Happy New Year from Brooklyn!

Happy New Year from Brooklyn! Spent a nice chunk of the day talking story and sharing food with Sebago clubmates on the shore of the Paerdegat Basin. Although today we could've renamed it the Pae-BRRRRR-gat (instead of "pattergat" which is how you usually hear it pronounced)!

The usual tradition at the Sebago Canoe Club is for the more experienced paddlers and sailors to kick off the New Year with at least a short paddle or sail, but unfortunately all boating activities ended up being called off due to a forbiddingly icy and windy forecast. TQ and I had actually volunteered to lead the paddle. When we first started seeing forecasts for New Year's Day, conditions were challenging, but doable, with temperatures in the 20's and winds in the teens, then things started getting ugly - I checked in one afternoon late in the work week and the forecast was showing gusts close to 30 kts. Awww heck no!

Over the next couple of days, the windspeed projections for New Year's Day did  ease up a bit, but quite not enough, and the temperature gradually crept down. When it came time to make a go/no go call on Sunday, we were looking at a high temperature of 18 (which we wouldn't have gotten anywhere close to by our 10 am launch time, day's high would've been a bit later than that and the overnight lows were in the single digits) and NW winds gusting close to 25 kts. We've done paddles on days that cold. We've done paddles with winds that high. Not combined, though - put the two together and if something goes wrong, the situation could head south very fast. Frostbite paddles are much more fun with less risk of actual frostbite!

We called it off early in the afternoon on the 31st, and curiously enough, nobody seemed to be in the least upset with us!

Sailing committee called off their sail a little bit later, for the same reasons.

Real shame - I wish it had been either less cold or less windy or both, because remember how I was talking about "those sparkly blue winter days we get here" back on my trip report for my day-after-solstice solo paddle? Well, this was about as glorious an example of one of those as you'd want to see - just too darned cold!

Still a good day at the club, though - the traditional potluck went off beautifully, with the usual range of great food served in the warmth of the big wood stove in the clubhouse. TQ and I teamed up to make spam musubi, there was a request on FB that I make that for the New Year's Day party after I'd posted about making it for my high school friend's annual Hawaiian Christmas party; I was on the fence about it because it's kind of labor-intensive, but then TQ mentioned that he didn't know what to bring and it hit me that teaming up on the musubi might work well, which turned out to be the case! Folks liked it, too. Sorry, no pix this time but look back at my Christmas post and imagine the pieces cut a little smaller and not arranged in a Christmas tree and that's it. All kinds of other good stuff too - I've seen at least one cartoon from Hawaii making fun of a Mainland potluck vs. a potluck in Hawaii, and a potluck in Hawaii is indeed a splendiferous thing, but that cartoonist was clearly not talking about a Sebago potluck!

And the general meeting that is usually my least-favorite part of the New Year's Day proceedings (although it's gotten markedly better over the last few years, it used to run quite long but various officers decided it needed to go more quickly)? Well, I bundled up to go visit the facilities, and since I was bundled up I decided I would take advantage of it and go take some pictures of the basin too. Wanted to at least take a look at the water - it was freezing cold, yes, but excellently photogenic on at least the sunshine/blue sky front! Found some like-minded clubmates out there, chatted a bit, then went back in to discover that the meeting was over! Thought TQ pulling my leg at first when he told me I'd missed it (he's got an excellent deadpan face when he wants to) but nope! Has to be a record.

Back to work tomorrow, but a pretty good start to the year today. Even without a paddle. So glad I went for that long one the Friday before Christmas - I'd done that with the idea that I should grab the good paddling weather while I could, and I was oh so right!

1/1/2017 - Sebago's Annual Frostbite Regatta

Flickr album from the day - click here!

