Brooklyn Promenade & Brooklyn Bridge Park (with pictures!)

No water fun this weekend. The hold crew is planning a sushi paddle tomorrow, but I can't go because my drysuit is still at Kokatat being fixed (I really am kicking myself for not shipping it off back when we were still in drysuits-optional water temperatures, i.e. fifty degrees fahrenheit or above). I hope hope hope it comes back next week, I was hoping to call for a Christmas day paddle. Fingers crossed. I may call next week but Kokatat is not like Fedex, they're not going to have some sort of tracking that says "12/9 pressure test, 12/13 seam resealing, 12/15 gasket replacement, 12/16 curing...".

I did get in a really nice outdoor activity today though. Haven't written about any of my long walks lately, but I have taken a few. Turns out that Pia is fond of a good ramble too, and isn't afraid of a little cold weather, so today we met up on the Brooklyn Promenade and meandered all over the place under the Brooklyn & Manhattan bridges. This was GREAT - I have been meaning to go check out the Brooklyn Bridge Park for AGES. The section we were in today actually opened to the public in 2003; I've been to meetings about it, and I've seen it both from the water and from the Manhattan Bridge (which my train crosses every morning...strike? what strike? I am in denial about this strike - actually not so much denial as "I'll deal with it if it happens"), but like the Christopher Street Pier in the Hudson River Park, I was always seeing the place from afar, and thinking "Gee, that looks nice, I should go there sometime" but just being so busy that I didn't get around to it. I rectified that today though, and I can say that it's really very nice!

I could now wax eloquently descriptive - but why bother when my Optio Pentax WP can show you much better?

Downtown skyline from the Promenade:


They have plaques set into the pavement here and there. They come in sets of four, and they show the development of the view at which you are looking. The first three are innocuous historical views - Colonial times, late 19th century, and early 20th century. The last one is sad, though:


Fulton Ferry Fireboat House. Built in 1926, this historic structure now houses the Brooklyn Ice Cream Company. We passed on the ice cream on this walk, though - it was a little too chilly for ice cream!


Wedding pictures! These folks actually got chased out of where they were a minute later - where they were being the entryway to the veddy posh River Cafe, a fine dining establishment on a barge - but I bet they got some nice shots before they did. Her dress was one that left her arms bare...we were hoping she didn't get pneumonia!


Chilly pigeons in an alleyway. I loved the way they had their feathers all fluffed up.


The Brooklyn Bridge - Brooklyn side.


The Brooklyn Bridge - looking South (we'd walked under the bridge)


The Manhattan Bridge, looking North, showing some of the Brooklyn Bridge Park in the foreground. The next bridge to the north is the Williamsburg Bridge. The mnemonic you can use to remember their order is that the first initial of each forms a familiar trio of letters - BMW.


The sky turned quite spectacular by later in the day - we'd been wandering around in DUMBO, then decided to head back to Brooklyn Heights for hot tea - we passed by one of the approaches to the Promenade & were just stopped in our tracks by this view.

Hurray! Rivertyde is back!

Hurray! Hurray! Rivertyde is back!

(doing happy little dance of glee in cubicle)

(well, not really, but thank you Michlt for the comment - I hadn't given up on you yet!)

Michlt, for those who haven't gone through my blogrolls (which I finally updated last week, and about time, too!), is a Philadelphia-based bookseller with an interest in natural history. His own writing is always a pleasure to read, he gives some very useful book recommendations (and when I say "useful" I really mean "pointing me to books I would never have been clever enough to buy on my own"), and he finds some very cool blogs.

You can take "cool" either figuratively or literally.

Welcome back, Michlt!

Holiday Spirits at the South Street Seaport!

I almost titled this "Free Rum" but that seemed somehow cheap (although that was how I titled an email I sent to a few friends earlier).

Anyways, to keep this brief - the South Street Seaport has free Friday programs on the 3rd Friday of every month - tonight's is an author reading & rum tasting. Plus they're also offering plenty of the kind of spirits you DON'T drink - they have a carolling tree featuring the Big Apple Chorus, and a candlemaking workshop with hot cider, and an exhibit of children's toys. Sounds like fun!

More details at the South Street Seaport Museum website.

Paddle-Off-The-Turkey Paddle (11/27/05)

Floating the Apple - I have to write a post about them sometime, this is a VERY neat program!

I'd mentioned my Somethingth Annual Paddle-Off-The-Turkey Paddle in my post about the unplanned layover at the South Street Seaport - thought I'd expand on that a bit today, that ended up being quite a fun paddle. In fact Thanksgiving weekend ended up being quite delightfully watery - as you may recall, that was also the weekend of my first sail with the Rosemary Ruth.

The Paddle-Off-The-Turkey Paddle had actually beened planned quite a bit more in advance of the sail, for which I think I got the invitation on Thanksgiving proper. The whole intent of this paddle is to get in the boats and just paddle hard, in whichever direction the current requires, for about 3 hours. No lilydipping, no shilly-shallying - we all overindulge a bit on Thanksgiving, and it's wonderful, but it feels great to get out on that river that we mostly have to ourselves this time of year and put those calories to work!

This year, the current said we'd be heading South. I was estimating that we'd go to the Statue of Liberty, which is of course a fine destination, but in this case our paddle was more about hours on the water than getting to Point B.

Lyn, Tom, & Goofy joined me for this outing.

After a less than perfect crossing (I wanted to cross early but failed to spot a small, low-lying barge, which we saw in plenty of time but had to turn & paddle up the middle of the channel in a way that I don't like doing until the barge was well past), we headed south along the Jersey side of the Hudson. There was a fair amount of ferry traffic - probably taking people in for the big sales (ha ha ha give me what I was doing any day!) - and as we got to the Liberty Landing Marina, we spotted a water taxi heading across the river, and there may have been a Statue of Liberty ferry loading passengers too. At any rate, we found ourselves waiting on the north side of the Morris Canal, which houses the Liberty Landing Marina, and Lyn suggested a side trip to go see the boats. We were all into that - Goofy loves sailboats, his family had always had one, and Tom just always seems to enjoy whatever we do out there - and me, of course I had to show off by taking them to see the Rosemary Ruth, still being all bubbly about how much fun I'd had the day before.

Richard taking Lyn's boat for a spin

Richard was on board working on the aforementioned water tanks, when out on the water there arose such a chatter, he came up to the deck to see what was the matter...hm, that sounds oddly familiar. Anyhow, he came up, I introduced everyone, the questions started flying and eventually Lyn (who's the most gregarious person I know, I swear she lives by the motto "There are no strangers, only friends I haven't met yet") was climbing out of her boat to go get a closer look. Richard then asked if he could try out her boat - he's done plenty of paddling, and although right at the start there were a couple of braces (Lyn's boat is one of those ones that's not big on the initial-stability thing), within short order he had everything under control and moving nicely. After a brief spin, we went back to the Rosemary Ruth. At some point I joked about heading over to the Lightship Bar & Grill (a real retired lightship with a restaurant that's also at Liberty Landing) for a beer and somehow that ended up leading to Richard inviting the rest of us on board for beer (which he needed to finish off anyways) and donuts - as he said, he wasn't really in a big hurry to get back to the water tanks!

So that's how this year's Paddle Off The Turkey Paddle ended up featuring beer and donuts.

I did still want to put a little more water under the boats - Goofy needed to get back to the dock by a certain time, but the current had turned to head north, conditions were good, and I figured we'd have at least enough time to get down to Ellis Island. We did, passing one of the Floating the Apple boats who were clearly out with the same idea of a good healthy post-feast on-water workout (that's them in the rowboat - technically a Whitehall dory - up in the first picture); I took a couple of photos of Goofy down by Ellis Island (that's the picture down at the end of the post) - he had gotten to the end of a summer in which I suspect he paddled more than I did (heck, everyone did, I was a-schoonin', which is also lovely plus um I get paid...does that make me a mercenary?) only to discover he had NO pictures of himself paddling, so I've been trying to rectify that. Then we turned back north and did a hard, fast, satisfying paddle home again, getting Goofy back in perfect time to head home to his family.

The rest of us went for sushi.

It was all really, really nice. Tom said at one point over dinner, "I just can't think of how that could have been nicer". I thought for a minute and said "Well, what if we'd seen a seal?" (there are some seals that are known to haul out on the islands down near the Verranzano Narrows Bridge, but sighting in the Upper Harbor - the more enclosed area north of the Narrows, where I do most of my paddling - are still quite rare).

But I was kidding. Mostly. I got home that night & just couldn't get over what a perfect Thanksgiving I'd had - a good visit (and of course a wonderful meal) with my friend Am and her family up in East Fishkill, a chance to go for my first sail on the Rosemary Ruth (meeting some really nice people there), and then a good paddle (and post-paddle sushi) featuring still more congenial company...

