Space Shuttle Enterprise Arrives in NYC, a set on Flickr.
Note later in the day: My friend John H. waited for the shuttle near JFK and got some spectacular shots, which are now up on his blog, Control Geek.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Fly-by Friday!
Note later in the day: My friend John H. waited for the shuttle near JFK and got some spectacular shots, which are now up on his blog, Control Geek.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Where to watch for the Space Shuttle Enterprise
Update, 12:25 pm, Thursday 4/26/2012 - I'd still watch the NYC Aviation site for changes but it's actually looking pretty good. The latest update on the forum thread was an "it's on" announcement from NASA, and I also checked in with my stormchasing friend John Huntington (interesting rant about the Tupac "hologram" over there today, btw - I hadn't ever gotten the full story but was somehow intrigued by the references more pop-savvy friends of mine had made on Facebook, so I enjoyed the explanation), who said " The winds are forecast to be pretty high, but they are forecast out of the NW, right down JFK's runway 31L... So my guess is it's still on". Being a weather geek as well as a control geek, his guess is usually good enough that I guess I'm going to go look at telephoto lenses for my Lumix after work tonight.
Weather permitting, we in the NYC area are in for a treat tomorrow (Friday, 4/27). The Space Shuttle Enterprise is on her way to join the exhibits at the Intrepid Air Sea and Space Museum and she gets flown in piggybacked on a 747 tomorrow. Prior to landing at JFK, they'll do a low-level circuit over NY, flying past the Statue of Liberty, up the Hudson to the Tappan Zee, back down to Manhattan, finishing with a big loop out over New Jersey, back over Long Island and then on down to JFK on the shores of Jamaica Bay. There's a great map of places to watch (kayak not required!) on nycaviation.com; they also give links to a Twitter feed where you can get the latest; for us non-tweety types, there's also a link to the thread on the site's forum where the plane folks are watching the situation closely and I bet any changes in schedule will be up there minutes after they are announced. Do keep an eye on the site if you're making plans to watch this tomorrow, from the talk on the forum it does sound like the winds may be a problem...
Shoot, in fact I just looked at NOAA & the forecast has gone from winds around 20 kts up to "Windy, with a northwest wind around 26 mph, with gusts as high as 36 mph"...that doesn't sound good at all.
Well, whenever it happens, I'm planning on watching from my office in SoHo, where I think we'll have a decent view. Not only do I have permission to go up to the roof in the morning, but my bosses are both bummed out that they are out of the office (won't they be happy if it's postponed)!
Might have to go buy a telephoto lens for the Lumix for this one! :D
Thanks to Going Coastal and the Working Harbor Committee for doing a great job with the links & updates on Facebook!
Weather permitting, we in the NYC area are in for a treat tomorrow (Friday, 4/27). The Space Shuttle Enterprise is on her way to join the exhibits at the Intrepid Air Sea and Space Museum and she gets flown in piggybacked on a 747 tomorrow. Prior to landing at JFK, they'll do a low-level circuit over NY, flying past the Statue of Liberty, up the Hudson to the Tappan Zee, back down to Manhattan, finishing with a big loop out over New Jersey, back over Long Island and then on down to JFK on the shores of Jamaica Bay. There's a great map of places to watch (kayak not required!) on nycaviation.com; they also give links to a Twitter feed where you can get the latest; for us non-tweety types, there's also a link to the thread on the site's forum where the plane folks are watching the situation closely and I bet any changes in schedule will be up there minutes after they are announced. Do keep an eye on the site if you're making plans to watch this tomorrow, from the talk on the forum it does sound like the winds may be a problem...
Shoot, in fact I just looked at NOAA & the forecast has gone from winds around 20 kts up to "Windy, with a northwest wind around 26 mph, with gusts as high as 36 mph"...that doesn't sound good at all.
Well, whenever it happens, I'm planning on watching from my office in SoHo, where I think we'll have a decent view. Not only do I have permission to go up to the roof in the morning, but my bosses are both bummed out that they are out of the office (won't they be happy if it's postponed)!
Might have to go buy a telephoto lens for the Lumix for this one! :D
Thanks to Going Coastal and the Working Harbor Committee for doing a great job with the links & updates on Facebook!
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Moving Day for PortSide NewYork (but unfortunately not the Mary A. Whalen herself)
Moving Day for PortSide NewYork, a set on Flickr.
flickr photo album from 4/14/2012 - helping move the PortSide NewYork office and maritime artifacts to the donated temporary office space at 145 Columbia Street.
The New York Times, btw, did run a very nice article just this last Sunday.
Fingers still crossed & knocking wood that she finds a new home.
Monday, April 23, 2012
But good news about the Schooner Pioneer!
