Surf's Up (And Lots of Other Stuff Too!)

Memorial Day Weekend 2009 - "Dumbo Cove" in the Brooklyn Bridge Park

Almost too tired to post tonight, but I have just got to put up some links - it's going to be quite a weekend in around New York Harbor!

It all starts on Friday evening with the New York Harbor Blessing of the Fleet. There are going to be some fancy people there, but I'm mostly looking forward to seeing some fancy boats, particularly the one who's making her grand debut! Of course I'll have my camera. It's still year-end close at work this week and it is quite possible I'll get stuck, but I've been working my tail off & doing some crazy late hours in hopes of being able to make it. The boats & ships will be gathering near the Statue of Liberty at 6:15, heading north up to around North Cove at 6:30 & then traveling south down the Battery. Looks like anywhere from North Cove down to the Staten Island Ferry terminal should offer good views. Full details can be found here on the New York Harbor Sailing Foundation's website.

BTW I was a little dissappointed to hear that although that page clearly says "all vessels are welcome", the organizers were originally somewhat reluctant to allow some of my NY harbor kayaking friends to join in, but apparently they were able to work something out in the end, hooray!

Saturday is both Opening Day for the sailors of New York Harbor and the beginning of the Great River Day Flotilla, which will include the Onrust (just mentioned) and other replicas of historic vessels and which will be traveling north along the Hudson to Albany from Saturday morning until the following Saturday. It's part of the celebrations of the Quadricentennial of Henry Hudson's voyage along the same route, and the flagship of the flotilla is the Half Moon, a replica of Henry Hudson's vessel. All in all, it should be a spectacular Saturday on NY Harbor.

Information about Opening Day can also be found on the New York Harbor Sailing site, and the Flotilla's full schedule from upper NY Harbor to Albany is available on www.ny400.org (LOVELY shot of the Half Moon there btw - first time I saw that ship I thought she was from Narnia).

In an interesting bit of scheduling, the 6th is also going to be the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim. The swimmers start at the Battery at 7 am & will be swimming counterclockwise around Manhattan for the next seven and a half or more hours. If you happen to see any of 'em & you think you're in earshot, give 'em a good hearty cheer - they might not hear you but if they do, they'll love it (and of course their kayakers & boat crews will enjoy it too).

I'll be missing all the fun around Manhattan & the upper harbor on Saturday to go to a much lower-key Blessing of the Fleet in Jamaica Bay, starting at 11 a.m. at Canarsie Pier in Brooklyn. It's so very low-key that I can't even find a website for the sponsoring United Inter-Yacht Clubs (although the Google searching did come up with a good post on the Sebago blog), but this will be the 55th annual blessing, Sebago always attends this but I haven't made it yet & I'm looking forward to it, should be lots of fun.

Going to be a full weekend on the water for me too - Sunday's a workshop for the club's trip leaders & although I think last year I was bad & blew it off to go sailing, this year I'm being good & going.

If I wasn't going though, I'd be going to the Sunday half of yet another really great-sounding event that I heard about through the busy busy kayak grapevine - the Red Hook Waterfront Arts Festival! The Red Hook Boaters will of course be offering free kayaking - just one of several of the free kayaking programs I mentioned in the big list last week that are in full swing now!

Oh...and there's one more event which I'll mention even though it's next weekend & right now I can hardly see past this weekend. PortSide NY is having a fundraiser to help raise money for a permanent home next weekend. It's a good cause. Even if you can't make it, you can still bid on some really interesting auction items. Now, I used to actually like buying stuff, but a few years of living in a situation where my entire private living quarters consisted of a ten by ten foot room with a single small closet pretty much cured me of that, I'd thought permanently. However, I just looked at the auction items & suddenly found myself stricken with moment of that long-dormant acquisitiveness! Full info about the auction & fundraiser over on PortSideNY.org!