Urban Naturalist and I were freezing our little selves down by the river this morning, discussing, as usual, ducks, when the P.O. Anthony Sanchez motored up to the seawall right in front of us. The Anthony Sanchez is an NYPD Marine Unit boat that carries a crew of four. All of them are divers. On any dive, two are in the water and two on the boat. As soon as the three muscular young cops who weren't Captain Jimmy Conroy tied the boat up (Captain Conroy being busy chatting with me, over the seawall fence -- privilege of rank) two of the divers suited up. They wore, not wet suits, but dry suits -- air-inflated. It was 20 degrees; according to Capt. Conroy, the water was warmer than the air, which when you think about it is obviously true. Then the divers splashed in. It was slack tide; they spent about twenty minutes in the water, then were called out as the tide began running hard. They hadn't found the gun they were looking for, thrown in at that spot by a homicide suspect, or so the suspect says. They'll be back tomorrow.

As usual, click any photo for more photos.