The Escape Artist
I like to think of myself as an escape artist. Not the Houdini type of escape artist, where the struggle is preset, but more like someone who knows how to escape a tough situation that already exists. Life can be tough, and sometimes it doesn’t hurt to have yourself a little escape – a rejuvenating break.
So, I’ve decided to write a blog. In fact, I’ve decided to write a blog quite a few times, but have gotten hung up in one way or another. I struggle to stick to only one topic. Life is connected. As humans, our thoughts, our emotions, our experiences are linked. Why shouldn’t a blog be too?
First and foremost, you can consider this a travel blog. I’ve been traveling all of my life and have stories upon stories to share. I’ll show you where I’ve escaped through my words and through my images. Ill show you places you’ve only dreamed of – places that put life into perspective.
How about our everyday forms of escape? I’ll get into those too. Escapes can be found in your family, in your best friend, in a favorite book – the list is endless.
Join me and share my experiences: past, present and future. Let’s escape together.
Feel free to reach out to me with any questions or comments. I’m a pretty friendly person.
The Escape Boat 
You took a picture of the remnants of the ferry Islander. It has appeared on Facebook. Can you share some information about when and where you took the shot. The ferry used to serve Martha’s Vineyard from Woods Hole. It went to New York/ Staten Island to be scraped…. I am thinking you probably took it somewhere near there. Am I right? Nice shot! Nice historic shot. Can you let me know some of the details?
Hi Mark! I sincerely apologize for the delayed response. You are absolutely right – I took the shot in Staten Island. Actually, shortly after I originally posted this, the MV Times did an article [http://www.mvtimes.com/2014/04/12/ferry-islander-laid-to-rest-in-ship-graveyard/] on the ship, which led to me being contacted by quite a few people – each person with an amazing story about the ship, and how it influenced their lives.
It was definitely a chance find – there are 20-30 ships at that location, with many of them submerged. If you check out this Google Maps Link [https://www.google.com/maps/@40.5558058,-74.2165862,401m/data=!3m1!1e3] you’ll see how many ships are over there. I was lucky enough to rig a ladder to the Islander in order to go on board and explore.
Compared to many of the other ships, the Islander is in great shape. Most of the others I wouldn’t dare explore, in fear of collapse. I was able to walk around on the main deck, and head up as well. As far as going down below, it was a bit risky to try alone.
Location wise, the ships are located off Arthur Kill Road in Staten Island. Frankly speaking, to get to these ships is a major pain. Mostly because it is technically private property and is a restricted area. You have two main options, one is to enter through a small graveyard right on Arthur Kill Road, trek through a grassy route and through a deep swamp (which mainly leads to the submerged ships), or to go through an entrance farther up the road (which seems like its for an active construction area), walk a bit on a path, then scale the coastline until you reach the ships.
Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any questions you may have.. it was a bit ago, but I’ll do my best to answer (and I promise I won’t take forever to respond this time haha).