NYCkayaker NYC Circumnavigation trips this year?

[zen kayak]

Are there any group circumnavigation trips planned for 2007?

I went on one with the group back on August 14, 2004 and it was great.  The
trip took place between two forecasted hurricanes so the rivers were
virtually deserted and the conditions were eerily calm on the water.
Remember paddling with Eric, Steve, Deanne, Gerry, and many others.  I
traveled down from Stamford, CT to the DTBH/Pier 26 and it was a wonderful
experience.

Would love to try it again and wanted to see if there were any plans to go
do a circumnav of Mahhattan this year.  Thoughts?

Thanks!

-Jamie (aka James)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: slavpa at consumer.org
To: GerryChem at aol.com, IsleSteve7 at netscape.net, jsxihi at hotmail.com,
Erikbaard at aol.com, emilezen at yahoo.com, dtmoore at starpower.net,
ZoeA007 at aol.com, jkayak at sopoint.com, ayt2003 at columbia.edu,
ohreallyfool at hotmail.com, rshopkorn at yahoo.com, jgerelli at asap.com,
InfoSaver at aol.com, Deanne.Brandstetter at exch.compass-usa.com,
ilene11217 at yahoo.com, kay_yaker at hotmail.com
Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2004 16:00:45 -0400
Subject: Trip report --Circumnavigation of Manhattan between Hurricane's B
onnie and Charlie 8/14/04

Trip report --Circumnavigation of Manhattan between Bonnie and Charlie
8/14/04



Leaving Yonkers at 4AM seemed awful early in the morning until I spoke with
Emile Zen and Eric Baard who both started paddling at 4AM to get to the Down
Town Boat House (DTBH) at pier 26.

My paddling buddy, Deanne and I loaded up our boats the night before, met at
the un-holy hour and drove into pre-dawn Manhattan with absolutely no
traffic despite construction work on the West Side highway. We saw people
stumbling out of bars into waiting taxis and a very few pre-dawn joggers.
Locating the DTBH with Jerry's exact directions was easy; parking required
several trips past the double parked cabs in front of clubs and we finally
parked directly across from the DTBH on West St.

With Jerry's plethora of maps and Steve as a guide the trip quickly unfolded
into a pleasant, safe trip around the island. We slipped our boats into flat
water, and headed south to the Battery as the skies got that pinkish-blue
hint of day break.  Steve astutely held the group for a few minutes to allow
the Staten Island ferry to pull out. He provided geographic commentary along
with safe and sane guidance the entire trip.

We sped up the East River staying on the east side of Roosevelt Island away
from the long arm of the Coast Guard and took an extended break at an
unmarked sandy beach next to the Socrates Sculpture Park to wait for the
current. I wandered up a side street in my PFD, spray skirt and water shoes
looking for coffee.  For a moment it crossed my mind that I looked pretty
strange, but hey - this is New York.  We got back on the East River and
Steve took us in to a small cove at Mill Island during slack tide and told
us about the time he took refuge there for several hours waiting for the
current to shift. About 10 minutes later I ask about Hell's gate (I'd heard
dire warnings from colleagues), Steve says - 'remember Mill Island, well
that's it.'  Clearly his planning allowed us to do it right.

A friend had described the trip up the East and Harlem rivers as a Disney
ride.  She was right. It was beautiful, very few power boats, a bazillion
interesting bridges, there was music at Randal's island ('These Boots are
Made for Walking'- hum) and it was fast, Deanne looks at her GPS and says -
'looks like we're going 8.8 miles per hour'.  We did see a floating rat,
just to remind us were we where. Eric Baard pointed out a tall vent on the
Croton Aqueduct near the GWB over pass telling us it is psychological half
way point.

We paddled up to the impressive Bette Midler boat house (technically the
Peter Jay Sharp) in hopes of a break, a tour and a toilet but were turned
away by a guard.  However, there was a convenient sandy beach that provided
an external view of the boat house and a family of egrets to amuse us.  Jerry
chatted up a crew team a bit later and got us all an invitation to the boat
house for our next trip.  The Harlem River narrowed into a near canyon as it
pushed us toward the Hudson.  From the river we could have been almost
anywhere on the planet expect for the graffiti, tall apartment buildings and
the Henry Hudson Bridge overhead and the low rail road bridge in front of
us.

The next stop was Dyckman Marina/Tubby Hook just above the George Washington
Bridge.  We expected Latin music but were greeted by 'Pop Goes the Weasel'
at a child's raucous birthday party.  Again, Jerry chatted up the locals
while we had lunch.  The most interesting part of the trip south on the
Hudson was that we were paddling near the center of the river, it was almost
dead flat and there was no one else on the mile-wide span. The power boaters
apparently stayed in port to avoid the dual storm warnings.  Finally the
last hour of the trip, the wind picked up from the south (Charlie's calling
card) and the Hudson started to feel it familiar choppy self again.  And yes
there were high speed ferries cutting in front of us and barge captains who
were being quite decent about avoiding our group. This did little to alter a
wonderful day.

Suddenly Pier 26 was upon up. We had indeed circumnavigated around the
entirety of Manhattan Island traveling nearly 31 miles according to Deanne's
GPS. We could not have planned the day better, between Steve and Jerry's
current and tidal calculations plus the total luck of the draw for the only
bit of perfect weather in the better part of a week.



Pat Slaven

YPRC and YYC
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.rockandwater.net/pipermail/nyckayaker/attachments/20070529/a5cca316/attachment-0001.html