CHAPTER 34 ~ "Flippin' Floppin' Fcukin" Sail Boat

Chapter 34 ~ Possible Drowning at Great Kills Park Bay ?

August 18, 2015

~ This Chapter 34 is dedicated to Ernest Borgnine RIP who has made over 300 films and my friend Mickey Burns who has made over 350 interviews including Mr Borgnine ~

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Today was one of those "Marty" movie type days that goes like this ~ "What do you want to do today.!!!...I don't know Marty what do you want to do...? "

When people are retired many times that is their conversation each and every day and that is, trying to figure out what their next move will be...Well as it turned out and after turning down other moves, we decided that rather than go to the local Mall or other Malls in New Jersey where it is cool and other people are also close by, today we decided to go to Great Kills Park and enjoy our day under our special tree with shade, next to and overlooking the park bay area where there are many great ships and sail boats tied up awaiting their owners decision to come out and take them out for a ride or go fishing in them or whatever...

The park area today was not overcrowded as it was hot out and was also a week day (Tuesday) and most people are at work... As it turned out there was a young lady sunning herself near a park bench, an older gentleman with binoculars further on down from the young lady and also a young man sleeping on a bench down by the boat launching pad...Every one there was either retired or apparently had the day off from work...

My wife and I had settled under our favorite tree and were playing music on the I Phone that my wife has...We were also gazing out to the ships in the bay and I had zeroed in on this small sail boat with a white sail that also had a large green stripe going through the sail...The person in the sailboat kept going back and forth in the bay area as if he was using it for the first time and was practicing and learning how to use it when all of a sudden a gust of wind blew the sailboat over on it's side...

Startled and waiting for the boat to right itself up which it never did, I told my wife to call 911 and she hesitated for a moment as she had not seen what just happened...Apparently I was the only person who actually saw the boat flip over on its side as every one else was going about their own business and were enjoying the day on the shore line, and did not see the accident with the sailboat that was approximately about a half mile away from us...I thought to myself what if he hit his head and had no life preserver on...?

When I explained the happenings with the sailboat she immediately dialed 911 as she did not see the accident happen and being that the boat was laying on its side it now became hard to see it clearly...The first 911 call became disconnected and so she called 911 again...After calling again she got a reply and was put on hold and that too was again disconnected...Seeing what was happening I ran to the young lady that was sunning herself and as she saw the excitement on my face disconnected her ear plugs as she was apparently listening to music too.!!!...

I told her what happened and what I saw and pointed out the small dot on the water that was the turned over sailboat...After barely seeing the small boat that looked like a dot on the water she too called 911....After running back and forth between the young lady and my wife both of them had made contact with 911 and got the message through to their 911 listeners...

The older gentleman with the binoculars now came running to us and explained that it was an abandoned boat that sometimes always happens and there was no one in the boat...I explained to him that I saw someone in it and that the boat had just flipped over and it was not an abandoned boat....At this point we all started to go down to the man sleeping on the bench who now awoke and was also looking towards the turned over sailboat too.!!!

We than noticed a small boat coming out from the Marina so we assumed the call to 911 had reached the Marina and some one was coming out to investigate the turned over sailboat but as it turned out he was actually bringing some one to their parked boat...We than saw a NYPD boat and a Coast Guard boat heading to that general area and than also heard the sirens of Emergency Vehicles...Hopefully the man in the water that fell out of the sailboat had a life preserver on and was not injured in the mishap...The Emergency Vehicles that had arrived at the Boat Launching location where we were heading to, consisted of several police cars, ambulances and fire engines too, when we than heard and noticed a helicopter also approaching the area of the accident...

From what I was able to see from a half mile away of the incident and from my estimation was that the boat from the Marina that had dropped off a passenger to their docked boat, was actually the first boat to arrive at the turned over sail boat to offer any assistance and help...

At this point in time I noticed that the young lady that had been sunning herself started to take pictures with her cell phone of some of the happenings which was a good idea and that I would/could use in this story line later on...

I now noticed that the Sailboat had managed some way to right itself up and was now sailing again with apparently its owner and/or the man in the accident...One of the Police Officers shook my hand for acting so swiftly and said I did the right thing by calling 911 as we had no way of knowing if anyone was hurt in the accident... After all ends well that ends well we both returned to our positions before any of this occurred and I say again,

"What do you want to do tonight Marty...?"

Nick... 8/19/2015 Wednesday

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