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| From A Schooner, Two Kayaks and a Yellow Submarine: The Boats Of Labor Day Weekend 2010 |
It looks like whenever I can get around to updating my more-or-less annual Ways To Get On The Water In NYC post, I can put the Schooner Pioneer back on - she was recently spotted in the harbor on her first training sail since the re-opening of the South Street Seaport.
HOORAY!
A very warm welcome back to this grand old lady of the harbor.
NYU Poly Concrete Canoe Team - Better Luck Next Year!
Sad news from the NYU Poly Concrete Canoe Team. They were back at the club on Saturday, Joe Glickman worked with them for an hour then Andy took them out in the club's war canoe and they were looking pretty good.
Unfortunately, in the past they've always had a great boat that no one knew how to paddle - this year it was some issues with their boat that robbed them of their shot. It had cracked in the unmolding; they'd repaired it but that meant they'd lost the time to actually at least float the canoe before the day of the contest. It was looking like there was a good chance that the weather was going to give them the extra week they needed to do that and sort out whatever problems they found - but the race was started early enough that it was before the weather turned to utter crap and it went off without a hitch - at least from the race committee's point of view. Our team? Their canoe failed the "swamp test" ( they fill it with water before they put anyone in it and I guess it's supposed to at least have enough positive flotation to stay on the surface); if that happens, the team is allowed to attach flotation, but as they were doing that the boat cracked again and it was all over.
Really too bad - would've liked to see them compete.
But they're eager for next year now.
Unfortunately, in the past they've always had a great boat that no one knew how to paddle - this year it was some issues with their boat that robbed them of their shot. It had cracked in the unmolding; they'd repaired it but that meant they'd lost the time to actually at least float the canoe before the day of the contest. It was looking like there was a good chance that the weather was going to give them the extra week they needed to do that and sort out whatever problems they found - but the race was started early enough that it was before the weather turned to utter crap and it went off without a hitch - at least from the race committee's point of view. Our team? Their canoe failed the "swamp test" ( they fill it with water before they put anyone in it and I guess it's supposed to at least have enough positive flotation to stay on the surface); if that happens, the team is allowed to attach flotation, but as they were doing that the boat cracked again and it was all over.
Really too bad - would've liked to see them compete.
But they're eager for next year now.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Roosevelt Island boathouse - tying up a few loose ends, introducing a few new ones.
Just a quick post here since I sort of left things dangling with this thing.
I did get a little more information this week. On the good side - apparently people on Roosevelt Island have actually been trying to figure out if they could get some kind of water access for ages, and in the process of that they have spoken to exactly the sort of expert I've been saying they should be speaking to - somebody who's not looking to run anything there and has experience that gives them a broader perspective than just a kayaker's. The opinion given was that there are a few places on the island where small, carefully controlled programs could be run safely.
That was really what I wanted to hear was happening - as I think I said, my impression based on my own recollections of the area was that it wouldn't be good, but if I had a chance to go see it, I might easily rethink.
As far as small, carefully controlled programs go, the kayak group that the Roosevelt Islander blog mentioned as having attended a recent meeting (in the comments in theoriginal R.I.'er post I'd referred to) are already running stuff like that in the same area and know as well as anyone how to deal with the currents and stay out of the way of the barges. So on that front, I was definitely being a Chicken Little. However, there's still something off-kilter here - ends up being off in competitive-rowing territory and that's outside of what I actually know, but here's what I've read of the story so far. It is an interesting set-up.
The boathouse RFP that was just put up was in response to a proposal that the Roosevelt Island Operating Company ("RIOC", which basically decides what happens on Roosevelt Island) received from an organization called New York Rowing.
New York Rowing used to be based at the Peter Jay Sharp boathouse (which I admit I still think of as the Bette Midler Boathouse as she had a ton to do with the place existing at all - she saw a community need and helped make it happen) on the Harlem River. Programs there have now been taken over by a group called Row New York. You can read more about the story of the changeover on the latest WaterWire. That article mentions that New York Rowing wasn't very involved in the community. The parting of the ways involved a lawsuit.
Having lost that venue, NY Rowing asked the RIOC for a new home on Roosevelt Island. The RFP was done on an expedited basis, (which is why I was so utterly floored by the whole thing; usually any new boathouses in the area take eons of planning and community board meetings and other such argh-itude, and this one popped up complete as Athena springing from Zeus's head, without so much as a single rumor beforehand - I'm not as hooked in to the kayak grapevine as I was when I was in Manhattan, where a certain amount of political action is just part of the cost of keeping a boat on the waterfront, but still, a new boathouse is huge!) but right on the heels of the announcement came questions about conflicts of interest among a couple of the parties involved.
