Sail4th 250 Tall Ships & International Air Review in NYC

Hi friends, welcome back! We had quite the epic Fourth of July in NYC. We were supposed to be moved out by now, but we extended our lease two months, so we got to experience America’s 250^th birthday on our last weekend living in NYC. Besides the Macy’s fireworks, I was most excited to watch the Sail4^th 250 Parade of Tall Ships and accompanying International Aerial Review. This event has been years in the making and features the “Largest-ever flotilla of tall ships from around the world.” During the week I could see the ships coming into harbor out my window and it made me happy seeing how the world was coming together to celebrate.

With the almost 90 degree temperatures by 10am we didn’t arrive to the show too early to scope out the best spot along the Hudson River, but we managed to get a pretty good view in the shade. While the tall ships were coming through, every few minutes jets and planes would fly by as part of the international air show. Thankfully there was someone around us that would excitedly shout which jets were on the way next. The show was led by French jets with a red, white, and blue jet stream.

I pulled some of the descriptions and names of the ships from the Sail4th website. Even though they were quite large, I couldn’t imagine being on any of these as they sailed across the Atlantic to join the parade.

“OOSTERSCHELDE, a 164-foot three-masted topsail schooner homeported in Rotterdam, is the largest restored Dutch sailing ship. Built in 1918, she is owned by Rotterdam Sailing Ship Foundation, a non-profit organization.”

““America’s Tall Ship,” the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter EAGLE, is a 295-foot three-masted barque that has trained Coast Guard cadets since 1946. She is homeported in New London, Connecticut. Built in Germany in 1936 as the Horst Wessel, she was acquired by the United States in 1946, renamed Eagle, and remains the only active square-rigger in U.S. government service.”

“Pride of Baltimore II is a globally recognized sailing ambassador of Maryland. Built and launched on the shore of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor in 1988, Pride II is a reproduction of the sharp-built Baltimore Clippers of the late 18th century and early 19th century.”

“ARA LIBERTAD, a 340-foot, three-masted, a steel-hulled full-rigged ship, is homeported in Buenos Aires. One of the largest and fastest tall ships in the world, holder of several speed records, Libertad serves as a school vessel in the Argentine Navy.”

“ESMERALDA, a 371-foot steel-hulled four-masted barquentine tall ship of the Chilean Navy is homeported in Valparaiso, Chile.”

“JUAN BAUTISTA CAMBIASO, a 177-foot, steel-hulled, three-masted barquentine, is homeported in Santo Domingo. Launched in 2009 in Bulgaria and acquired by the Dominican Republic in 2018, she serves as the naval training ship for its cadets.”

“NS SUDARSHINI, a 177-foot three-masted barque, homeported in Kochi, Kerala, India. Designed by Colin Mudie, a U.K.-based naval architect, she was built by Goa Shipyard Ltd. on the west coast of India and commissioned in 2012.”

I couldn’t find much information about the aircraft but I managed to capture some of them before they blew past:

My favorite was this stealth bomber, it looked like something out of a movie.

I’d never seen an airshow before and it was incredible to see the jets and how fast they could go. Violet enjoyed the airshow but we didn’t make it through the whole boat parade in the heat. I’ll save the fireworks for my last post of living in NYC, seems the perfect grand finale 🙂