It was an absolutely lovely January 1, 2017 here in NYC, slightly breezy but not bad, and beautiful blue skies with temperatures in the mid-40's. We had a great squad out on the water; 13 sea kayakers set out together at 10:30, another sea kayaker had set out earlier for a longer paddle, and there were also two sailors (Pat in his Goat Island Skiff, IAZ,P, and Chris in his Melonseed) and one racer out on the basin in his K1 (sorry I didn't get any pictures of him!). Great turnout! Most of the sea kayaking crew went to the Mill Basin Bridge, a few of us went on the the Four Sparrows Marsh. There was a fun twist to this as we had a member who moved to LA years ago, and she actually hadn't been there before - I think we started visiting Fours Sparrows regularly after it was threatened with development, despite a Forever Wild designation - somehow powers that be decided that the paperwork hadn't been filed properly so it was up for grabs. I don't know what the status is now, I should check on that, but I'm pretty sure that the bigger plans didn't make it through after community objections, and at this time it's still mostly the way it's been for a while. It's a really nice destination for a paddle, gives you about a six-mile paddle from the club, and it was fun having one of us see it for the first time. I should check with my friends who would be in the know to see whether the marsh got returned to the parks department, as it should've been all along.

I stayed out even a little bit longer than the small group that went there because I stopped to take pictures of the sailors.

One sad thing for me, I didn't do my New Year's Day rolling this year for the first time in many years; I didn't get back to doing my rolling after my April surgery the way I should have for some reason, and I couldn't make it to the pool session I'd hoped to get to the week before Christmas because I had a cold, so not trusting my rusty self, I decided to modify my annual ducking and just do some good full-immersion sculling instead. Water's still just as cold that way, and I didn't change from my lightweight hood to my heavier immersion hood, so got the full benefit of the plunge!

The food was great, the meeting was good (in fact I was delighted to hear that one of our old Old Town "war canoes" is being given a full restoration), and before and after the meeting, the boatbuilding committee was having an open house in the boat shed to let folks admire their progress on the club's new safety boat, Canarsienne. Boat shed's always open when the builders are in there working, but usually they're actually trying to get things done, but today was their day to show off their work. She's going to be a beauty!

Great day at the club and as always, a fine way to see in a new year. Happy New Year!

1/1/2016 - Another Frostbite Regatta at the Sebago Canoe Club

Backtracking a day now - the beautiful bunting was on the 2nd, and of course, as I mentioned, TQ and I attended the annual Frostbite Regatta and Potluck at Sebago on the 1st. As I also mentioned, I was extra glad to be out there this year, I love kicking off the New Year with some time on (and weather permitting, in) the water and there was a time during the fall that I wasn't sure I'd be able to join in this year. I can't remember if we did this every year at Pier 63, but it's a long-standing tradition at Sebago and I've been a gleeful participant since joining the club in 2006. TQ and I were talking about Frostbites past on Saturday and trying to figure out if the event's ever been called off due to weather. I was pretty sure there was at least one, but going through my blog, which dates back to 2005 (oh my goodness, this blog will be 11 years old on the 29th! How crazy is that?), the one year in the past decade that I haven't kicked off with a paddle was 2009. That year, TQ and I had driven down to North Carolina where both of our families were gathering for Christmas, and then driven back up on New Year's Eve. We were pooped, it was really, really, really cold, and after 6 days with both families we were very ready for a day to ourselves, so we skipped that year's Frostbite, slept in, had a late breakfast, and then went for a walk in Prospect Park as it was too lovely a day to not get out for a little while. I think that Sebago still paddled that day, though, it would take some foul, foul weather for the Frostbite Regatta to be cancelled. 

January 1st 2016 was a little bit on the breezy side, and started out a bit cloudy, but things cleared up while we were out there, it turned into quite a nice day. It wasn't as warm as it had been, but it was still pleasant - and the rolling did not produce anything near the ice-cream headaches of the last couple of years, with November and December both having broken records for the warmest, the water just hadn't chilled down much. Winter seems to have just finally gotten its act together today, with the current temperature being 16 degrees. I think it's our first actual freeze of the winter, and I'm so glad it waited until today. 

