One Heckuvah Swim, Camping in Brooklyn and -- A Sunfish For My Dad?

Links 1 through 3 - Wet Feat!:

If you are on Facebook, you already may have seen some of my raves about a truly amazing athletic feat that was accomplished on Wednesday. A swimmer by the name of Liz Fry swam from Manhattan to Sandy Hook, NJ and then BACK TO MANHATTAN. Holy cow. There's a short article with details here, you can see her route here, and Vladimir (whose pictures I've posted here before - this can't have been too different from paddling with that dolphin!) got great shots. BTW, the GPS track is actually a little longer than the swim was 'cause it was on Vlad's boat, and he kept going up to New York Kayak, where he stores his boat).

The fact that somebody swam this absolutely blows me away because I paddled the same route once. It wasn't the longest day paddle I've ever done (that was probably a paddle to the Tappan Zee Bridge, somewhere around 50 miles) but it was by far the most challenging. If you're on Facebook and you missed my description & are curious, I shared my recollections here.

Incredible.

Link 4:

The one thing that would have taken the trip to Sandy Hook that I did from one of the hairier trips I've ever done (TQ likes to say that it's not an adventure until something goes wrong; by that rule, this was an adventure times four or so) to one of the most spectacular trips would have been A CAMPSITE AT SANDY HOOK. My gosh. It was Fall, it was a beautiful day, we got to Sandy Hook late in the afternoon and it would have been nothing short of heavenly if we'd been able to pitch some tents, cook dinner, talk story under the stars, fall asleep to the sound of the waves of the beach and then wake up in the morning & paddle back. As it was, we had about a half-hour to stretch legs & then back in the boats to do again (and this time in the dark). Well...I hope I haven't gotten anyone TOO excited, because NO, there is still not a campground at Sandy Hook, and I don't know anything about it if there are any plans that way.

But there IS going to be a public campsite opening up at Floyd Bennett, which is in the Gateway National Recreation Area. There's been camping there for a long time, but only for organized youth groups; the one exception I know of when adults unencumbered by packs of children for whom they have agreed to be responsible (yikes) are allowed is the annual fishing tournament. Now that I'm thinking about it, I think I may have heard a rumor or two about the new development - but this was the first formal announcement I saw.

I don't know if I'd kayak camp there for the sake of kayak camping there - it's almost too close to the club to bother when we've got places like the Norwalk Islands not too far away - but I'm already thinking about how Sebago could offer a Kayak Camping 101 class. Be a great intro for anybody who's thinking about it & wants to have a nice low-pressure, low-risk trip to figure things out.

And if the Floyd Bennett site goes well, maybe someday they might consider other places in Gateway.
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I was going to add another link, but it's getting a bit late and I'm actually feeling sleepy instead of insomniacal. Plus I need to buy a prop for the other link (hee hee hee) and I didn't have time to go buy it tonight because I decided to go up to Macy's to sign up to win my dad a Sunfish! Behold, my father's possible future boat:

And being the good and loving daughter that I am, I will even offer to store the boat at Sebago - out of my own pocket & everything - until such time as he can arrange to come and collect it!

Want to lessen my chances of winning? That's OK, it's actually quite a nifty giveaway, at least if you happen to live near one of the 2 stores where this Macy's/Nautica joint promotion is going on. You don't even have to buy anything - just stop by either Macy's in Herald Square or Macy's in Dadeland, Florida before Father's Day and look for the peppermint sail!

(PS - note to my dad - I'm only half kidding about you coming and getting it...)