NYCkayaker Meteors, Bioluminescence, Art, beach party, oh my!

[Erik Baard]

Hi All,

What a weekend at the LIC Community Boathouse! A great art opening, a 
phantasmagoric night circumnavigation, and a beach party!

The LIC Community Boathouse had a wonderful night circumnavigation of 
Manhattan this weekend, one with bits of beauty that exceeded any of my 
expectations.

1) Meat Space Gallery opens!

As a few of you know, the boathouse is an anchor for a growing 
community eco-arts & recreation center in what used to be a meat 
processing plant that was recently purchased by our generous landlord, 
Plaxall Inc. (http://www.plaxall.com), a family-owned business in our 
neighborhood for over 50 years. A few tenants we've brought into this 
waterfront area building include Recycle-a-Bicycle, my Nature Calendar 
startup, art studios (ranging from sculptors and oil painters to 
costumers and collagists), a coming nontoxic & natural dyes lab, art 
teachers, and now a funky little new art gallery:  
http://www.meatspacegallery.com

Meat Space Gallery is a project of our boathouse arts and events 
director (and a man with a few other identities), John McGarvey. The 
opening was a load of fun, with dozens of people enjoying food and wine 
in the buildings varied spaces and rooftop, which provides a panoramic 
view of the East River and Manhattan skyline. The gallery's emphasis is 
on local eco-inspired arts, especially highlighting recycling, 
kayaking, and biking. Harry Spitz had two remarkable pieces (he really 
captures the movement of kayakers along with the freneticism of sea 
spray in wind) and Patricia Erickson. She creates wire and pipe 
sculptures from junked materials stripped from infrastructure she 
renovates as a building engineer.

Our kayakers enjoyed both a sunset "Chill Paddle" (a weekly event on 
Fridays) to the Greenpoint ruins and back, with time to spare for the 
party at the boathouse. But apart from the art, the joy of the evening 
was seeing old friends from the Downtown Boathouse like Tim, Harry, 
Nancy, Scott, and Marcella.

2) Night Circumnavigation

The paddling itself was remarkable for its beayrt, not its adventure. 
We launched exactly on time (which, for our Anable Basin dock, is high 
water at the Battery) and arrived back at the very minute we planned. 
One of our paddlers, Paul Baker, comically kept a seconds countdown to 
emphasize the shockingly precise scheduling. Conditions were all quite 
easy, even glassy, with chop and wakes being gentle nearly all the way 
through. We budgeted for 10 hours, but 9.5 was all we needed for a 
relaxed, unhurried experience. And we can thank Ron Kleiman for 
reminding us of the value of viewing kayaks as a "vehicle for 
exploration" rather than as a performance sport or merely a means of 
zipping around.

The highlight, for me, came in the Harlem River -- usually the most 
tedious part of the trip! How absolutely astonishing and mesmerizing to 
have bioluminescent jellyfish winking through the waters below us while 
Perseid meteors (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseids) streaked the 
sky above us! The small, star-shaped jelly fish were densely gathered 
the waters near the Peter Jay Sharp boathouse. Seeing them was like 
flying over a swarm of fireflies. I can only imagine the magic of 
diving into an area ablaze with the cool light of this ancient form of 
communication.

Another school of lights also appeared while we were at the Sharp dock 
-- kayakers! We weren't aware of another group the island planning to 
circle the island that night, though of course we knew of Steve and 
Jerry's very well-attended and prepared daytime tours.We tried to greet 
the paddlers from the dock, but they actually seemed to move AWAY from 
us. One a bit gruffly acknowledged that the trip came from the Downtown 
Boathouse (where I volunteered for years) but no one voiced an amicable 
reply. When I jokingly remarked, "Thanks for the friendly chat," one 
barked a laugh. Oh well. Wish we could have shown a few the glowing 
beauty below, but they were in a rush perhaps, despite hours of 
favorable current ahead.

One of our paddlers (a small group of 8) was Popular Mechanics science 
editor Jennifer Bogo. She reminded us that Saturday night was the 
height of the Perseid meteor shower for the entire year. What dumb 
luck! Even casual sky watching was rewarded with a shooting star or 
two. But once we reached the wide expanses of the Hudson River with the 
dark line of the Palisades, just cliffs and trees and little boat 
traffic (we took turns looking for vessels), we were able to gaze more 
steadily. Wow, was that comet tossing off blazes!  :)

The sun rose just a few hours later, with unfurling pink banners of 
whispy clouds overtaking the waning gibbous moon. The skyline was less 
dramatic than from the East River side, but the long sweep of the 
Hudson River brought the eye to a vanishing point, even as it nudge to 
wakefulness vaguely recalled images of serene green slopes of the 
valley up north. Gulls and cormorants stirred to life as we glided 
between the Intrepid and Chelsea. I could imagine the black-crested 
night heron that lives near our dock tucking himself away to his hiding 
place. I always see him when we launch at dusk or night, but never in 
the morning.

As I passed 24 hours without sleep, some overworked furrows of my brain 
were left to lie fallow. With quiet in the convolutions, what arose was 
an affirmation of peace in the city.

3) Hallets Cove

Paul and I committed ourselves to volunteering for the Hallets 
(Halletts to historical purests) Cove walk-up program. So he worked on 
his truck and I caught up on email and drafts for articles until 
volunteers arrived at 1130AM. We all headed north with favorable 
current and arrived at a beach full of kayaks! Jerry's Sunday crew was 
taking a break and soaking in a bit more art at Socrates Sculpture Park 
(which operates the beach) and Noguchi Sculpture Garden. What a happy 
meeting! The many people lining the street for their chance at an 
introductory paddle were doubtlessly inspired by the spectacle of 
dozens of kayaks safely landing and launching from the cove. May they 
follow Jerry's crew's example as well as that of LIC Community 
Boathouse volunteers, and go on to many adventures!

With perfect weather, the beach filled up with infants and the elderly, 
poor and rich, and a myriad of ethnicities. Ah, Queens! We couldn't 
call it a simple paddle session at this point. It was a beach party! 
And both the public and volunteers, especially Natalie Schrape, picked 
up trash and left the place cleaner than we found it, as we do every 
week.

Paul and I was dead tired but happy. The paddle back with our 
volunteers, including new people from Art-o-Mat (another community arts 
collective in Plaxall space) was more of a drift. We had some playful 
rollers from wind opposing current, so we ended the day with some 
hooting and chuckling.

Next week we plan to paddle to the Snug Harbor Cultural Center! We'd 
love to link with a few of you for that trip!

Warm regards,

Erik

LIC Community Boathouse
http://www.licboathouse.org

Nature Calendar
http://www.naturecalendar.org

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