More pictures? Why, yes, of course there are. I was a little bit on the slow side, and with my left pectoral muscles still not entirely happy with things that have been done and are still being done to them, I discovered (after falling behind while trying to get all the paddlers plus Chris in his Melonseed all into one shot - see above) that my high gear is basically missing - however, despite not being able to pull off my usual "photographer's sprint" to catch up with the group, I still couldn't leave the camera alone - click here to visit the usual Flickr album!

Sebago Frostbite Regatta 2015 Edition!

With a forecast that was clearly and emphatically calling for winds gusting up to 30 mph, TQ and I were half expecting the paddle section of the annual Sebago New Year's Day Frostbite Regatta to be cancelled, but the morning of the 1st dawned with no updates later than the "Come on out, it's gonna be great!" one that went out a day or two in advance. If there'd been rain or snow in addition, I'm pretty sure it would've been off, but it takes some truly foul weather to stop this event (I think the paddle has been called off once since I joined the club in 2006, we'll paddle in snow, we've crunched through the ice, pretty much takes an actual blizzard to shut us down) and aside from the high winds and slightly nippy temperatures it was an absolutely lovely day, so off we went. And two of us saw seals! The winds were just as forecasted though, so just south of the entrance to Mill Basin, half of us cut our paddle short while the other half decided to go look for more seals.

You might be tempted to say that those who went for the distance were the hardcore set, and I do have to admit that this was probably the shortest paddle I have ever gotten winter-geared up for - but those of us who headed back earlier WERE the ones who stopped outside the basin for the traditional New Year's Day rolls, so maybe we can just say it was 2 different kinds of hardcore. At any rate, it was a nice morning out on the water, followed, as usual, by great food and catching-up back at the clubhouse. Happy 2015!

Gusty winds and clumsy neoprene gloves did make taking pictures a little tricky but I did get some nice shots (sorry, no seals, they were peeking, not posing) and have put together a gallery. Click here to view. Happy 2015! 

Sebago Frostbite Regatta, 2014 Edition

Skipping back a couple of days to New Year's Day - I'm so glad the snowstorm held off until Friday, a couple of days earlier and it would have wrecked Sebago's annual Frostbite Regatta. I love starting out the year with a morning on the water and some New Year's Day rolls, that's in fact a more important tradition for me than champagne and a smooch at midnight (TQ and I are usually asleep at midnight, the firework booms from Prospect Park and the local whooping and hollering wake us up, we'll wish each other Happy New Year and then go back to sleep). There's been at least one Frostbite Regatta since I joined where the paddling part got called due to bad weather, has to be really nasty for us to not go out. I think the eating and meeting still went on but it's the getting out for a paddle on the first day of the year that really makes me feel like I'm getting things off to a good start.

This year felt like a particularly frosty Frostbite, we were terribly tempted to turn off the alarm and snuggle back down under the covers but we did manage to roust ourselves out! Actually started out pretty, as you can see from the picture below (our weather comes from the west and the photographer here is facing sort of northeast, so that blue sky behind us is how the day started out) but things got overcast as we launched. Still, we were all happy to be getting out! 

We weren't terribly organized, there's usually a group shot but it was cold enough on the dock that I think people just wanted to get in their boats and get going. We have 6 of I think it was 9 paddlers here, and then sailor Chris in the viking hat, one of 4 sailors. Sailing co-chair Jim rowed this year, also missed the photo call - pretty good crew for a chilly sort of day!

Steve the Paddling Chef - he actually got this one off the ground, it's odd, we do this every year but somehow it seems to get closer and closer to New Year before an actual email saying "Let's go boating on the 1st" goes out. Steve was the one who eventually kicked it off this year - thanks Steve! 

Minh and Steve bringing down Sirensong

Official club mermaid Vicky says "Who me? Cold?"

Nice assortment of boats this year - used to be all kayaks but in recent years the sailors have been coming out to play too. Here's Holly the Sailing Co-Chair, her Laser is out at the Seawanhakha Yacht Club where she and 2 other Sebago sailors are participating in that club's Frostbite series, so she used a club Sunfish. Two more Sunfish joined in later. 