I really couldn't ask for much more than that.

Goofyman & Ellis Island

Nuts to you!

As long as I'm being totally random -


After I'd done my list of things that were making me smile even with that stupid cold (asthma sucks, when I'm healthy it mostly leaves me alone but colds get complicated), I got a couple more smileworthy items in the mail - one package from my parents (mmm, a deluxe assortment from the Honolulu Cookie Company) and a parcel from my parent's dog (aw, who'sagoodbooooy, Cambie's a good boy!)(although I notice Cambie's handwriting - pawwriting? - looks a lot like my mom's - well, maybe she helped him with the address label, tough to write without opposable thumbs) with a lot of small gift-wrapped items which sound like cookies & candy & other such goodies...suddenly, deck the halls and all that jazz, I'm starting to feel a little more holidayish (in fact I've decided to have a little holiday party since I can't possibly eat all these good things from Hawaii myself). Long story short, I came home tonight & felt like making something - but after a full day at the office I wasn't feeling quite ambitious enough to make anything that would be a major production with a big cleanup or anything - so I made a batch of sugared pecans. Great recipe, very simple, very yummy, easy easy cleanup, got it from my mom.

Bonnie's Mom's Pecans

Ingredients:
1 pound pecans
1 egg white
1 tblsp. water
1 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 270 degrees (fahrenheit, or 132 celsius for the rest of the planet)Beat egg white and water until frothy (don't bother with a mixer, a fork is fine). Add pecans, mix until coated. Mix sugar, salt & cinnamon in a brown bag (that's my mom's instructions - I used a produce bag tonight, I think the brown bag may absorb a little of the excess egg white but the produce bag worked OK too). Add pecans, shake 'til coated. Spread out on a cookie sheet (lining the cookie sheet with foil will seriously save cleanup time) and bake for 1 hour, stirring occasionally (I checked in on 'em every 15 minutes). Don't overcook or they will burn.

Naturally, it is highly recommended to sample some while they are still warm from the oven, you do want to make sure they are good enough to share with your friends or co-workers or whoever, right? If you make a pound there may even be a few left to give to those people after you have finished the preliminary sampling process.

And Now For Something Completely Different.

Oh, oh. Look, look. Panda-Cam! Scroll down when you get there, the camera window is a little ways down the page.

Mommy panda!

Baby panda!

Is it possible to die of a surfeit of cute?

Found on Beau's blog.

Sunday's Changed Plans

The Peking

Ever have one of those days where nothing went according to plan – but it all turned out to be fun anyways?

That was exactly how my Sunday was.

If you took the time to read my Saturday post – which honestly was more about procrastinating on the housework than anything else – you know that Sunday’s plans were to sail on the Rosemary Ruth from noon to dusk; another small schooner, the LazyJack, was going to join us & we were going to sail around together taking pictures of each other, then I was going to go to a wonderful Danish-style Christmas party with “glogg” and “abelskeur” and a generally “hyggelig” (respectively: hot mulled wine; small cakes, not too sweet, served with strawberry jam & powdered sugar; and…well, “cozy” is oversimplifying) atmosphere & enjoyable conversation with interesting & adventurous friends of theirs.

The main thing that happened to change plans was that the owner of the LazyJack had decided not to sail after all. Too bad, it was a beautiful afternoon, actually not terribly cold, with a nice little breeze – but winter sailing, like winter kayaking, isn’t something that everybody gets into & I guess in the end she had enough reservations that she changed her mind.

Richard (the owner of the Rosemary Ruth) has been working on a major project for the last couple of weeks (ok, actually the entire boat is a major project, this is just one task thereof) – he’s refurbishing the water tanks. The day of my first outing on the RR, two weeks ago over Thanksgiving weekend, he’d spent the morning sanding them and I’m sure there were many more hours of fun he was able to obtain from this project (in fact I forgot, I’d meant to tell the story of how my traditional Paddle-Off-The-Turkey Paddle came to feature beer and donuts this year – the RR water tank project was involved - but that will have to be another post). Once finished with the sanding, there was rinsing and scrubbing to be done. The final rinse required a hose to get to the bits unreachable by brush.

Problem is that a functioning hose is not necessarily the easiest thing to be found around a marina in the wintertime – they tend to get shut off to keep the pipes from freezing. Richard had already made at least one futile trip to Pier 63 & the later in the winter it gets, the harder finding a functioning hose was likely to be. Maggie, the educator from the schooner Pioneer, got to be Richard’s hero – sometime last week, she found out that the ship restoration barge at the South Street Seaport Maritime Museum (home of the Pioneer) still had running water!

So the order of the day went from “launch, sail, meet other schooner, take pictures, return to marina at dusk” to “launch, motor to South Street Seaport, rinse tanks, sail, return to marina at dusk”.

<We got to the seaport on a rising flood (I’m not going to talk times & high water because this was one of those days when a steady wind meant that what was actually going on wasn’t quite what the predictions said – that happens sometimes). The space where we had to dock was a very narrow slot between the ship restoration barge and the museum’s massive four-masted barque, the Peking. The current was pushing us north. There was another very nice little schooner, the “Flying Fish” (in small picture - they are en route to Spain via Chile, as Maggie found out later), docked at a float just aft of the stern of the Peking. The original plan was to back in, but the current was making this difficult; if things didn't go just right we'd get spun down into the Flying Fish(kayakers – picture having to eddy out, paddling backwards into the eddy, without there actually being enough space for your boat to spin because there is something barely more than a boat-length downstream that is going to hurt if you hit it…OK, and your kayak is 41 feet long and you have to do this all from the very back…there you go).

We made a few passes while Richard tried to plan the best approach, and then things got complicated even more as a Zephyr ferry came into the ferry landing at the end of the pier to our north – cutting off what would have been our best way out should we find ourselves being pushed up into the Flying Fish. Richard looked at the setup a bit more then decided that it would be better to pull in going forward, where he would have more control of the situation. He knew backing out was going to be tough for exactly the same reason as backing in was (only worse because we wouldn’t have as much control at slow speeds), but he thought that we could probably work out a way to turn the boat within the available space using a well-placed line. We reset the lines & fenders to the port side & in we went. No problem.

The only catch was that once inside the slot, it looked even skinnier than it did from outside. Hm. Leaving was going to be interesting...oh well, we were there for a reason. Maggie got the hose & Richard got his tanks all rinsed out & drained & so the day’s main mission was accomplished.

This did take a while though, and as we were doing that, the current was picking up speed. We finished up and walked out to the end of the barge to see what was going on. The river was racing north much faster than it had been before, curling & slapping against the side of the Flying Fish. The eddyline off the stern of the Wavertree (another big sailing ship that took up the entire south side of the barge & projected well beyond it into the river) was so sharp it looked like it was drawn with a ruler. It was pretty fascinating listening to Richard and Maggie as they talked through Richard’s plan, which he was revising to fit the conditions he saw. He literally talked through the whole thing with her while Bruce (the other guest that day and actually an acquaintance from Pier 63, he’s one of the folks that works on the retired fireboat John J. Harvey so I see him there all the time) & I listened – where the line had to go; how the line had to be brought into play; what he was going to do with the boat; what was going to happen to the boat as the stern hit the current if the line was taken in fast enough to hold the bow (a nice controlled spin on her axis right within the limited space available), what his outs were in the event things didn’t work quite that nicely, and where we would end up in a worst case scenario. Problem was that there wasn’t really a good out, and the places we were going to end up were either crashing into the Flying Fish or possibly going under the stern of the Peking, with nasty variations involving bowsprits or booms getting into or under one piece or another of the Flying Fish. Looking at the situation I could picture it all happening exactly the way he described it, either coming out fine or not-so-hot.

The other option was to stay there for a while while things quieted down & in the end, that was the option he took. So there we were, waiting for the tide. Stuck…on the historic ship preservation barge at the South Street Seaport Maritime Museum! Which is a serious work site, full of interesting boats & boat-repair-related stuff, and thus not open to the public! SHUCKY DARN! You can see most of the boats they are working on from the street, but it was fun to take a closer look at some of the vessels.

