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April 2017
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boatingonthehudson.com
With the information in hand
they awaited the call from the Port
Captain that the container ship had
arrived and they were to deliver the
boat.
Five days later, at 6 o’clock in the
evening Captain Rob received a
telephone call that he was to be at
the Port seven AM the next morning!
At this point a normal person would
say, “Impossible, it is snowing out
side the wind is blowing twenty to
30 mph, it can’t be done!!
Not Captain Rob, as is his usual his
style, he called the other delivery
captain, “Fuzzy” and said, “Ok we
leave Haverstraw Marina at 5 AM in
the morning!”
Fuzzy arrived at 4; 10 am at Captain
Rob home and the two of them had
a driver deliver them to Haverstraw
Marina. “Fuzzy” as the other captain
is called was ready for anything with
insulated coveralls, heavy coat an
gloves.
It was a dark, snow covered early
morning when they found the key
to the boat that had been hidden by
prearrangement with the Haverstraw
office. Slipping and sliding down the
aluminum snow covered ramps they
made their way out to the snow
covered boat.
Everything was frozen including the
plugged in power cable, the canvas’s
cover, the fly bridge, and of course
the boat itself was dangerously
slippery at 5 AM on a cold, wintery
morning in February.
After starting the engines, they let
the starboard engine idle, and with
everything else on the boat still
winterized, Captain Rob decided
that the only way to see was to
drive from the open fly bridge. With
that in mind “Fuzzy” stayed below
to monitor the gauges, while Rob,
gingerly moved out of Haverstraw
Marina and headed south. “Fuzzy”
could not see out as the windshield
in the lower cabin as it was frosted
over.
Moving along at 12 knots, with Rob
on the exposed top, and Fuzzy below
they made it to the Tappan Zee
Bridge. By this time the sun came out
and defrosted the cabin windshield
allow Rob to come in out of the
brutal cold on the fly bridge. The
heat given off by the two engines
Boat in slings at the
New Jersey port.
The huge container ship Barcelona that the yacht was placed on.
gave the two men some relief from the
cold. Finally they could see through the
windshield.
Two hours into the trip they made it to
the Statue of Liberty. At this point Rob
called the Port Captain and he directed
them to the ship, which could not be seen
from the outer harbor.
Captain “Fuzzy” Fazzino was very
impressed with Rob and the entire
operation. While they did not arrive until
8:30 AM, the crane barge was still there. The
crew on the barge took over and the cabin
cruiser was immediately lifted on board.
The driver that had been prearranged to
take them back home had arrived and by 1
pm the two captains were back home
“Fuzzy” was very impressed with Captain
Rob’s tenacity in the face of all the odds that
were involved in this delivery.