He wanted to fill the gap with some kind of memorial.

But on the day that the Intrepid was scheduled to move,

the tugs pulled her into deep silt along the bank and she was stuck there for weeks.

Dredgers worked around the clock to dig her out and pull her loose. (the pictures above are from the NY Times)

So Cyrus decided that maybe we should just go up while she was still in port.

We left at dawn from just above the security zone that surrounds the Intrepid.

We figured we could float down outside the zone and sneak up next to the battleship if it seemed safe.

I was uneasy about the whole thing.

I thought that if we were aprehended, our situation seemed harder to explain than usual.

And in the rubber rafts - even on a Sunday morning - I expected that we would attract attention.

But with a mission like this,

you just do things one after the next.

It was getting lighter.

And it was a beautiful morning to be out on the Hudson River.

The tide was pulling our boats South quickly,

and soon the USS Intrepid was in sight.

Cy got in his boat and prepared his sign.

The idea was to float right up next to the battleship with a message.

It would be the smallest kind of boat next to the biggest.

Maybe someone would be up early enough to see us.

We paddled into the security zone,

past the dredger and into the slip beside the battleship.

I couldn't believe we were so close.

At first I didn't know what to make of the sign that Cyrus had made.

I couldn't figure out if the 'Museum of a Lesser War' referred to the Intrepid or the rubber raft. Was he talking about the Iraq war or 'The Great War'.

But when I saw him out there next to the battlship it didn't seem to matter. We felt so small floating out by the ship, all of those ideas became the same thing - the same scale.

You see, I think that Cyrus really likes the Intrepid.

And there is something sad about seeing it leave Manhattan.

Soon there won't really be anything like it on the waterfront.

We drove back to Brooklyn around the Southern tip of Manhattan,

and talked about how much the city has changed even in the short time that we have lived here.

I guess nothing really lasts.

It just makes you think.