Staten Island Ferry passes Sarasota on its way to New York

Sarasota-area boaters can be forgiven if their Labor Day weekend voyages left them in a New York state of mind. 

A few miles offshore on Saturday afternoon, mariners in the Gulf of Mexico spotted one of the Big Apple's iconic Staten Island Ferry boats heading south under tow along the Sarasota coast. 

No, the Yankees haven't switched to a more leisurely road-game itinerary, nor did the level of pizza quality suddenly spike in these parts. 

Rather, the new 4,500 passenger vessel — the Dorothy Day, for you Gotham-philes — was heading home from a successful U.S. Coast Guard inspection in Port St. Joe, prior to it entering service shuttling scores of commuters to and from Battery Park. For free.

And who was Dorothy Day, you ask? She was a journalist and social activist who fought for the hungry and poor on the borough of Staten Island.