Ederle swim, a photo by bkfrogma on Flickr.
Just signed up for Epic Weekend Paddle Part 3 (or maybe 4). Part 1: Mt. Sinai Harbor to Red Hook with the 5 Years Around Long Island crew, 2 weeks ago. Part 2: ACA Level 4 Tidal Current & Surf Zone, teaching with TQ at Democrat Point, last weekend.
Part 3: I have just signed on as an Ederle swim support kayaker, accompanying Capri Djatiasmoro, the Queen of the Polar Bears herself, from Sandy Hook, NJ to North Cove, Manhattan. Chart above, btw, is just to give the general idea of the route - I rather expect we won't just go waltzing up the middle of things as shown here!
I said "maybe 4" thinking of my Sept. 11th paddle. That one was nothing particularly epic in and of itself (15 miles, 6 hours, pretty average) but being out there by myself watching the sunrise on the bay that morning was pretty special.
One thing I'm looking forward to about THIS Sandy Hook to Manhattan paddle is that it's likely to be a lot less epic than the LAST one I did. Motorboat ride one way, and harbor patrol and coasties/coastie aux keeping watch over the whole endeavour? Faaaantastic! Not that anything went horribly wrong on that first one (except for a friend losing a nice paddle), it was just a little too much in the dark in places where the big boats go, and a little too much against the current, and it just made for an awfully long day paddle.
If we could just have camped out on Sandy Hook, it would've been nothing short of a little slice of heaven.
This weekend should be fun. I was a little worried about boat transportation (official check-in is actually at the finish line at North Cove, and then everybody who's meeting there jumps into the motorboats, and getting my Romany from Sebago to North Cove and then back was going to be a considerable hassle involving at least 1, and possibly 2 extra trips to the club if it had to be done with cars), but Capri's support motorboat is apparently a fellow Paerdegat resident, so if all works out & the skipper's OK with it, I should just be able to go to the club early in the morning, load up my boat, jump in, paddle the 50 yards or whatever it is across the basin to the Hudson River Yacht Club to meet him and his crew - then it's a nice boat ride to the start, and then another boat ride from the finish back to the Paerdegat. Woohoo!
8 comments:
This is quiet a distance. Very ambitious.
Greetings,
Filip
Not too bad in a kayak, especially with the nice tidal assist for which they planned the route.
It is one HECK of a swim, though, and I'm really looking forward to watching it - the kayakers and the support motorboats have the best seats in the house!
Don't know why the nat Park Ser. has not opened a campground on Sandy Hook? There is plenty of room and it is a great spot to camp???
dennis g
Good news - they ARE starting to bring in more public camping in Gateway. There's a tent camping area at Floyd Bennett Field now - fingers crossed, maybe Sandy Hook will get one too. I just remember standing on the shore there, wiped out after a long paddle where the current turned against us, looking at the sun sinking low in the sky and thinking how fantastic it would be if we could all just settle in there for the night - pitch some tents, cook some dinner, talk story, go to bed, sleep like logs & then get up in the morning and launch at the start of the flood.
Instead we had half an hour to stuff energy bars down our throats and then it was time to jump back in our boats for the long (and very quickly dark) leg home.
Really kinda sucked.
There IS camping on Sandy Hook, but for "organized youth groups only".
http://www.nps.gov/gate/planyourvisit/sandy-hook-unit-permits.htm
However, especially in the off-season, there is plenty of deserted brush and beach for commando camping...
we're still young. Let's organize and camp there.
I'll be looking out for you this weekend, Frogma and Capri!! I'll be working the ferry this weekend when you guys will be coming in! I'll be cheering! Good luck!
This is not really very important, and not to distract from your thread, but the map illustrated is incorrectly showing the Hackensack and Passaic rivers location. They are reversed. I paddle the confluence into Newark Bay in January and February so I am familiar with this area. Just for accuracy. I always enjoy reading your adventures here.
Interesting & thanks for the note. I'd passed up another map where whoever made it had Raritan Bay reaching all the way over to the Marine Parkway Bridge, I'd used this one instead. Don't understand how the mapmakers make such weird mistakes, unless it's just that they don't think past the land.
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