My knowledge of Fleet Week was pretty much learnt from Sex and the City episodes so in the interests of a more in depth explanation – this is mainly for the Londoners amoungst you I guess – I hit the wiki.

Fleet week is a Naval tradition in the US in which ships serving on overseas missions dock in various major cities around the US, once the ships have docked the crew are free to explore the city and visit its tourist attractions.

Photo courtesy of lemoncat1 Via Flickr

What it means is that dozens of navy ships will today enter the Hudson River in a big parade.  If you aren’t able to get down to the river to watch, don’t have tickets, or are London based, you can watch the action as it unfolds on webcam here – thanks to MommyPoppins for that tip!

What follows the parade is a week of festivities, including military demonstrations, the opportunity to tour the ships, military band performances and some more sedate activities such as memorial parades.  You can see the full listing of activities here.

Photo courtesy of √oхέƒx™ Via Flickr

The happy side-effect of all of these planned events are that NY is full to the brim of lovely navy chaps, in their lovely white uniforms…

*Sigh* OK go ahead and indulge your daydreams now!