Chris launched his Melonseed

And sailing co-chair Jim went out in Mouse, the Matunicus peapod he finished last year. "Ash breeze" for New Year's Day. Sorry I didn't manage any more pix, Jim's a great boatbuilder and this is a sweet boat. 

Heading down the Paerdegat

Once we got out into the bay, Jim and Holly headed off down the channel towards Floyd Bennett Field. We were scheduled to have an extremely low tide and a boat with a centerboard has to stick to the channel on days like that - anywhere else in the bay you've got a foot of water. One of my favorite club quotes remains Pete P's comment after a Hudson River trip that went somewhat awry - I missed that one but Pete was talking with a few of us about it a bit later and said "We forget how spoiled we are here, half the time if anything goes wrong you can just get out of your boat and walk". 

The kayaks were a bit indecisive about where we were going. Somebody proposed around Canarsie Pol, but that was vetoed because there's a section to the east that hasn't even got enough water to float a kayak on an extra-low low tide day. 

Instead we headed off towards Ruffle Bar. 

There have been frostbites where we went around Ruffle Bar, but although there is water all the way around Ruffle Bar even on a low low tide day, the circumference of that particular island increases greatly; between that and the cold and the headwind we were going to have going back, we ended up stopping midway between Canarsie Pol and Ruffle Bar. Somebody proposed rolls there - call me a wimp, but I asked if we could hold off until we were closer to the clubhouse, where there was going to be lots of hot food and a blazing fire in the stove. Others saw the sense in that so we headed back for the basin. Click on the picture below for detail - it was clear enough to see the city!

Last look back on the bay.

Now much closer to the basin and warm stuffs. TQ bow-dipped and then threw himself right in for the first of our New Year's Day rolls. 

I had to divest myself of my regalia - Pedro the Penguin Hat floats but he definitely wouldn't stay on my head for a roll and I suspect the pile of Mardi Gras beads (Coney Island-Brighton Beach Open Water Swimmers schwag for their summer swim race kayak volunteers - why, how did you think I got them?) that I like to wear for a little New Year's sparkle would at best just fall off and end up at the bottom of the bay and at worst somehow wrap themselves around my paddle leading to an embarrassing bailout. Handed those off to Vicky and my camera to Phil (I think he took this one) and then --

Happy New Year, fishies! 

EEEEEcoldcoldcoldcoldcold!

Four New Years rollers this year - TQ, me, Steve and Minh. Going over for a semi-synchronized roll.

Last roll of the day and yes, we all came up, wish I'd set the camera to wide frame for the rolling, TQ got out of the frame!

Then we legged it back to the club with all possible haste. Nothing better than good hot food by a good hot stove after voluntarily pitching yourself headfirst into forty degree (if that) water. 

Steve had some pictures to share already (photo by Fran, she had a much better angle - btw Steve also shared that growler, good stuff!)

And I have already had great fun with this one on the Sebago facebook page. Major first for the club and how very appropriate that Luis, the guy who's done an amazing amount of work on bringing the club's recordkeeping into the computer era, should be the first member...

ever to attend the Frostbite Regatta by SKYPE! :D Live from Colombia!  Hi Luis! Hilarity ensued. Nice to see him though, we missed him - he would've been out there with us if he'd been in town.

And that's pretty much it for the Frostbite Regatta pix. There are more, believe it or not - for club members and other gluttons for punishment, I'll upload the same 41-shot set I uploaded to Facebook (includes a whole series of the silliness that ensued after I tossed Pedro the Hat to Vicky) to Picasa tonight, should have a link by morning UPDATE - here it is now  OR there's a captioned version on Facebook.  

Happy New Year!

Welcoming 2014!

Here I am greeting 2014 (and the fishies, helloooo fishies!) in traditional Sebago Canoe Club style. Yes, it was cold! Happy New Year! More pix from the annual Frostbite Regatta tonight oops, soon (unless we're Facebook friends, in which case they're up over there).

