A new monument honoring the freedom-seekers who landed in search of water in Montauk in 1839 is important in recognizing Long Island’s role in a critical moment in American history.

Cerberus, my 28-foot-long Cape Dory sloop, is heavy enough to have its own gravitational pull, at least into the bilge. A stubborn black goo has settled there and if the floorboard is lifted it smells like the bathroom in the Mos Eisley Cantina in the first “Star Wars.”