountable to new standards of behaviors, such as: personal hygiene, social distancing and mask wearing, would be detrimental to our society. In reality, people who care stepped up in solidarity and took action to make an impact on the lives of the less fortunate.

A few months ago I wrote an article telling about Michele Wiemer and Barry Richards, a sailor couple, who started cooking meals on their boat and delivered them along with masks to Jersey City Homeless in Journal Square. A couple of weeks later, Michele & Barry started a Go-Fund-Me campaign – “Sailors and Seniors Helping Jersey City Homeless” to raise money to fund food products and mask materials. Since then, Michele & Barry’s network of friends and family across the country got inspired by this initiative and joined them in making different nutritious meals every week and making sure that the homeless – who are part of our community and society, are protected and protect others who they come in contact with from Covid-19.

Halloween is always a bitter-sweet time of the year for us, sailors. While it’s fun to go sailing wearing costumes, it’s also the last sail for the season… Remembering Kennedy’s famous quote, I decided not to let covid-19 to get in the way of celebrating our community through extending kindness beyond. In that vein, I decided to re-imagine the Trick-or-Treat custom, from an act of getting something or feeling entitled to something, to an act of giving to others. The Trick-or-Treat became a way to either raise donations to the “Sailors and Seniors Helping Jersey City Homeless”Go-Fund-Me campaign (Trick) or donate a coat, a warm clothing item or a non-perishable food item to the homeless (Treat).

As a new member of Liberty Yacht Club, I was able to present this idea and gain their support. The officers of Liberty Yacht Club recognized the impact we can make as a community by supporting its members in bringing awareness a local NY Harbor region cause, through bringing members last opportunity for this year to get together on the water and to start an annual club tradition. With the assistance of LYC members, LLM tenants and others, I was able to present a day long event that included a boat parade, a sailboat race and a Trick-or-Treat contest.

 

The event started on a very cold morning of Saturday 10/31/2020, with the Boatbusters Boat Parade, led by Le Peniche – with Captain Jim Chambers at the helm. Le Peniche led the 9-boat parade along the Morris Canal from Liberty Landing Marina’s fuel dock west, and then back east towards green buoy 1 at the entrance to the Morris Canal. The parade participants stepped up for the game with decorating their boats, having Halloween theme accessories and costumes. A few kids were sited on board the different boats, and in spite of the cold temperatures, everybody seemed delighted and amused. After the boat parade, 7 of the boats prepared for the race start.

 

The special custom made prizes, created by glass artist Stephanie Baness of Moxie Sorbet Designs. Thank you Liberty Landing Marina and Dockmaster Andrew Licata for your help and support in coordinating the event.

The post Liberty Yacht Club’s First Boatbusters! Halloween Parade, Race & Fundraiser was a great success! appeared first on New York Harbor Channel.

Money donations from the fundraiser will be made through a go-fund-me campaign Sailors & Seniors Helping Jersey City Homeless started by Michele Wiemer and Barry Richards, who are boat owners in Liberty Landing Marina. In addition to money fundraising, they are also looking to collect coats and food items for this same grassroots effort.

The event, presented by Liberty Yacht Club, will take place on Halloween Day, Saturday 10/31/2020 and the schedule is as follows:

• 10:00am -10:45am – a Halloween Boat Parade along the Morris Canal
• 10:45am-12:45pm – Sailboat race in the NY Harbor
• 1-3pm – Trick or Treat on marina’s docks – fundraising for the above cause.

In order to prevent the spread of covid-19 we instruct participants to team up with groups of up to 6 people max on each dock, maintain a social distance and wear masks (not just Halloween masks.

Attached please find a digital copy for the Boatbusters flyer, as well as a banner you can use for a Newsletter in case you’d be willing to participate.

The website link to find more information and to register to the event is: Go to the Quarter Deck section of www.libertyyachtclub.org for more info. (the QR code in the flyer takes you there). Must register no later than October 28th.

So come Join the Liberty Yacht Club for one more Race for the year, along with a food, clothing and Trick or treat fundraising event! It will surely be SPOOK-tacular!

The post Liberty Yacht Club Presents: BOATBUSTERS a Halloween Fundraiser Race for Sailors appeared first on New York Harbor Channel.

The USNS Comfort will be making its way to New York Harbor in order to help control the influx of crowded hospitals due to Covid-19. On Wednesday, President Trump ordered the Comfort, and its sister ship USNS Mercy to help states affected by overpopulated hospitals. Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, stated the Comfort would allow local NYC hospitals to transfer trauma patients to the ship, allowing the local hospitals to free up much needed quarantine ICU space.

The Comfort’s Background History

The last time the Comfort was here in NY was 3 days after the September 11th, 2001 terror attacks. The mission was called ‘Noble Eagle.’ It helped aid the injured. NYC will greatly benefit the Comforts arrival. It offers 1,000 beds, 12 fully equipped operating rooms, a helicopter landing pad and up to 1,200 medical staff. The USNS Comfort is just under 3 football fields long and 10 stories high, making it the worlds largest hospital ship.

USNS Comfort will bring civilian doctors and hospital technicians to New York.  Similarities to other USNS vessels where the U.S. Navy is responsible for the operation of the ship, and civilian experts perform on-board missions.

USNS Comfort is one of the Military Sealift Command ships of the U.S. Navy.  Aside from the hospital ships, other specialty vessels such as those operating under the Navoceano division assign civilian scientists to map and gather data of ocean floor topography.  During Fleet Week 2018, NYHC interviewed the USNS Maury and learned about Navoceano’s unique missions.  In 2010, USNS Comfort was deployed to Porto Prince, Haiti after its devastating earthquake.  But, before Comfort was able to enter the port, Navoceano scientists searched for underwater debris in the harbor channel, allowing safe entry.

With its massive size, red defining crosses and solid white exterior, the ship is soon set to station in NY.  It will definitely be an amazing site to see. “The Comfort is currently in for maintenance in Norfolk, so they are going to expedite the maintenance if they can and prepare it.” Jonathan Hoffman, assistant defense secretary for public affairs, told CNBC. Presently the ship is at the Naval Operation Base in Norfolk, VA.

Live GPS Tracking USNS Comfort

You can track the USNS Comfort on New York Harbors Live GPS Tracking Map. Simply type in the vessels name and it will tell give you a live view of where it is.  Look for the uncharacteristic large, long, white object.  In addition, the NYHC countdown clock will advise on when the ship will be passing under the Verrazzano Bridge.

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