PS - celebrating 2014 by turning off comment moderation for newer posts. I don't like moderating comments much but there was a period at some point when the spammers had figured out some loophole in Blogger's spam filters. It just hit me that I hadn't had to delete any spam in quite some time so fingers crossed, I'm going to try unmoderated again!

Welcoming the New Year, Sebago style!

From Sebago Canoe Club Annual Frostbite Regatta (plus New Year's annual meeting)

Happy New Year! Here's a link to a few (by my standards anyways) photos from this morning's annual New Year's Day paddle at the Sebago Canoe Club. Always a nice way to start off a year. Welcome 2013!

First Paddle of 2012 - Jan. 1, 2012, Sebago Canoe Club Frostbite Regatta

Setting out in my New Year's Day finery...


The sailors tried to get me to sail, but I just couldn't skip the New Year's Day rolling session. We had fantastic weather whichever craft you chose - the breeze was a bit light early on but picked up enough later on to let the 3 sailors who came out have a really nice sail around Canarsie Pol, and the 14 paddlers had fine conditions for a nice paddle around Ruffle Bar. With the air temperature being in the low 50's, we had some first-time New Year's Day rollers, which was fun...me, I got a little overenthusiastic & am nursing a bit of a sore shoulder today, I usually do 6 rolls when the water's cold, 3 onside & 3 off, but this time I went a little overboard - lost track of how many I did but at one point an offside roll didn't work and the onside recovery wasn't a good one. Anyways, it was a bit ouchy on Monday but it's already improving so I think I'll be OK, phew. Other than that, a great paddle, and as usual really good food afterwards, and yes, I took some pictures!.

Oh, and Chris B. was the only sailor who was there at the start of the day, but Holly and Jim joined him later in Sunfishes and he took some pictures from the sailor's point of view (including me in my penguin hat again -- jeeze, what is it about wearing a penguin hat that makes me so vain? I'm usually a bit camera shy but not with that hat on!).

Hope everybody out there also had a very happy New Year, and here's to peace, happiness, and lots of time on the water for 2012.

Sebago Frostbite Regatta 2011

From Sebago Frostbite Regatta, Jan 8 2011

Of course what was really going on there was a warm-up balance brace -- or would that be cool-down? -- getting ourselves acclimatized for the traditional Sebago Frostbite Regatta rolls. That water is COLD these days, you don't want to just plunge in without a little preparation.

It was another very nice paddle. Despite it being a LOT frostier than it was on the 1st, we had a good crew of 9. Fortunately there was almost no wind (well, fortunately for us, not for my sailing friends who were hoping for a bit of a sail but wisely realized it wasn't going to be worth the bother of rigging, paddles & oars were really the only way a person was going to get anywhere). We saw a couple more seals over by Ruffle Bar, we hit both of the salt marshes near Sebago, and we had a lot of silly fun when we found some thick ice in the closer of the 2 salt marshes.



And as I said when I posted this over on YouTube - I think this video proves without a doubt that any child who thinks that growing up means you stop playing is simply hanging out with the wrong grown-ups.


Another great day on the bay, and another in a great series of winter weekend paddles. I haven't been keeping track but I'm pretty sure it's been at least 4 in a row, and we're hoping for another one this weekend - it's time for the annual Sebago Seal Paddle, the official one at Jones Beach. We've had some nice sightings in the bay, but Jones Beach really is Seal Central in the wintertime. Can't wait!

New Year's Day Paddle

Sebago Canoe Club's annual Frostbite Regatta, Club Potluck & General Meeting was postponed until next weekend due to continuing access issue - but with an absolutely gorgeous forecast for the first day of 2011, a few of us made our way to the club for a paddle. It wasn't a particularly long one but it was absolutely gorgeous out there & the Jamaica Bay harbor seals were feeling especially social - we saw three of them, and the first two followed us for a very long time!

And although the water quality was not great, I still couldn't resist a few rolls.