And to make it even better, in addition to Maggie, the official educator of the South Street Seaport Maritime Museum, we had been met there the director of the museum! Maggie had called him to let him know we were there, and he’d come out to the end of the barge to catch our lines. Honestly, if I hadn’t known I would’ve figured he was a dock worker there - he was bearded, and wearing sturdy, well-worn work clothes, and looked like he’d been working hard on repairing things all day (which is probably exactly how he’d been spending a pleasant Sunday). They – Maggie & Don - invited us to stay & enjoy a little South Street Seaport Maritime Museum hospitality, which turned out to consist of repairing to the captain’s quarters of the Wavertree for hot tea and sea stories. I’d brought some cookies & enough hot cider to share, Richard brought some soup, Maggie had doughnuts and produced some rum to fortify my cider and with all of that we had quite a feast. They are doing a beautiful job on the restoration of the Wavertree, and it was a real treat to get to see it - although I think Maggie said they do some tours, it’s still very much a work in progress so not that easy to see, so to get invited to come aboard & make myself comfortable & listen to Richard & Maggie & Don “talk story” – Richard mostly about the Rosemary Ruth, Maggie & Don about the Wavertree & then also more general maritime history – well, that was pretty special. I mostly listened while they talked. My stories just aren’t in the same league – I may spend a fair amount of time out on the water, but “salty” isn’t adjective I would apply to myself without feeling very silly, and with this group I was feeling extra, extra low-sodium.

Definitely one of those days when I was happy to be living in New York, though.

Finally, after a couple of hours, it looked like time to go – the water wasn’t curling against the Flying Fish’s hull anymore, and the eddy line had softened. We dropped a line off the Wavertree’s stern & made it off in the bow of the Rosemary Ruth; Richard backed her slowly out into the river; the current took her stern; Maggie (who wasn’t coming back with us) & Don took in the slack from the Wavertree and just as Richard had described, the Rosemary Ruth performed a nicely controlled pirouette in just the right spot, we cast off the line & off we went into the sunset.

And we even got in a little sailing on the way back! Sure, it got a little chilly after the sun went down, but it was a nice day and not too cold. Plus, Richard keeps a couple of spare Mustang float coats (basically a parka with a PFD built right in) on board. I’d brought clothes that I think would’ve done the job but I was frankly VERY into the flotation concept. As I’ve mentioned before, the water temperature is now below anything you want to even chance messing around with without some assistance. Great thing is, these float coats also turn out to be completely and marvellously impervious to the wind and I was totally snug all day, so when Richard asked if Bruce & I were still up for at least a bit of a sail, I jumped at the chance. I think I left a camera battery in the pocket, guess I'll have to go again sometime to retrieve it. Bummer!

Anyhow - I was a little worried that adding in even a short sail was going to mean I was going to miss the party completely – but by this time I was already clearly not getting there by the time I’d said I would so I figured why not.

It was a short sail, but a nice one. And to make things even better – when I called Steve & Camilla from the 33rd St. PATH station to find out if I’d missed the party & should just go home – Camilla said “Well, nobody’s here anymore, but we didn’t have a big turnout in the first place so why don’t you come on up?” (really - now how nice is that?)and I did, and that turned out to be a lovely finish to the day.

So there it was. The day that completely refused to go as planned but ended up being maybe just maybe even more fun than the original plan.

Although that would’ve been just fine too!

Here's a picture on the preservation barge which may give you a better picture of how tight a space we were dealing with. The two masts on the right side of the picture belong to the Rosemary Ruth; the massive vessel just beyond the smaller boats is the Peking. The other small schooner pictured above was just a little ways past the Peking's stern. Not much space to play with.



The Wavertree (with the tug Helen McAllister) in the sunset

This is not a schooner.

Nope. This is a barque (well, part of a barque). I shall exercise some self-control and refrain from making a labored pun about "barque" and "bight" (not enough to keep quiet about the fact that I was thinking about it though!).

Anyways, as you may recall from Saturday's little exercise in procrastination, barque photos were not originally part of Sunday's plans. Things didn't quite happen the way I described. It did end up being a lot of fun though, in the way that unplanned changes of plan can sometimes be if you don't get overly attached to your original plans (always wise when you're into things like boating where nature has the final say as to what you can & can't do). I started writing a post about it during my lunch hour today, have sent it home & plan to finish it tonight, it might be fun - but I did put up a few pictures over on my Buzznet galleries & thought I'd put this one up here, as it's gotten a pretty kind reception over there.

Things I'm smiling about

Just finished close week work (more or less, knock wood, the documents went out yesterday, now we wait for the response). This is always a rough week & that's why I did only the most perfunctory of posts on Wednesday (although wasn't that dog story funny? I was so glad M. got the whole sequence - I forgot to mention that she's actually more of a photographer than I am - she's also an actress & has the best smile of anyone, she's pretty awesome) and nothing after that. There was just too much work to do.

However I did have a few things to smile about in the midst of close madness (in no particular order):

1. I can't remember if I mentioned this here or not, but there's a new business manager on the finance team at the Really Big Children's Publishing House. She is very, very new - but she picking things up quickly & between her & our also relatively new senior finance analyst, who's also really good, close week felt a lot less intimidating. And I'm not at work today, which was a possibility!
2. Kokatat has now had my drysuit for about a week & they haven't called me so I'm hoping that they'll be able to resuscitate it...Gore-Tex socks oh boy oh boy!
3. Kayak Boy posted to our kayak group that our favorite paddling Medieval Lit professor and her husband and their adorable baby son made it to Illinois, where she's gotten a university job (ok, that's actually a sad sort of smile, I'm going to miss them - but things have all worked out so nicely for them this year I'm also really happy for them).
4. I got invited to teach up at Sarah Lawrence again and the sessions are set to start in January. YAY!
5. I also got invited to teach at the Hudson Valley Symposium again. DOUBLE YAY!
6. Well...we finished the close package. yay.
7. Having a cold during close week may have sucked but it gave me a graceful non-Scroogey excuse to get out of the company holiday party. I would actually like this event if they didn't turn up the music so loud at these parties that you cannot sit and carry on anything more than the most rudimentary conversation, but they do. Great fun if you want to dance - otherwise...well, I wasn't too sad to miss it.
8. I'm going sailing on the Rosemary Ruth tomorrow, it's going to be a nice day (although it's going to be a challenge to really dress warmly enough), and there's going to be another little schooner, the Lazy Jack, out - the 2 owners decided to coordinate a trip for the purpose of getting pictures of their boats under sail. I hope to get a few pix too!
9. And after that, tomorrow night is the night of one of my favorite Christmas parties. A couple of friends of mine throw this every year - they have this amazing tiny apartment that they fitted out with a loft built of carefully measured & cut peeled logs - they've turned what would otherwise have been one of these bizarre cramped higher-than-it-is-wide apartments into this positively cozy little abode that feels like a cross between a cabin in the woods and a New Mexican adobe (ha ha, an adobe abode!)...and they throw these great little parties. She's an adventure travel agent (the place is full of interesting things they've found on the travels that that entails), and he does computer stuff for a living, and they're both very outgoing, open people, so there's always a really interesting group & fun conversation. Their Christmas party is lovely - she's Danish & if this party is any indication, I think I like the Danish style of celebrating Christmas more than the commercial onslaught that Christmas brings here.
10. Well, I smiled every time I looked at my galleries. I've gotten a little down on myself because I didn't do anything in the way of formal instruction for myself this year - and I just feel like I was always so stressed out by how short-handed we were this year - but "Rosiewolf" left a comment on one of my BVI's pictures saying "What wonderful trips you get to go on!"...and yeah, looking them over, I really do get to do some really neat stuff.

Anyways, tomorrow is play day, but today I do have some stuff I want to do. Or at least should do. So enough procrastinating, time to get going.

Foxy's Dog

Too much to do today to take more than the quickest blogging break on lunch, plus this cold is still kicking me around in a low-grade but tiring way, so I doubt I'll really post tonight, but here's a funny story, 5 slides long, about a very sweet but very sly dog you should watch out for should you ever find yourself on the beach at Foxy's on Jost Van Dyke in the BVI's! That's him there in the picture - and that's the rest of the gang from the BVI's trip! A minute later, I put down the camera to play with the dog, and Meghan picked up the camera & got a series that makes me smile (even with this rotten cold).

Buzznet navigation hint - little blue square w/white dots to the right of the main photo caption is the arrow symbol on Buzznet, lets you move on to the next photo.

What I did with my 4-star patch:

Because Derrick was curious & I'm bored out of my skull tonight. Man, this business being just a little too sick to feel like doing anything but not sick enough to just stay in bed is incredibly annoying.

Yup, so there they sit on the bookshelf, all three of 'em (the Canoeing Safety Test on the bottom, then the 4 star is sitting on top of the 3 star). I guess I do like to look at them. The problem is they also sit there & mutely pose that pesky question of "what have you done since then?".

Answer - Well, not a whole heckuva lot, really.

I guess there's always next year.

BTW for the non-kayakers, here's what all this talk of stars is about...

