"Will Walk For Food...": Noshin' On The Hudson...In Style (Second Day, Fifth Leg)

All is right with the world as Nature Girl, NG the Younger, Upstate Annie and me make direct contact with the Hudson again (after a short detour to upper Riverside Park).

We're now only a stone's throw from the 79th Street Boat Basin...home to many fine sailing vessels including The Highlander, the yacht that Malcolm Forbes (and his sons after him) docked there in the summer months for many years. A glorious ship of wood, copper, brass and gold, large enough to fit both a small helicopter and a cabin cruiser on deck, with plenty of room left for Malcolm, a staff of ten or more, and the large numbers of guests he entertained with rides around Manhattan Island.

Both NG and I have "first hand" knowledge of The Highlander as we were often "guests" of the guests from the advertising world (we became "very close" friends with some of the guys that worked at agencies like J. Walter Thompson, which is where I had my first jot in public relations) that were invited every summer "back in the day" for an evening cruise on The Highlander. This definitely was not just any cruise! You were greeted by Dom Perignon looking very inviting in long, willowy crystal, heaping silver trays of steamed lobster and shrimp and the finest Belon oysters and Little Neck clams on the half-shell. After much sipping and sampling above deck, we'd descend into Malcolm's floating apartment, complete with a luxurious living room, opulent bedrooms (at least two) and two full baths, with gold fixtures and marble sinks and tubs (certainly not the puny "heads" found on every other boat I had ever been on). In the shining dining room filled with Villroy & Boch china, original artworks by museum artists and a large antique wood dining table probably from the South of France, there was always a buffet fit for the kings and queens we had, by then, decided we must be to be treated to such royal fashion. What a way to live...

Sadly, not too long after Malcolm's death in 1987, the sons sold The Highlander (he kept updating the boat, so I don't know if it was the IV or the VI). I know the year Malcolm died because I met him in February of '87 at a special "unveiling" of an Andy Warhol painting of my pr clients' wrist watch during a gala dinner -- both Andy and he were dead soon after that event, as was the evening's talent - Shirley Bassey. An awfully strange coincidence, I say!

Getting back to food, at said 79th Street Boat Basin is a fun and somewhat funky cafe that's only open in warm weather. I had brunched there a few years back with some of my Brazilian cousins, and remembered that the food was quite good, in a summer brunch kind of way.

Though crowded, we scored a table on the terrace, looking out over the moored boats bobbing peacefully on the Hudson. The cafe has a large open-air interior area with a stage for live music and many tables surrounding it...there must be some wild partying there when a band is plaing on a hot summer night. While enjoying an Albarino -- Spain's "signature" white wine (this one wasn't nearly as crisp and fresh as bottles I've enjoyed from Adegas D'Altamira), a parade of kayakers marched through the restaurant, oars in hand. Maybe some day NG and I will be part of that ragged-looking band of boaters!