City of Water Day - July 13, 2019

Should've put this up much earlier in the week!

This is a typical scene from the Sebago Canoe Club's event for the Waterfront Alliance's annual City of Water Day. It's grown from an event on Governor's Island 12 years ago to a day with events all over NYC, in Yonkers, and New Jersey. Click here for the Waterfront Alliance's information page with details about everything that's going on everywhere, or here for details about the Sebago Canoe Club event (see the sidebar on the right). We'll be doing kayak, canoe, sailboat, and rowing trips all day from 10 to 4; last trip launches at 3.  

City of Water Day is here again! Saturday, July 14th

Sorry for the late notice - City of Water Day is TOMORROW, Saturday July 14th! The main event this year is at the South Street Seaport, and there are ancillary "In Your Neighborhood" events happening at parks and boating clubs all over New York City (and at the Hoboken Cove Boathouse, home of Ke Aloha Outrigger, too). We'll be offering kayak and canoe trips and sailboat rides from 9:30 to 4:30 (last trips launch at 3:15) at the Sebago Canoe Club in Canarsie; for other locations and activities, visit the Waterfront Alliance's City of Water Day page.  Always a fun day, and with temperatures forecast to be near 90 tomorrow, on the water will be the best place to be outside.  

City of Water Day - a few more pix, and a great album (with stats) from a friend!

Wow, don't know what happened to last week, I'd meant to put these up much sooner. I didn't end up taking that many pictures during City of Water Day because after a slightly slow start, things picked up and I was helping out all day, either on the water or getting people onto and off of the water. However, here were a few pictures I did take - and then clubmate Chris B. was on land all day and he got a ton of great photos, which he shared in a Google album which he prefaced with the thank-you email sent out by Barbara T., who was our amazing organizer for the day. That email included the final statistics for the day, which were pretty impressive! Click here to view.  

7/9/2017, Family Day at Sebago - plus, here comes City of Water Day

Sunday was Family Day at Sebago! Children of all ages were welcome; smaller kids and their parents went in the restored war canoe, with smaller canoes and kayaks for older kids and their folks. We did a short paddle, just out into the bay, with a stop on the beach just outside the basin for running around on the beach, water gun fights (note for next year: MORE WATER GUNS) and a couple of sweeps with the seine net to see what's living in the bay. Mostly little fish this time; we checked them out then let them go. 

After that, we headed back to the club for a barbecue/potluck lunch. 

 There was also a double-hander workshop going on for the dinghy sailors, and there was a longer member paddle in the morning, and one of the sailors tried a rowing shell of the non-entry-level variety, so there was swimming, too! :D Something for everyone! 

 I hadn't planned on this but came to help out with the war canoe, thinking a little practice immediately after Saturday's lesson would be good. I ended up helping out with the kayakers instead, but I was still glad I went, it was lots of fun. That was part 3 of my Sebago trifecta weekend, and I really had a good time.

More pictures on Flickr.

Hey NYC-area folks - don't forget City of Water Day, this Saturday, July 15th! 

Upcoming Events - This Saturday in Hoboken, and July 15 all over the "6th Borough"

Just the quickest of posts tonight to share a couple of upcoming events that are sure to be great fun - both are free, family friendly, and you don't need to know the pointy end from the square end (or in the case of a kayak, the pointy end from, uh, the other pointy end) to have a great time!

This coming Saturday, June 24th, join Ke Aloha Outrigger and the Hoboken Cove Boathouse for a day of good fun, good food, friendly competition, and a big dose of Aloha spirit. All are welcome at the 1st Annual Hudson River Cup Race and Family Festival. I'm hoping they have a great turnout!

And then on July 15th, it's time once again for the Waterfront Alliance's annual City of Water Day. It started on Governor's Island, but now there are events all over the NYC waterfront, and some in NJ too! You can join us at the Sebago Canoe Club in Canarsie, you can head for the main festival on Governor's Island, or you can check out the main City of Water Day page for locations all around the waterfront of our amazing "6th Borough" (the perfect name for our local waterways, dreamed up by great local boatblogger Tugster Will). Again, all are welcome! 