There are various not-for-profit organizations whose mission is to promote the sport of kayaking, encouraging people to take up the sport & teaching them how to do so in a safe & responsible manner. The "4-star" to which I refer is the level at which I have been assessed on the British Canoe Union rating scale.

This scale runs from one to five stars, one being the most basic, five being advanced.

Off the top of my head, the levels go something like this - they all also involve some level of theoretical knowledge too, I'm erring in only talking about the skills, and I'm massively oversimplifying the skills too, I'm just trying to give the most general idea here:

One star: Very basic - this is an award that, if I'm remembering correctly, could be awarded to a group of kids who've taken an intro course. All that's needed is a modicum of control - the ability to paddle forward in a more-or-less straight line, ditto backwards, and a couple of turning strokes, and the ability to get out of a capsized kayak & swim it to shore (and btw kids LOVE falling out of kayaks so that part is fun).

Two star: beginner with a little more control than a one-star. Most control is with the paddle although some edging is expected. Oh yeah, and with the edging comes the bracing, being able to use a quick paddle stroke to save yourself from a capsize when you've overbalanced yourself, which tends to happen when you're learning to edge, at least if you're really committing to sitting that boat up on it's side. Ability to get back into your boat starts to matter too - usually you end up practicing that after really committing to your edging & not quite getting that recovery stroke right (edging is a skill where taking a cue from the kids & deciding that falling out of your kayak is fun and fine is very very useful - hot summer days are a great time to practice!).

Three star: intermediate, showing competence in what I tend to call "the BCU strokes" or sometimes "kayak dressage" (that's what I call it when at the end of a paddle, I hang out between the piers working on various types of turns & strokes - that's always a nice way to end a paddle)- at this level you're really starting to use the boat for control, not just the paddle, and these are the strokes that when you watch somebody good do them, they look a little magic - actually they feel a little magic too when you get them right (I have some that work all the time, and then there are still some that could be better).

Four star: This is taking all those three-star skills, add on some basic seamanship (navigation, knot-tying, ability to deal with equipment problems, etc) and showing that you know how to use them, can use them in open water (1 through 3 are all flat-water), and are capable of being a competent member of a group. This is what I am. Or at least what I was when I was assessed. I always have this gnawing worry that maybe I'm getting worse (this is why the comment about "not very much", this really does bother me, I haven't taken a class in far too long & lord only knows what sort of bad habits I have fallen into).

Five star: This gets up into the leadership stuff - means that you seriously know your stuff - you can get through all sorts of crazy crap, towing 5 seasick paddling companions if necessary. Add on restricted-visibility (night or fog) navigation skills, full multi-night expedition capabilities and whatever else your sadistic assessor decides to throw at you (they want to see if you can think on your feet)...I have been told that I would probably have a blast getting 5-star training (I had more fun than seems like could possibly be legal at my 4-star assessment and I think everybody there saw that). Shooting for the 5-star assessment itself someday - that gets more complicated. That's where the fact that I ended up leaving Manhattan Kayak Company (and at that point semi-voluntarily sidelined myself from the leadership role I did once try to play in our local kayaking community) makes me have some doubts as to whether I'd really be a good candidate, as do my split loyalties between sailing & paddling. Seriously, if a genie were to appear and tell me "I will grant you the money and time and anything else you need to work for one of two certifications - a captain's license or your 5-star award" I seriously think I would have to draw straws to decide - then sit down and bawl for a week about the one I didn't get to go for.

Notice I wouldn't even want the genie to just give me one or the other? Naw. Getting there is half the fun.

Then you have the coach awards - a 3-star paddler can be a 2-star coach, a 4-star paddler can be a 3-star coach, and so on until you get to those rare and astonishing creatures the 5-star coaches. The one class I did try to get into this year was a 2-star coach training - unfortunately I was thwarted as the one chance I had to take that was the same day as another co-worker had already asked to take vacation & I had to cover for him. I was very dissappointed in that although I didn't hold it against the guy (in fact I never even breathed a word of what I missed out on, had plenty of good vacations this year & was not about to be a brat about one letdown -- and I'm really glad I didn't because since then he's had some sort of scary health problem and if I had given him so much as one speck of grief about his mountain biking trip costing me that class, I would have absolutely hated myself for it).

BTW - I have to add one more link since I have given the superdupershorthand versions of the star levels - if you want more detail, the full syllabi for the various assessments can be found on this page of the BCU North America website.

Home with a cold

First snow day of the season - just a snapshot, looking out my window


Cancelled the weekend's plans, which were lunch & a movie with a couple of friends yesterday, a paddle to Edgewater, New Jersey for sushi (well, this probably would have been the day for ramen - there's a stand there that makes wonderful hot ramen, all sorts). Unfortunately, I ended up sitting home nursing a sore throat instead. Roasted a chicken yesterday, turning most of it into chicken rice soup today. Hopefully curative.

Actually the snow/rain forecast today wouldn't necessarily have stopped me from paddling, but add in the sore throat & the fact that my drysuit has gone back to it's maker, I decided that it would probably be wiser to stay home today. But I'm bummed, I haven't been up to Edgewater for a long time. This is getting to be the time of year when that becomes a very appealing trip - a good paddle with a solid lunch indoors midway through. There's a lightship at the Liberty Landing Marina in Jersey that is good in the same way.

You burn a lot of calories just keeping warm in winter paddling - people doing it for the first time always tend to be a little surprised about how tiring it is compared to summer paddling, where the energy expended primarily goes into moving the boat - a stop where you both get to warm up and refuel may not be very tough - but it's fun, the food always tastes incredible & you get the entertainment factor of seeing people's reactions when a bunch of paddlers in full winter gear walk into the place.

The drysuit being gone is kind of key to why I'm not out there today. Remember that picture from a couple of weekends ago where I had my kayak over on it's side & was dangling my head in the water? Well, sometime in the one-week space between that weekend and last weekend, the water turned - went from chilly to seriously cold. The rule of thumb I picked up somewhere is that when the water drops below 50, you need a drysuit. My drysuit, as I mentioned, has gone to meet it's maker. Literally! I packed it up last week and shipped it back to Kokatat to see if it's a candidate for refurbishment - last Spring, while teaching at the Hudson Valley Kayak Symposium, I found that the left leg had developed a bit of a seep somewhere. Broken gaskets (the latex cuffs that form the watertight seals around your wrists, ankles and neck) can be repaired at home with a little patience, but mystery seepage is beyond my capabilities & although it's a very slow leak (I only noticed it whenI was in the water for a while during one rescue demo) & chances are that it would probably be fine for one more season, this is not a piece of gear on which you want to gamble like that. The good folks at Kokatat will be able to locate anywhere on the suit that's no longer watertight. They'll also look at the overall condition of the suit & determine whether it's worth making the repairs or not - if they think I can get a few more seasons out of it when they get done with it, they'll proceed - if they find the one place that's seeping but find a dozen other places where the coating is about to part company with the nylon shell, they'll call me with that information. I really do like that they'll do that. Much though I whine about it, I do rely on this thing.

If they do find it's fixable, it's coming back with Gore-Tex socks instead of latex ankle gaskets! I am VERY excited about that! The ankle gaskets are the worst - on my ankles, they always seem to roll up over themselves & bind & that's incredibly uncomfortable.

Anyways, the deal with today's paddle was that I was only going to do it if conditions were just about perfect - clear, warm, not much wind. Had that been the case I would have gone with the drytop/wetsuit combo. As it is, add in the snow and the rain and the fact that I'm not feeling too well, and here I am at home. Ho hum.

Awwwww!

I can't even leave a comment over there, that's so sweet. I feel like I'd just be interrupting. But I can say "awwwww!" over here, that's OK I think.

I can DEFINITELY say "Best wishes to the Napoleon Kayaker ("it's where he's from, not how he paddles") and Yvette"! I think they are just a week away from the big day.

Sea life encounters

Item #1: SaltWater Jim describes an overly close call with a gray whale. An exciting & refreshingly unromanticized read. Item #2: Not surprisingly, with the Chelsea Piers to Hudson-Athens Light Gallery and the start of my Virgin Islands gallery, I ran through my November quota & had to give Buzznet postings a break for the last few days. Last night (being wound up after seeing a very good production of "Hamlet") I got back to that. fish for Friday!

Oh, I wanted to keep this short but it just hit me that I'd wanted to add a note re navigating Buzznet - I've had a couple of friends who didn't find navigating this to be intuitive. Basically the link takes you into the Virgin Islands gallery - you can go from picture to picture using the blue button to the right of the caption (the 3 little white squares are supposed to form an arrow but you might not realize that looking at it for the first time); or you can use the little blue buttons on the thumbnail page to navigate from thumbnail page to thumbnail page & click on whatever thumbnails look interesting (this is the one that people particularly miss - btw the fish thumbnails are in some cases deceptively nondescript, especially the trunkfish). Clicking on another gallery will open that in the main picture & thumbnail pages.

