Three Firsts!

It just hit me here as I'm packing up to head off to City of Water Day in the morning -

This is actually the first time, in all the years I've owned it, that I am actually going kayak camping using Trusty Romany!

Yes, I think I made some vague mention of "extra fun" being planned for the boaters - that's it! The organizers have managed to arrange camping on the island for the boaters on Saturday night. I think that's going to be almost as much fun as the time some Pier 63 friends with a nice-sized sailboat, the Laissez-Faire, invited me to sail down to the Statue of Liberty with them & spend the night at the anchorage there. That was a truly wonderful weekend. Mmmm mmm.

So tomorrow is the first time EVER that I will be packing up all my own camping gear in my own boat. I've done plenty of kayak camping, but somehow it's always been in somebody else's boat, with somebody else's gear. This is just a one-nighter, so there's not a whole lot of stuff & that sort of makes it a perfect first outing of this sort - I'm going to be very interested in seeing how much space is left in the Romany's hatches once my tent, thermarest & sleeping bag are all in there.

It's also my first visit to Governor's Island, which had a big writeup in the Times today.

And Sunday morning, clubmate Laurie and I will be loading up our boats & paddling back from Governor's Island to Jamaica Bay - first time I will have done that trip in one shot (although I've covered most of the route we'll be paddling as parts of other trips).

It should be a really good weekend. I just hope I have some time to write about it next week!