City of Water Day 2016 at Sebago Canoe Club - another good one!

Another good City of Water day at Sebago Canoe Club! We had a great variety of boats for people to try, kayaks, canoes, the new rowing gig, two sailboats and there was even a trainer K-1 (sporty little racing kayak) available for the adventurous and unafraid to swim. It was a pretty warm day but the breeze was just perfect, enough for cooling but not enough to push the boats around too much, and despite the fact that there wasn't much publicity, we had a pretty good turnout and a lot of people had a good time on the water with us. The thunderstorms that were supposed to come through tonight made an early appearance, but it wasn't terrible timing, things started looking ominous a little before 4:00, which was when the event was supposed to be over anyways. I was actually out in the container where I store my Romany when the rain started, and after a long and busy day of trip leading, I actually enjoyed sitting in there looking out the door and listening to the rain drumming on the roof. Eventually I did brave the rain, took a few pictures out on the dock, and then joined the rest of the gang in the clubhouse for a good post-event dinner of sandwiches from a good Italian deli in the area. Another good day at the club! 

Saturday July 16th - It's City of Water Day!

Wow, this one kinda snuck up on me, but yes, it's once again time for NYC's annual City of Water day! This is a great day to get on the water in NYC, or just learn more about it; the main events are from 10 am to 4 pm on Governor's Island in NYC and Maxwell Place Park in Hoboken, and then there are "City of Water Day In Your Neighborhood" events all over the place, you'll find them in all five boroughs plus Yonkers and the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. Of course we'll be taking people out all day at Sebago, that's the flyer for ours above. Hey look, that's me in the yellow boat! :D

For more information on the festival, click here!

p.s. - cardboard kayak races are every bit as much fun as they sound!!!! 
p.p.s. - click on the City of Water Day label below for posts from previous City of Water Days - I've been participating in this Waterfront Alliance-sponsored event since 2009, there are a fair number of posts!
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Morning at Sebago's City of Water Day In Your Neighborhood event

Despite a thundery, rainy start to the day, we still had a very nice turnout for Sebago's City of Water Day In Your Neighborhood. Unfortunately, after leading one trip and helping a couple more launch and land I finally had to admit that what I've been trying to write off as "allergies" were actually turning into a full-blown cold, plus I broke my camera, so it wasn't the best day I've ever had at the club, but I think everybody who came had a good time (and we were very impressed that so many people came out despite the iffy weather!). Also, unfortunately no pix from Governor's Island, but I'd arranged for Hālāwai to have a table there to talk about the Hōkūle'a Polynesian voyaging canoe's Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage, and it sounds like they had an enjoyable day there. So all in all a good weekend! Now if this stupid cold would just go away...

Sebago's entrant in a pre-City of Water Day Cardboard Canoe Race that was staged for the media at the North Cove Marina. Not the fastest entrant, but finished third by virtue of not sinking! Congrats Cardboard Canoe Team!

Sebagoites arrive for the day

Chris leads Trip 1 in the standard intro to strokes we give prior to taking people out on the water

Tony and Ellie share a laugh on the dock

First kayak trip of the day sets out

Holly brings a Sunfish in for a perfect landing at a rather small bit of dock. 

City of Water Day Again - Saturday, July 18th!

From City of Boats Boats And More Boats!

Yes, it's that time of year again! Come one come all to a fantastic celebration of our urban waterfront, thrown for your enjoyment by the partners of the Waterfront Alliance (formerly known as the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance). The central event will be held at the original location on Governor's Island on Saturday the 18th from 10 - 14, and then there are also a ton of satellite events.

I can't make it to Gov's I 'cause I'll be leading trips at Sebago but if you go there I hope you'll go say hello to my friends from Hawai'i at the Hālāwai table, who'll be there spreading the word about the Polynesian voyaging canoe Hōkūle'a's Worldwide Voyage, including a June 2016 visit to NYC!  There will of course be lots of other things to see and do there, and then the list of City of Water Day In Your Neighborhood locations is getting to be seriously impressive, with events in all five boroughs AND Yonkers AND New Jersey (phew that's a lot!). 