OK, was my last post weird?

Ahhh, don't answer that question. Actually the truth of the matter is that I saw a Queens IP address in my sitemeter the night before & suddenly got very worried about how Joe might feel if he read the previous one. There's this very interesting book that Michlt at Rivertyde (site was down yesterday & still is as I write this but I'm linking in hopes that it's just temporary) recommended, it's called "The Forest for the Trees" (you can go find it at Amazon, or even better pay a visit to your favorite local bookstore), and I found something in there that actually made me go "Oh, so THAT'S why I never saw myself making it as a writer..." - this is a good example. More on that later though as this is just a quick break between projects at work (I am actually having a nice productive day here, I like that!).

Mostly I wanted to post because one of my Pier 63 friends, Larry, has started blogging again. He went through some rough stuff last year, he seems pretty happy these days though...except that he's losing his job. Reminds me of something somebody I used to hang out with used to say - "All New Yorkers really want are just 3 things - a great apartment, a great job and a great lover - but the rules are that you are only allowed to have 2 of those 3 at a time". That doesn't necessarily mean that you are guaranteed to have ANY of them at any given time - just that 2 at a time is the maximum happiness quotient permitted. Well, Larry's apartment is a good one (although I think it would be one of those ones you'd see described in the classifieds as "cozy studio, grt vu", cozy being universal NY brokerspeak for "very small"); he's been seeing a really nice guy for QUITE some time now (awesome); there ya go. Was that a Seinfeld thing?

Anyways, it's been nice seeing Larry looking pretty happy with life these days & I felt bad when I stopped over at his blog after Thanksgiving & discovered that the bad-news meeting had been like a week before.

Anyways, I told him I'd post something he'd like today so here is one of my favorite shots - this is Larry at Sandy Hook (now was THAT an excursion and a half - boy, September '03, time flies). This is one of a batch of pictures that I've got framed & hanging in my hallway. I think he was asking me if I still had these digitally and I didn't think I did but I was doing some email cleanup the other day & lo & behold, there were the scanned versions! (Larry, let me know if you want this & a couple others!)

Wish it was a job lead...

addendum re Joe...

OK, I know I wrote too much on that post yesterday, but I did want to add something.

Joe and I ended up being friends. Not going-out-for-coffee-every-week friends but we stay in touch & he occasionally (once in a blue moon really, he's married & in law school now, still a busy busy guy & not too far from getting moreso - in the unlikely event you're reading this J & J, congrats again!) reads this blog.

I'd say that even if he didn't, though. He was a good guy. I was very attached to him - I'm pretty independent & don't really date (dating scene in NY requires a much thicker hide than I possess) but when I do fall for somebody it's very wholeheartedly. The breakup wasn't an easy one - in the end, though, I told him something along the lines of "Look, I'm hurt and angry and I'm not going to pretend things are fine - but if you'll accept that & let me be hurt and angry for a while, then I think we can end up as friends". We'd been friends before we started dating, and we were also still both doing things at the Irish Arts Center, so ending up as friends was definitely a desirable outcome for both of us (as well as for the people in our Irish music social circle).

He's a pretty guy-ish guy, not too comfortable with the heavy-deep-n-real stuff - but he listened to what I had to say and he accepted my request/challenge - and the fact that he respected me enough to hear me out & say "OK" made it a lot easier to get through the hurt & angry bit. So much better than this tendency a lot of people seem to have these days to foist off all responsibility for hurt on the one who's gotten hurt - "oh, you are only in pain because you choose to be in pain; you could choose to be happy and carefree like me; since you choose to be in pain, you must be a sad sick person; gee, you should really talk to somebody about that - oh, my, look at the time, late for yoga class, gotta run, see you in our next incarnation!".

Yeah. Whatevahs.

Anyways, just had to add that. Don't think I made Joe sound really terrible but I did want to add this in. Just because.

Meme of 5 Things (with unrequired set of photos at end)

Every now and then I check Technorati to see if anybody's saying anything about me - turns out that while I was off in the Caribbean, Loup (who's ) tagged me with a meme I'd been thinking was kind of fun anyway. So, I'm glad I checked, I've done the housecleaning I promised myself I'd come home & do tonight (the lilypad was a bit of a mess and Saturday was originally slated for tidying-up until I got the invitation to go sailing!), and now I can have a little fun before I turn in. There's a bonus at the end btw since once again I've managed to make a short meme long.

10 years ago – hm...condensed version of my resume makes this tricky - I was either working at the place I will refer to only as "the publishing shed", or I may have already had fight w/boss over his bullying of a co-worker (he thought it was pretty funny to accuse her of bringing a waterbug to work with her in her purse) & moved on to the Asia Society. Living in Brooklyn with my friend who got me to to move to New York and the guy he was involved with at the time.
8 years ago - Working for a now-defunct financial company, central compliance division. Dating Joe, who was working for another bank & also being an independent filmmaker - we had some good fun doing Irish music & dance together (he was Irish-American and had moved to NY in part with the intent of learning more about his Irish heritage, we met in set dancing class & boy did I ever love dancing with him) but a lot of it was an exercise in patience - didn't want him to NOT make his movie, that would've been bad, but at the same time...well, he was a busy busy and very tired guy & I ended up feeling like an afterthought a lot. Figured we could make it up when he was done with the film. Living in Windsor Terrace with a roommate who thought the upstairs neighbours were having her stalked.
4-7 years ago -
1998: Joe broke up w/me after realizing he'd never quite gotten over unrequited college flame who said she might be moving to NY & might date him if she did, roommate went seriously over the edge (fortunately moving out in the end) & I got laid off from the bank all at about the same time. Fun fun fun. Got new job, took up paddling (didn't want to dance anymore so it was time to get back in touch with my own roots - not the genetic ones but the raised-in-Hawaii ones).
1999: became a partner in Manhattan Kayak Company. Left bank #2 (still not sure if I quit or was fired, wasn't working out too well). Mentor Richard talked me into going for ACA Instructor Development Workshop at Eskape Kayaks in CA; had most wonderful time then came back to start new job at private bank - my office was on the 95th floor of WTC 2.
2000 – Promoted at work; was making lots of money but never quite trusting it to last; bad chemistry between me & founder of MKC starting to kick in very badly but w/encouragement of 2 new partners (who also went & got certified at the same time, the Instructor Certification Exam was a blast, we all went to Ray Killen at Katabasis) I got my ACA Open-Water Coastal Kayaking Instructor certification.
2001 - Relationship w/founder continued to founder (bad) but I was gaining more confidence about my own teaching abilities (good); same partners and I went for 3-star training & certification from Bill Lozano at Atlantic Kayak Tours (awesome). Got laid off from day job in June 2001 (I was right, it WAS too good to last). With a highly generous severance package, I chose to be a kayak bum for the summer (beyond awesome). Severance package included outplacement workshop. Signed up for one as the season was nearing an end - date of workshop - 9/11 - location of workshop - WTC 2 - time of workshop 9 A.M. Survived; river closed; unemployed. Original temp job at Really Big Children's Publishing Company fell into my lap without my really trying - unemployment was telling me that the WTC had nothing to do with my claim & demanded proof that I was looking; I started calling agencies just for the sake of being able to say I'd faxed resumes here, here and there - Agency #2 was one I'd had some good experiences with (Ribolow) & said "When can you start?". Um, how about tomorrow? OK, good.
Now – Still at Really Big only as finance analyst in Trade division; dropped out of MKC in early '02, got schooner job almost as serendipitously as day job, still working on that schooner in the summertime; just back from the Caribbean; paddling with a really nice group out of Pier 63. So as of now, everything worked out pretty well, yeah?

So much for simple. My life just doesn't condense too well.

Five yummy things (not necessarily in order and leaving out all kinds of good things, like CHOCOLATE, Maine lobster, sushi, etc. etc. etc.):

1) Really fresh sweet corn in the summertime.
2) Ummm, Auntie K & Canoe-Buildin' Uncle's farm-raised lamb. Preferably accompanied by really fresh sweet corn in the summertime.
3) My homemade roast butternut squash soup. Someone on the Bear Mountain Bridge trip called it "Thanksgiving in a cup" which is just about the nicest thing anybody's ever said about anything I ever cooked. It's pretty much idiot-proof and doesn't need a recipe, you can improvise ("hmmm, no chestnuts, well I'll toast these almonds & chuck them in instead"). I think my Pennsylvania Dutch maternal grandmother would approve.
4) The dulce du leche flan at Hispaniola Restaurant - the miso butterfish is also fantastic.
5) Hawaiian comfort food - manapua, Leonard's malasadas, saimin, plate lunch...mmm. homesick now.

