From sea to shining sea.<\/p>\n
A jaw-dropping fleet of US and international ships sailed down the East River Friday in an impressive sneak peek of the historic flotilla for Saturday\u2019s blockbuster Fourth of July party.<\/a><\/p>\n More than two dozen magnificent Class B Tall Ships<\/a> navigated from the Hell Gate Bridge to Gravesend Bay \u2014 luring a large crowd of wide-eyed gawkers to witness the breathtaking sight.<\/p>\n More than two dozen Class B Tall Ships sailed down the East River ahead of the Sail4th event. Brigitte Stelzer for NY Post<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m enjoying it at the surface level, but also at the symbolic level. Marking our 250th anniversary<\/a> of declaring our independence \u2026 I\u2019m a big fan of all this, and glad to see people out here also enjoying it,\u201d Raymond Hunts, 40, software engineer and Army veteran, told The Post as the giant masts and sails coasted along the stretch of water.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just happy to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n The striking parade featured Class B ships from across the globe, a classification meaning they are smaller in stature than the Class A Tall Ships that will sail through the New York Harbor on Saturday.<\/p>\n The ceremonial procession<\/a> was led by the red sails of the US\u2019s Angelique, the US\u2019 130-foot-long schooner<\/a> built to mimic the classic 19th-century English sailing vessel style.<\/p>\n The US\u2019 Angelique led the ceremonial procession. Brigitte Stelzer for NY Post<\/p>\n It was closely followed by the British Virgin Islands\u2019 STV Vela, a 112-foot gaff-rigged schooner typically used for study abroad and gap-year programs in the Caribbean, and Monaco\u2019s Tuiga, one of the last remaining 15-Metre Class yachts in the world.<\/p>\n The Lynx proudly flew the USA flag as it sailed down the waterway, which was patrolled by various Coast Guard vessels poised to guide and protect the prized ships.<\/p>\n More than half of the ships are expected to appear in the massive Sail4th parade Saturday morning \u2014 in which nearly 100 ships from across the globe will sail together in what will be the largest flotilla in history. <\/p>\n The American Eagle, America 2.0, Liberty Clipper and Integrity were among the many American ships that paraded Friday and will join the much larger Class A ships again on Saturday.<\/p>\n Monaco sent the Tuiga, a historic yacht. Brigitte Stelzer for NY Post<\/p>\n Thousands of gawkers braved the nearly 100-degree temperatures to feast their eyes on the historic event, with one man describing the parade as \u201cmeditative.\u201d <\/p>\n John Farrar raced to the Brooklyn waterfront, telling The Post: \u201cThe East River feels like my river and I wanted to check this out. This doesn\u2019t happen every day.\u201d <\/p>\n Willow Ayers, an architect, agreed, saying the parade brought back sweet memories of growing up on the Grenadian island of Beckway.<\/p>\n \u201cI miss being on the ocean, so this is the next best thing,\u201d said Ayers, 51.<\/p>\n One gawker described witnessing the event as \u201cmeditative.\u201d Brigitte Stelzer for NY Post<\/p>\n Others felt more emotional about the international congregation, which will continue in the days following the blockbuster July 4 event. <\/p>\n \u201cEven with all of our polarization and divisions, nations around the world have sent ships of greeting and congratulations, and that means something I think should be something to all of us at this difficult time in our country,\u201d reflected Patrick Egaf, 55, a political science professor.<\/p>\n Little Mika, however, contemplated the physics of the ships. <\/p>\n \u201cHow the heck did they float on water? They\u2019re heavier than us, and we can\u2019t really float on water!\u201d said Mika, 9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From sea to shining sea. A jaw-dropping fleet of US and international ships sailed down the East River…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[33453,8108,57,9,197,56,63,65,64,34974,18129,58],"class_list":["post-286270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-america-250","tag-east-river","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city-life","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-sail4th-250","tag-sailing","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}