 I still think that left to my own devices I would go play with the remote control motorboats on the Gowanus and then head on out to Gov's I to talk story about Hōkūle'a and also see all the other stuff going on there - the one major bummer about the In Your Neighborhood stuff is missing the Governor's Island day (it was especially fun when we used to get to camp there and then paddle back to Sebago in the morning), but we'll have lots of fun in Canarsie, too!

Click on the City of Water Day label below for all of my prior posts about the day. For info about this year's event, visit CityofWaterDay.org; for the burgeoning list of In Your Neighborhood events, click here, and for specifics about our day at Sebago, click here. Hope you can make it! 

City of Water Day - Saturday, July 12th

It's that time of year again! City of Water Day started as an event on Governor's Island - now it's all over the city. Here's the flyer that one of our graphicky folks did up for Sebago's event (click on it for readable version): 

For events at other locations throughout the area (including a few in NJ, this isn't just an NYC thing anymore), visit CityOfWaterDay.org. 

And yes, the original Governor's Island festival still goes on - featuring a cardboard canoe race that I consider to be tied with the Gowanus Challenge for silliest boat race in the harbor. Take a look at my friend Christopher's video from last year - this is what a person from Hawaii (like me) would call "plenty good fun"!

 

Last Weekend's Fun, Part 1: City of Water At Sebago -- July 20, 2013

From City of Water At Sebago -- July 20, 2013

It was a very good day at City of Water Day in Canarsie! It was very hot and a little windier than we like for beginner paddles, but we got a whole lot of people out on the water in canoes, kayaks, and a Sunfish sailed by Holly the Sailing Co-Chair, with safety boat support provided by sailors Jim (the other Sailing Co-Chair) and Chris B. Between them being out there and the relatively sheltered area we have in the Paerdegat Basin, we were able to keep trips running all day. Click on the link below to see a few more pix of the day. 

City of Water Day - Saturday, July 20th, all over the city this time!

So I have just been kvetching about the heat over on Facebook (very mildly, I just said that I ran errands tonight except that because it was so hot I really more moseyed errands - did get some stuff done though) and that reminds me that I haven't done my annual "City of Water Day is coming!" post. Because on a hot & sticky July day in NY, one of the best places to be is on or by the water.

And you don't have to wait in line for the Governor's Island ferry to get to the City of Water this year. The main event will, as usual, be held there from 10 to 4, and I'm sure it'll be as much fun as it always is (a couple of posts from other years, just as a sample - 2009's City of Boats Boats and More Boats and City of Water Kids), but this year there are also going to be a number of smaller events in other areas, including at the Sebago Canoe Club in Canarsie where we'll be taking people out all day. There will be events in all five boroughs (and of course the "Sixth Borough", that goes without saying), plus Hoboken and Yonkers - and it's not just kayak and canoe trips, if that doesn't happen to be your cup of iced tea, there are arts and crafts, music, tours, and all sorts of other things to do. 

Personally, if I wasn't going to be on the water at Sebago I think I would go play with radio-controlled model boats on the Gowanus and then head back to the GBX for a tour of the historic ferry Yankee (above) - that's where I was posting pictures from the last couple of posts before my Coney Island pictures. I did poke around some but only in the obviously public areas; there was going to be a tour, but the lecture ran long and the Manhattan crowd had a certain ferry they really needed to catch so that got cut (it was still a very nice little adventure for a work night, though). 

For full details on all of the events, click here: http://www.cityofwaterday.org/neighborhood/. Should be a fun day!

City of Water Day 2011

City of Water Day 2011, a set on Flickr.

Here it is, the overlong, underedited album from which I've been pulling pictures for the last few posts. Might do a few more posts like that - I'm helping out with a Level 2 Intro to Kayak Touring class at the club for the next 2 Saturdays and I need to start really thinking about what to do.

Actually should be a fun class - I enjoy planning trips and this is all about that.