Five songs I know by heart:

OK I actually used to sing with a really good church choir when I lived on the Upper East Side & also did Irish song so I have a LOT of songs by heart - this is another random selection!
1) Am Maidean Mheara (Gaelic song, The Seal-Wife legend)
2) Paddy's Green Shamrock Shore (very good song to be sung on a boat)
3) Luck In My Eyes, (K.D. Lang)
4) Ubi Caritas (from Durufle's Quatre Motets pour Lent - I only know the alto line! - this is one of the things I miss singing, the choir was just too far away when I moved out to Brooklyn)
5) Moon River (this gets in here 'cause it was from a night I totally crashed and burned at karaoke - I sing LOTS better with other people anyways but I was game - well I figured Moon River would be safe but then it was in the most totally horrible key of all time!)

Five things I would do with a lot of money:

1) Probably give moving back to Hawaii a try
2) BOAT SKILLS ACQUISITION MADNESS! Things I could realistically shoot for if money didn't matter & I wasn't bound by vacation days - 5-star training & maybe someday assesment! Renew my ACA instructor certification! BCU Coaching Cert! Captain's License! More Surfing! More Whitewater! More Surfski Racing! More Greenland-style Whatever else sounds cool & doable! More teaching, more learning, more fun!
3) A lot more horseback riding (I want to go back to my little grass shack but I also want to go back to Cae-Iago!)
4) Figure out what I want to be when I grow up...no, seriously. this would probably involve maybe going and taking courses & volunteering & just trying different things until something seems to "click" as something that I really enjoy doing that would also give me something useful to do with my life.
5) Share it with family, schools, charities.

Five places I would like to escape to (I'm going to take that as "visit"):

1) Hawaii
2) Virgin Islands (I just did, too, lucky me!)
3) Manistee River in Michigan
4) New Zealand
5) Australia (I'll go visit Chosha!
5.1) or, um...Hawaii.

Five things I would never wear:

1) Extremely tight pants (uncomfortable & not very pretty on me).
2) Anything that involves publicly baring anything that is not ordinarily bared in public or that could easily be mistaken for an undergarment.
3) Anything that requires having holes punched in body parts to wear.
4) Heavy makeup
5) This.


Five favorite TV shows:

1) M*A*S*H
2) The Muppet Show
3) Murphy Brown
4) Star Trek (TNG or Voyager, it's a toss-up)
5) Law & Order
Can you tell that I have not had a television in my home for several years!

Five things I enjoy doing:

1) Boating
2) Horseback riding
3) Reading
4) Hanging out with friends
5) Artsy stuff.

Five Favorite toys:

1) MY KAYAKS! :D
2) optio pentax waterproof camera (thanks again parents!)
3) schooner (although that is pushing the definition of "toy" and it's not mine)
4) tin whistle
5) paper (you can draw on it, you can write on it, you can fold it into origami!)

Five people who get this meme:

1) ?
2) ?
3) ?
4) ?
5) ?

no, seriously, I got this so late I have no idea who's already done it - if you haven't & you want to, just say so!

And in closing I give you a 5 things bonus (not part of the original meme) -

Five Shots of the New York Fire Department putting out a burning cab right by Pier 63!

(don't worry no one was injured, although the driver looked very unhappy, poor guy)
Burning cab.

Here's the fire truck!

OK, let's take care of this mess...

2nd truck arrived right after the first one - that's them over there, the first truck has things totally in hand so they're just watching

Well that pretty much takes care of that.

Out for a ride on the Rosemary Ruth!

Way back in June, I did my first "Frogma Virtual Tour", more or less on a whim inspired by having a single-use waterproof camera lying around from some trip or another...

That was a while back so I don't quite expect anybody to remember this from it (and this is a better picture I took from the Adirondack II on our last public sail of the season - everybody on board was admiring the Rosemary Ruth!)

I got a chance to take a few closer shots today!

Very nice group, sweet boat (Richard, the owner, said "sweet" was an OK adjective - he was even ok with "cute", he's a very nice guy, makes a very good gluhwein and has a lot of awfully good sea stories) - I always enjoy meeting new Hudson River people, and I hope I get to sail with all of them again at some time or another!

Me (pretending to steer), Brian (who's actually steering, just gave me the wheel for the picture), and Maggie. Brian crews on the schooner Pioneer, and Maggie is the educator for the Pioneer (that's just got to be one of the coolest jobs ever). Robert is taking the picture (Thank you, Robert!)

This is Richard, the rescuer/owner of the Rosemary Ruth -

That's Maggie up by the bow, Richard peeking out from behind the mast, Brian in the red jacket & Robert is by the shroud. Why is everyone smiling? Well, first of all we're sailing but the additional reason at this moment is that that Thermos Richard is brandishing is full of gluhwein, and Brian's brought out some of his mom's homemade biscotti (in the ziploc bag) - life, as they say, is good!

Yes, life is indeed good.


I feel like I should write some more but I am pretty sleepy & I'm doing my might-almost-be-annual-now Paddle Off the Turkey Paddle - no big deal, just 3 hours or so of moving kayaks with energy in whichever direction the current dictates - this year it's a southbound, might be going to the Statue of Liberty again. Yep, twice in one weekend, s'alright.

Greetings from a ways up the river...

Nope, not a boat adventure this time. The train was the mode of transport for this trip north, I'm visiting friends for Thanksgiving. Nothing much to say today, just that I hope everyone - at least everyone who celebrates the US Thanksgiving - had a very happy & peaceful one.

And actually I hope those of you who don't happen to be people who celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday had one heckuva nice Thursday too!

A sailing lesson from Cap'n Kat

This is a shot of a bit of a tidal race near Cruz Bay, on St. John, USVI. There are some pretty considerable currents around here & on this day, those currents & a quite strong east wind conspired to change our plans. We'd started out the day with the intention of sailing around St. John; Capt. Sarah had wintered there a couple of years ago & she wanted to show us around. I'd ended up at the wheel - everything was fine until we came around to the windward side of the island & things started to kick up. There was a 2 - 3 foot swell, with some bigger ones around 4 feet, and the wind was coming from exactly the direction we wanted to go. The windspeeds weren't terribly fierce, 15-20 knots, but frequently gusting to higher levels. At first I was a little spooked - those conditions may not sound too awful but frankly most of my driving experience is in lighter air. I love it when I get to drive the schooner Adirondack & never turn down a chance to do so, but that's almost always in calmer conditions (not to mention that she's twice the length & a whole lot heavier - the Carina was suddenly feeling awfully small!) - when the sailing really starts to get fun is generally also the time when the crew needs to be the crew, the captain needs to drive - making sure that all our passengers are comfortable & enjoying themselves becomes our main focus. If they are all happy, we'll let her rip & put the rail in the water. However nobody more experienced was jumping up to take over, and then Kat actually started giving me some pointers on how to kinda swoop the boat over the bigger swells - and in pretty short order, what started as a bit spooky had turned into a total blast - in the quieter conditions in which I've steered the Adirondack, it's all about responding to the wind - adding the waves as a new component to respond to was really exciting. Whee!

Only problem was that with the tacking we had to do, and a pretty solid current running against us - we kinda weren't getting anywhere (there was this point that we were passing for an AWFULLY long time) so after a while we decided to scratch the circumnavigation & head back over to the leeward side. We decided to stop for a lunch & swim break in placid, sea-turtle filled Hawksnest Bay - the adrenaline on the windward side had been great but somehow once we got back around the bend we all found that we were ready for a little rest!

Anyways...as I started to say, this is a nice little bit of a race between St. John & these little rocky islets - looked like it could've been fun in a kayak with the one drawback of being TOTALLY in the middle of where ALL the sailboats and ferries and stuff were going.

Looking back, I think is says something about the mindset we got into on this trip that we never even considered dropping the sails & motoring (in fact that just hit me as I was writing this!). That just wasn't what we were there for. I think that's part of why this trip was so sucessful - none of us got caught up in destinations, it was just about being there!

(lifted wholesale from my Sailing the Virgin Islands gallery - added a few more last night, having a lovely time revisiting & writing 'em up - thought this would make an OK standalone blog post)

btw - I was having way too much fun to hand over the helm & go get my camera when we were over on the south side of the island - but here's a photo taken back in the more sheltered side later in the day. This was fun but it was even more exciting on the south side!

More Caribbean photos

I went home last night & put up a few more pictures on my Sailing the Virgin Islands gallery. I am still working back to front - I am getting into some of the underwater stuff now, I stopped before I got to the bay with the fantastic snorkeling with the fish and the sea fans and the brain coral...but there was definitely some interesting subject matter in Hawksnest Bay on St. John, too!

