The ten boat fleet of the Clipper Round the World Race will officially and formally arrive in New York harbor on Sunday, June 3rd to coincide with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. As Sir Robin Knox-Johnston sails the Suhaili, the 32ft yacht on which he became the first person to sail single-handed non-stop around the world in 1969, up the Thames River in the Diamond Jubilee Pageant, the ten racing yachts of the Clipper Round the World Race fleet will sail up New York Harbor to the North Cove. Their arrival is expected to be covered live by the BBC. Among his many exploits, Sir Robin Knox Johnston was the founder of the Clipper Round the World Race in 1996 and is the chairman of Clipper Ventures, which organizes and runs the race.
Until then, the Clipper fleet will hang out, unofficially, in Liberty Landing marina in the Morris Canal Big Basin in Jersey City, immediately across the the Hudson River from North Cove. The ten boats will have been in the harbor for almost a week prior to their “official” arrival.
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This seems like a suitable post for a Monday morning. The tide was high, the bridge was low and the ship was light. Captain Guo Lai, 48, was in command of the brand new luxury cruise liner, Pearl No 7, on her maiden voyage from the shipyard, when they passed under a suspension bridge on the Oujiang River near Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province, China. Or at least most of the ship made it under. The ship’s two funnels were sheared off when the clearance between the ship and the bridge turned out to be negative. The Pearl No. 7 has the capacity for 1,000 passengers and cost $44 million to build. She has now returned to the shipyard, Wenzhou Mingzhu Yacht Co., Ltd., for funnel repairs.
The old cliche that a boat is a hole in the water into which you pour money applies far too well to tall ships. They are expensive to build or restore and chronically costly to maintain and keep running. It should come as no surprise that most of the ships in the recent 
On October 5, 2011, the containership 
The US Navy’s newest strategic weapon may be a 
New York harbor is not the only port on the North-Eastern coast of the United States with a wealth of tall ships over Memorial Day Weekend. 
A portrait of a naval ensign, in a heavy gilt frame, hung in a lonely corridor in the labyrinth that is the Pentagon. The plaque on the portrait read:
Many visitors think of New York as the island of Manhattan. The City of New York is in fact five boroughs, only one of which is connected to the mainland. If Brooklyn, the largest borough, had remained an independent city, as it was until 1898, it would now be the 4th largest city in the United States.