At this point, this is all way over my head, but I'll definitely be staying tuned and if I hear anything, I'll pass it along. That's all for now - gotta get some shuteye, long week and I need to rest up, tomorrow is the Sebago Season Opener and Andy and I are starting it off with another session with the NYU Poly Concrete Canoe Team. Go Team!
Hope everybody has a good weekend!
I did get a little more information this week. On the good side - apparently people on Roosevelt Island have actually been trying to figure out if they could get some kind of water access for ages, and in the process of that they have spoken to exactly the sort of expert I've been saying they should be speaking to - somebody who's not looking to run anything there and has experience that gives them a broader perspective than just a kayaker's. The opinion given was that there are a few places on the island where small, carefully controlled programs could be run safely.
That was really what I wanted to hear was happening - as I think I said, my impression based on my own recollections of the area was that it wouldn't be good, but if I had a chance to go see it, I might easily rethink.
As far as small, carefully controlled programs go, the kayak group that the Roosevelt Islander blog mentioned as having attended a recent meeting (in the comments in theoriginal R.I.'er post I'd referred to) are already running stuff like that in the same area and know as well as anyone how to deal with the currents and stay out of the way of the barges. So on that front, I was definitely being a Chicken Little. However, there's still something off-kilter here - ends up being off in competitive-rowing territory and that's outside of what I actually know, but here's what I've read of the story so far. It is an interesting set-up.
The boathouse RFP that was just put up was in response to a proposal that the Roosevelt Island Operating Company ("RIOC", which basically decides what happens on Roosevelt Island) received from an organization called New York Rowing.
New York Rowing used to be based at the Peter Jay Sharp boathouse (which I admit I still think of as the Bette Midler Boathouse as she had a ton to do with the place existing at all - she saw a community need and helped make it happen) on the Harlem River. Programs there have now been taken over by a group called Row New York. You can read more about the story of the changeover on the latest WaterWire. That article mentions that New York Rowing wasn't very involved in the community. The parting of the ways involved a lawsuit.
Having lost that venue, NY Rowing asked the RIOC for a new home on Roosevelt Island. The RFP was done on an expedited basis, (which is why I was so utterly floored by the whole thing; usually any new boathouses in the area take eons of planning and community board meetings and other such argh-itude, and this one popped up complete as Athena springing from Zeus's head, without so much as a single rumor beforehand - I'm not as hooked in to the kayak grapevine as I was when I was in Manhattan, where a certain amount of political action is just part of the cost of keeping a boat on the waterfront, but still, a new boathouse is huge!) but right on the heels of the announcement came questions about conflicts of interest among a couple of the parties involved.
At this point, this is all way over my head, but I'll definitely be staying tuned and if I hear anything, I'll pass it along. That's all for now - gotta get some shuteye, long week and I need to rest up, tomorrow is the Sebago Season Opener and Andy and I are starting it off with another session with the NYU Poly Concrete Canoe Team. Go Team!
Hope everybody has a good weekend!
Foodie Friday: Saimin x Bibimbap = Saiminbap!
Because things got too danged serious around here this week! 
So there I was with all those chicken-fresh eggs that needed to be eaten up before they weren't fresh any more.
I like to drop an egg on top of my ramen, bibimbap-style. Chicken-fresh eggs were worth breaking out some of my prized & carefully-rationed S&S Saimin.
Chicken-fresh eggs over S&S saimin were worth an after-work swing through Chinatown for fixin's. Would usually get char siu but had lup cheong on the brain. Got that & then started browsing the vegetable stands for green onions and, hmmm, maybe a nice fresh veggie to add to the usual frozen peas and corn and baby carrots? Yes. Now, what kind, what kind? Bok choy? Broccoli rabe? Oooh, lovely, springtime pea shoots, SOLD!
Topped off with a few slices of pretty pink-swirled fishcake (aka kamaboko, also called "naruto" - the perfect fishcake for kayakers, as the swirls are meant to represent the swirling eddies of the Naruto Strait, as I just learned from Japanese paddler Eiichi Ito when I posted this on Facebook - thanks, Eiichi!) - saimin's just not saimin without the fishcake - and there we are.
Prettiest saimin I ever made, and every bit as onolicious as it looked.
Happy Aloha Friday to all!
So there I was with all those chicken-fresh eggs that needed to be eaten up before they weren't fresh any more. I like to drop an egg on top of my ramen, bibimbap-style. Chicken-fresh eggs were worth breaking out some of my prized & carefully-rationed S&S Saimin.
Chicken-fresh eggs over S&S saimin were worth an after-work swing through Chinatown for fixin's. Would usually get char siu but had lup cheong on the brain. Got that & then started browsing the vegetable stands for green onions and, hmmm, maybe a nice fresh veggie to add to the usual frozen peas and corn and baby carrots? Yes. Now, what kind, what kind? Bok choy? Broccoli rabe? Oooh, lovely, springtime pea shoots, SOLD!