Hope you enjoy them!

Readjusting plus GE PCB cleanup article.

Warming up to the kind of chilly Hudson -

Rolling...

OK, that felt kinda good!

Here's the gang from Sunday. Beautiful beautiful day, and as you can see, I'm not kidding about that business of fall and winter paddling & having the river all to ourselves!


So there's how the Sunday readjustment paddle went. Worked like a charm - I knew it would. I'm SO glad F. called that paddle, it really was just what I needed to shake off the blue-water blues. WAY better than sitting home & moping over summer being over! We had a lovely day, it was a nice group to paddle with, I definitely felt a bit stiff & as though I was fighting all the clothes and fighting to drag my boat through the water heading north but this quick horsing-around session seemed to shake everything loose rather beautifully & everything seemed to snap together again heading south. Water's good - cold and green or warm and blue, it's all good. Boats are good. Drysuits suck but they let you keep playing in the boats and the water so they're OK too.

Speaking of playing in the Hudson - and on a more serious note - looks like GE is trying to sidle out of their obligation to clean up their leftover PCB's. Very interesting & rather depressing article on the matter in today's NY Times.

I know it's expensive and all but dang, the river's become such an amazing place - it would really be nice to see GE recognize that & quit trying to figure out ways to cut corners on the cleanup...

oh, and on a happier note, everybody say hi (or "yo" or "howzit" or whatever your standard local greeting is) to Napoleon Kayaker! Actually it seems like there are quite a few new (or at least recently stumbled upon by the other kayak bloggers already listed on my Kayak Blogs blogroll) kayak blogs. I have been very bad at updating my blogrolls over the summer but now that schooner season's over & all my vacations for the year are behind me, I really do hope to do a little housekeeping!

Fact is, I can't quite believe I kept this thing going for the entire season in the first place!

P.S. - OK. Derrick is already rolling in ice cubes. My little post-Caribbean self-pity-party is now officially over. Thank you all for your patience (or at least not posting comments to the tune of "Oh, boo hoo hoo!").
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p.p.s. - One quick final word here - I seriously considered putting up some kind of "trained quasi-professional kayaker, kids don't try this at home" notice on this. Fact is, I've worked my butt off to be able to continue to frolic with relative impunity in November - there are about a zillion hours of intensive practice in warm water that went into being able to do the stuff I'm doing in those pictures. I'm adding this now because Mr. SeaLevel has done a really nice post today on the very subject of the sort of considerations that go into cold-water paddling and ways to learn more about the hazards entailed. Derrick had his cold-water post not long ago too, and I did say something right before I left on vacation - everybody gets worked up about it because it is absolutely serious stuff. Done right, with respect & proper preparations for the conditions you'll be out in & an understanding of your own abilities & limitations, off-season paddling can be great fun - done carelessly, it can turn pretty bad pretty fast.

A Fish For Derrick

Here's a fish for you, Derrick!

These are 2 shots of the same guy.

now the question is - can anybody spot him?

I am quite serious, there actually is a fish in both of these pictures!

Virgin Islands gallery now open.

So rather than inflict any more photos of my wonderful trip here, I've started posting trip photos over a new Buzznet gallery. I tend to post these back to front; right now the last 3 days of the trip are up. I took a LOT of pictures, I'm really trying to discipline myself & just put the best ones up. I got a chance to try out the Optio for snorkeling, and since I hadn't had a chance to try it underwater yet, there was quite a learning curve - but every fish I took a picture of, I took the picture because I thought it was a cool fish so I like all of 'em - but there are definitely some that are not good photos. Then there were the rainbows - I took to saying "Ho hum, another rainbow" - but I'd still try to take a picture of every single one that we saw. In the end, exactly one of those, taken at Caneel Bay, St. John, is actually a good bright picture of a rainbow (sadly that is NOT the one with the Spitfire, a lovely yacht owned by some friends from my first schooner season, in it - that was a bummer).

Seems to be a lot more stuff in the Caribbean that's beautiful in a tough-to-photograph way - or maybe it's just that I know the Hudson so much better, it's easier to know what would make a good picture and what's better to just admire for the moment.

Trying to get myself back into this business of winter now. I hardly expect to get any sympathy for this, but I am having a rough time with it. I've taken to visiting my folks (hi folks!) in Hawaii later in the winter because it's such a shock to the system to go someplace where they pull out sweaters & go "Brrr!" when the temperature hits 70, then come back to where a 70-degree day constitutes the most freakishly wonderful Indian-summer gift that fall can bestow - it's easier to come back when spring is at least just around the corner. As it is...my, winter is looking very long & dark. My inclination right now is just to stay in my nice warm apartment; I think that I have to join Goofy & F (new hold person) on a short paddle they are doing tomorrow just to get myself back into the winter paddling mindset that a week in board shorts & bikini tops has made rather difficult to capture.

Problem is, having grown up in Hawaii, in some way the mindset where you put on a sweater at 70 seems to be what some very inflexible & cranky little corner of my brain insists is what's normal. That's the corner of the brain that's going "Drysuit? UGH, DISGUSTING, NO NO NO!". Thing is I think that's also the corner of the brain where really loving getting out on or in the water resides, so if I just grit my teeth, pack up ugh the big bag ugh ugh of winter gear ugh ugh ugh and make myself get out there, that'll help get the winter-paddling-is-good mindset back. I'm actually trying to underdress a bit, not bundling up as much as I feel like doing on the way to work & stuff - I think that the body is pretty good at acclimatizing to conditions, but having trotted off and thawed out for a week, I've got some catching up to do now!

There is a lot of fun to be had in the off-season, after all. The recreational motorboaters & jet-skiers tend to pack it in, leaving the river to the commercial traffic and the winter paddling set; it's peaceful; crossing the river feels a little less like playing Frogger (yes, that WAS my favorite video game when I was a kid!)- it's nice. The completely non-optional winter gear just kind of sucks, that's all.

I just need to suck it up, go for a short paddle tomorrow, then instigate a sushi trip before too long!

Winter sucks.

Like I didn't hate drysuits enough already.

Anagada, BVI

Would you believe that I took this picture as we were taking out the trash one morning?

"Yacht Shots BVI"

Anywhere in the world that there are people doing photogenic-kine adventure sports on a predictable basis, I think there's almost bound to be somebody who's carved themselves out a nice little niche taking and selling pictures of those people who are so engaged - turns out the BVI's are no exception! Here are some very nice pictures of the six of us sailing the Carina back to Road Harbor on our final day - I took a lot of nice pictures myself, which will start turning up over on my Buzznet account although there's a DSL setup package floating around out there in UPS attempted-delivery-land that I'd like to have in my soggy little paws & hooked up before I do so - but for sort of obvious reasons, the one shot I was unable to get was a picture of us under full sail! The photographers of Yacht Shots BVI were happy to rectify that matter for us. Actually it was an entertaining moment during that otherwise quiet & wistful last sail before we handed the Carina back over to Footloose Charter - we suddenly noticed this dinghy that seemed absolutely determined to get in the way, until we realized that the guy in the dinghy had perfect balance and a big ol' telephoto lens (and a really cute dog who seemed quite happy with the whole thing). The guy really had this thing down to a science - he was out in front of Road Harbor where all the charter yachts start & finish; he'd park himself outside of your course, take shots as you went past, then zip out in front of you and do the other side. His dinghy, of course, was clearly marked www.yachtshotsbvi.com - sparing him the bother of trying to deliver a business card to a fast-moving sailboat. Worked great, I found us! He got a whole bunch of nice shots - I'll probably end up getting a print or two - I don't have to get my DSL for you to see them!

I'm back.

sigh...

Aloha from Cruz Bay!

Hi! I'm posting from the town of Cruz Bay, St. John's, USVI!

It's faaaaabulous!

Our boat is named the Carina, she's beeeyootiful, the water's beeeeeyooootifu, the sea turtle was cute, my boatmates are awesome, this is fantastic, I may just stay down here & work for Greg & Barbara & maybe Arawak (kayak tours)...

just fantastic.

anyways, outside is calling, there's snorkelling and hiking to be done, must run!!!

. .O
;D />
O

Sunrise to Sunset - A Day on the Hudson

Tappan Zee Bridge, Sunrise, 10/31/05

I made an effort this morning to finish off my gallery from the delivery trip - and I did it - and here it is - Pier 62, NYC to the Hudson-Athens Light!

Technically that's actually pre-dawn to sunset. What a good weekend that was.

