Bonus: Historic Maritime Event Recap from Sail4th 250 in NYC

Join us for a lively recap of the 🇺🇸 July 4th celebrations in New York City, as seen from Governors Island and at home, focusing on the historic maritime events, the Parade of Sail, and the significance of waterway traditions. 

Discover how media coverage, Native American acknowledgment, and sustainability narratives intertwined in this special episode.

Related listening: 

• Sail4th 250 in NYC - Once-in-a-Lifetime Flotilla featuring Two Historic Maine Windjammer Cruise Ships: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2448059/episodes/19344675
• Part 1: Sailing Cruises on Historic Maine Windjammer Ships: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2448059/episodes/18500617
• Part 2: Maine Island Hopping on a Windjammer Sailing Cruise: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2448059/episodes/18537898

Transcript

Mikkel (00:35)
Okay, we are back from July 4th weekend, and we are just doing a very short bonus episode to recap the weekend since we had done a bonus episode before this to talk about Sail4th 250 to celebrate the semi-quincentennial in New York City. Dan, you watched from home, you were on NBC TV broadcast duty, and I was on in-person duty from Governor's Island,

looking at the Statue of Liberty. I would argue have, um, two great... I don't know, what would you say? ⁓ perspectives to give full coverage from the ground from Florida and from New York City. What are your thoughts?

Dan (01:21)
There was definitely the two different perspectives were interesting because NBC did such a great job of bringing it right into our home and really got up and close and personal with the ships and also had some drones in the air and some other aircraft, probably the Goodyear Blimp was there. So you could see the flyovers and really get really into the action and get up close with the ships.

Mikkel (01:38)
Yeah, it was.

Dan (01:46)
However,  I couldn't feel the flyovers, you know, and feel everything that was going on in the middle of the celebration.

Mikkel (01:49)
That's a good point.

Did you see anybody on Governor's Island? Some people had wigs on, like it was 1776, even though it was a thousand degrees outside. Some people had... I saw some sparkles, some sequins with the American flag. That was cool. I saw the Mayor ring the bell to signal 250th anniversary. Did you see that? Because I only saw what was behind the scenes.

And the interesting thing was the microphones didn't have speakers on site. The microphones only piped into the TV broadcast.

Dan (02:28)
Interesting. Yeah. So did the dignitaries and the bell ringers give a speech or something?

Mikkel (02:34)
To us on the...? No. It was very like go, go, go, go, go, all the NBC people behind the scenes. Saw Savannah Guthrie, saw Craig Melvin, that was cool. Saw Willie Geist was there for a little while. So they did have a huge T V so you could see what was going on, but you couldn't hear really anything on site about it. 

So that... So, you know, some might argue the people at home, which like, you know, a sporting event would have kind of a better overview of the history of the ships and such. You know, but of course we're covering this because of the two Maine Windjammer ships that were there. Right.

Dan (03:11)
That was something the TV broadcast did a great job at as they had two experts on. One was Air Force expert, so he was talking about the flyovers and the planes and the aircraft that were in the sky. And then they also had a maritime expert on. 

So he was able to give a lot of the history of the ships and almost like the Macy's Day Parade, they were giving factoids "the ship is this long and this many sails and this many crew," so you got quite a bit of information about the ships. However, for me the big thing was in our viewing area, the broadcast on NBC was only an hour long.

Mikkel (03:52)
Wha...what? It's supposed to be I guess from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm but maybe in like New York City and Los Angeles? That's so weird.

Dan (04:00)
Yeah, so I was definitely disappointed when I'm watching it and I'm like, "This commercial seems like it's going on way too long and then I realized it was an infomercial and they had just cut coverage.

Mikkel (04:11)
Oh, gosh. seeing the Maine Windjammer ships was cool. I was tracking them on that Aqua Map app that, you know, we downloaded as part of this. But you can track these ships, you know, coming in from all over the world. I haven't checked it today actually, but it was really cool to see. And I was that I was with where the ships were and such.

But I think, the big takeaway from this is kind of like the excitement surrounding the maritime history and the present and perhaps even the future. 

Though these ships weren't built beyond and many of them are from the 19th century, like you were saying, the history of being on the water and the tradition, the maritime tradition as well, you know, you can't help but be inspired and even if you're not part of the Navy, let's say, then going on cruises like kind of gives you a little bit of that flavor. And that's why we do what we do because traveling by the water a cool way to travel. And I think like, you know, it drives home why sustainability and taking care of our earth is important for me as well.

Dan (05:19)
Yeah, 100%. The little history nuggets that were placed throughout the broadcast were great and it really brought that connection home of our connection as pretty much a species of using waterways for food, then for transportation and then for migration and all of that is truly encapsulated in those ships.

Mikkel (05:41)
It's interesting being on Governors Island, where the Dutch landed, to watch this and see the Statue of Liberty in the distance. And, you know, you can even like see mini Statues of Liberty in places like Colmar that river cruises can take you to. But you know, a part of me wants to mention that we acknowledge the Native Americans that were here before the European settlers came. 

And, you know, that was kind of going through my head too, because even like, you know, we had mentioned that Grace Bailey, the main windjammer ship that we were on a couple of weeks ago, was built in Patchogue, New York, and that's on Long Island. And Patchogue is a Native American name, much like many other names, Massapequa on Long Island. The list goes on and on and on. Setauket, all these places. So

I do want to acknowledge that. But we were celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. So that is what we are talking about here. But yeah, like so much came to mind of why cruising is phenomenal and why we do what we do and try to inspire everybody listening.

Definitely follow us because we have a lot more Small Ship Cruise Talk upcoming. We are just getting started, with our 70th episode publishing next week if you are listening to this live in July. We are recording this on July 9th. This will come out tomorrow on July 10th. Any final words about Salesforce two fifty?

Dan (07:05)
I think overall it was a such a fascinating event and just a great nod to history, great nod to maritime history and a real to pause and reflect on everything that brought us here where we are for the last 250 years.

Mikkel (07:22)
I love it. Well, be sure to tune in every Wednesday. Hit that follow or subscribe button for the bonus episodes and certainly last but not least...

Dan (07:32)
Until next time, keep cruising.