Now the reason I wanted to polish off that gallery was because la la la, I am less than 48 hours from Vacation, all I ever wanted, vacation had to get away...

ok maybe I should leave the song quotes to Derrick...

anyways, I'm off Tuesday morning for a week of sailing in the British Virgin Islands. WOOO HOOO! Gonna be a blast - I'm very excited, I haven't been to a really different part of the world since this wonderful trip that I was invited to take in Georgian Bay a few years back, and I'm looking forward to some warm breezes and clear blue water (not that I don't love the Hudson in all her olive-green splendor - I hope my galleries prove that!), and it's a good crew I'm going with (all women, a promising combination of crewmates from the schooner and bartenders who work with the schooner crewmate who's organized this shinding, so watch out!). Oh yes, there will be pictures! Anyways, I am basically shutting down shop here while I'm gone - don't you forget about me, hey, hey, hey, hey, don't yoooou, forget about me!

ok I should definitely leave the song quotes to Derrick...

btw just to keep up my reputation as a total Nervous Nellie and general pain in the kiester, while I'm down there playing in the warm water, may I mention that the water up here is now officially cold. I think most of the people who actually read this thing and are paddlers are pretty experienced paddlers - but if you happen to be a relatively new paddler in latitudes where the water temp is getting down to "brrr!", and nobody's read you the riot act on cold-water paddling yet, I highly recommend going & reading that "cold-water paddling" site I have on my links.

There, now that I've preserved my reputation as a safety prig, I will close by humiliating my poor Romany...my mom was curious about how my seat repair was working, and I was explaining that it was working fine, but it was really ugly...well, they do say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here you have it, one ugly, yet effective, seat repair using spray-in foam such as can be purchased at any hardware store:



Fortunately, as far as I know, my kayak does not read my blog. Now if it inexpicably dumps me when I get back, I'll be a little suspicious.

So off to finish up the stuff I need to finish before the schoonergals wing our way south! Back in a week and a coupla days!

When Bonnie met Cheri at Norrie...

Today's post is from the Sunrise to Sunset gallery I'm working on now - I posted a picture of Norrie Point last night & just wrote & when I finished I looked at it & said "Hey, there's my Frogma post for tomorros...

Here's Norrie Point. This is one of the campsites on the Hudson River Watertrail; it's also the site of the annual Hudson River Greenland Festival, a celebration of traditional kayaks and kayaking skills. My Greenland mentor Jack gave me a ride up to this year before last; I had the most wonderful time; I won the sprint race & got second place in the women's rolling - that was partly because Cheri Perry - who's one of the top Greenland paddlers & rollers in the country - let me use her Greenland-style stitch-and-glue boat. OK, I absolutely adore my Romany, but in the "Stealth" boat - it's a sleek, slim & angular stich & glue & is finished in a glossy black - I was doing some very bizarre & wonderful things - the balance of
this thing was just exquisite & with Cheri talking me through "the list" - the Greenland kayaking championships in Greenland include a list of 30 manuevers - I was able to pull off things like a brick roll (hand roll - rolling the kayak without a paddle holding a good-sized rock in one hand) and an elbow roll (hand roll with your outboard hand on the back of your head - only got that on my on-side but still, wow wow wow...). I didn't manage the brick roll in competition but man, I was so amazed at what I was able to do...it was like doing a very slow & wonderful dance with the boat and the river.

boy, it was phenomenal. Since then it has been a constant source of frustration to know that I am able to do this kind of stuff given the right boat & instruction - the boat, I'd have to build, and hope that it came out well (that's the thing about the homemade boats - people put so much time & care into building them, and sometimes they are sheer works of art, and sometimes they just aren't, and that's got to be the biggest dissapointment) then find storage for (and our barge is a little on the gritty side for a beautiful handmade craft); and Cheri does most of her teaching in Connecticutt which is a case of so near and yet so far. Got an email from her just a couple weeks ago - she & her similarly talented boyfriend are
offering semi-private lessons at a pool in a town in Connecticutt that's just a bit too far away and start a bit too early to make it work out well. Sigh.

So anyways...yeah...that's Norrie Point.

BTW the gallery isn't done yet but if you're intererested you can go ahead & take a look. Glorious day.

I am just going to add one more thing...

If there are any other latent Greenlandwannabes out there (and I think you know who you are...) who wants to twist my arm, holla back, ok? We can talk. Never hurts to talk. Trust me, the logistics are vile. It's the quality of the instruction & gear that even makes me even think about it...

Jack took me once last winter & it was great - although she made me squish into the Stealth in true Greenland style - idea being that NOTHING is going to knock a Greenland paddler loose from their boat, with a flat piece of closed cell foam holding my legs flat, which totally changes the mechanics of even the most basic rolling from the knees flexed & slightly splayed position of a "qajariaq". "Qajariaq" being what the Greenlanders call our modern takes on their traditional boats. The word means "kayak-like". A true "qajaq" is of course a hand-built skin on frame made to fit the wearer like a glove - "wearer" was an error but a good one so I'm leaving it in - really, being in a Greenland boat feels more like wearing something than sitting in something. Anyways, at Norrie Point she let me dispense with that (I was wearing a drysuit which was just bulky enough that the foam was just not going to to fit) which gave me just enough latitude to use the same technique as in my Romany, which is why it all went so spiffily. I was able to re-tune my technique some, but going to one session is just a terribly inneffective way to learn anything about rolling, it requires repetition repetition repetition until the muscles really start to understand what they need to do.

Listening to Cheri (that's me btw)(photo by Jack G.)


Stealthy Cheri Perry demonstrates a "straightjacket roll" - arms crossed, hands clasping shoulders - this one's the hardest of all & as such is actually used as a tiebreaker at the Greenland world championships. Yes, naturally I tried. Didn't even come close.

ARRRRR!

Well shiver me poopdeck and splice the mizzen, 'tis the Battlin' Belgian, Cap'n Roosterbeam the Relentless, the Terror of the Hudson! North Bound at sunrise at the Tappan Zee Bridge, for the sacking of Albany - formerly known as the capital of the state of New York, henceforth to be known as SCARANOBOATVILLE!!! ARRRR!

(although when it comes right down to it, he might relent if somebody just has the sense to give him a cold Corona...)

(oh yeah..."Scaranoboatville" idea was swiped, in modified form, from Captain Sarah!)

Statue of Liberty, Sunset, 10 30 05

Taken on the schooner Adirondack II during our last public sail of the year. It was a thoroughly beautiful end to a good season.

In which Bonnie explains herself to a left-winger

OK, so I am not trying to turn into a political blogger - mostly I'd rather just go paddling & let the world take care of itself - but if you happened to find my retort to a right-winger at all interesting, I actually did what pretty much amounts to a Part II to the original Bring It On. I left a rather extensive comment in which I explained to a couple of people who are quite a bit farther left than me why, although I trust this administration less and less (how can I when I keep hearing stuff like this on the morning news on what seems like a depressingly regular basis?) I just can't buy into some of the more extreme theories out there.

Think I used up my allotted blogging time for the week on that comment. I think this blog may become a photo blog until Tuesday, when I will be putting up a "Gone Sailing" sign on the door here at Frogma and heading down for a week with friends in the British Virgin Islands - Monday was absolutely beautiful and I came back with a camera full of pretty pictures from the schooner delivery trip, which was great. Got a ton of work to do if I want to leave the office for a week (during which I will be utterly incommunicado) with a clear desk and a clear conscience...might just be lazy and post a few of my favorite shots from that trip & the day before (when I took some friends out for the last public sail of the season - that's when I took that Statue of Liberty shot). Boy, do I love doing that delivery trip. Always makes me think of passages from Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi", the ones where he describes how a steamboat pilot has to know the entire river, both ways, to where he could bring a boat through with as easily as he could negotiate a hallway in his house in the dark (amazing stuff especially in those pre-Aid-To-Navigation days...). Talk about some great river writing. 'Course negotiating the Hudson in 2005 isn't much like that - the route is well marked with lighted buoys, just for starters - but I do like the fact that every time I do the run, I get a little more familiar with the route. Nowhere close to by heart though - that would take a little more than once or twice a year (now the tugboat pilots, they must know it in their sleep). Actually I'm thinking that the gallery I plan to post - the ultimate Frogma virtual tour, from leaving Chelsea Piers in the 4:15 a.m. darkness right up to sunset at the Saugerties-Hudson lighthouse (my batteries ran out right then) - may actually be a fun way to fix the order of the various sections of the route in my head, I'll be using my handy-dandy Hudson River Watertrail Guide to confirm my recollections as to locations where I took the various pictures. Should be fun, keep me out of trouble for a while if nothing else.

At any rate, it was wonderful & I'll at least share pix with short desciptions over the next week. For now, back to work, tons to do.