Topped off with a few slices of pretty pink-swirled fishcake (aka kamaboko, also called "naruto" - the perfect fishcake for kayakers, as the swirls are meant to represent the swirling eddies of the Naruto Strait, as I just learned from Japanese paddler Eiichi Ito when I posted this on Facebook - thanks, Eiichi!) - saimin's just not saimin without the fishcake - and there we are.
Prettiest saimin I ever made, and every bit as onolicious as it looked.
Happy Aloha Friday to all!
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
And Now, Back To Our Usually Scheduled Cheery Babble: Training Day for the NYU Poly Concrete Canoe Team at Sebago!
OK, enough of making life difficult for friends who I didn't realize were involved in things I was being critical of. Back to cheery paddle babble (ha, "cheery paddle babble"! - say that five times fast and tell me how it went in the comments, OK? hee hee) with lots! of! exclamation points! (Do I recall making a New Year's Resolution to stop abusing exclamation points? FAIL!)
Fun weekend last weekend. Saturday I thought I was going to go help out the Sebago Sailing Committee with the Spring dinghy cleaning and prep but at the last last last minute I ended up helping PortSide NewYork to their great new office space (open to the public! woohoo!) at 145 Columbia Street. I was a little slow on the uptake, somehow I'd mixed this move up with another day that turned out to have been cancelled but eventually I figured out that Carolina's repeated "I really need help tomorrow!" messages on Facebook actually meant that SHE REALLY NEEDED HELP. Duh. Figured it out in time to go have what really turned out to be a fun day of moving maritime artifacts (all quite cool & all for sale - need an awesome knot board or three matching nameboards from the Majestic Star? Go see Carolina!) - more pictures later but for now, here's PortSide NewYork's founder Carolina, curator Peter and IT guy Dan out in front of the office, with the artifact that I decided was a "Steam Punk Fern Stand" (extra credit to the first person who can correctly identify the thing), discussing signage (or maybe buoyage - they were thinking a big mooring ball could be hung from the fire escape or something).
And oops, I've already gone on way longer than I meant to - I'd really just started out with the intent of sharing some pictures from Sunday that I'd already uploaded to the Sebago blog for Andy to use.
Sunday's fun was a training session for the NYU Poly Concrete Canoe Team. Yep, you read it right, concrete canoe! Ever heard of the Concrete Canoe Competition? It's an annual competition among engineering students from all over the country. Their challenge? To design, build, and race a concrete canoe. I've known about this competition for a long time, but I learned a whole lot of fascinating details about it on Sunday when Sebago hosted Brooklyn's own NYU Poly team. Fascinating stuff - they don't just go buy some bags of Sakrete at home depot like the average person would if told to make a canoe out of concrete - no no no, formulating and mixing concrete particularly suited for the task of being a canoe is half the battle. They design the boat, they pour the boat, they unmold the boat, they decorate the boat (and again, they can't just hit Home Depot for some paint, the decoration is done with special concrete stains and the artwork can be beautiful if the students want to go that way) and then they race the boat.
And the last piece is where we came in. Andy Novick has been following the NYU Poly teams for years. Every year they build a great boat, they win prizes for designs & papers & all the intellectual stuff, but then they get in this great boat that they built and they haven't got the slightest clue of how to actually move it through the water. Andy's been extending invitations to come to Sebago to learn for ages - this year, we finally had takers!
And a nice bunch of young engineers-in-training they were, too.
I was mostly there as a safety boat & picture taker - they didn't need any help, but here are the pix!
Dry-land intro:
Bring out the war canoe!
Down the ramp...
and onto the water
And they're off!
Out in the basin...1,2,3,4, you're beautiful, number 5, you're killin' me here - seriously, though, they really did make a lot of progress in a not much time, there were plenty of good stretches where they were all in sync & moving the canoe well.
Back on shore
Watching videos of paddlers with great technique
Unfortunately the 2nd spin in the canoe had to be called off as it was getting too breezy to work well.
The team gets a few quick pointers from Joe "World-Famous Joe Glickman" Glickman (we're all kidding him a little bit after his success with Fearless, his recent book about Freya Hoffmeister)
Want to learn more about the Concrete Canoe Competition? Click here to visit the official Concrete Canoe website.
Fun weekend last weekend. Saturday I thought I was going to go help out the Sebago Sailing Committee with the Spring dinghy cleaning and prep but at the last last last minute I ended up helping PortSide NewYork to their great new office space (open to the public! woohoo!) at 145 Columbia Street. I was a little slow on the uptake, somehow I'd mixed this move up with another day that turned out to have been cancelled but eventually I figured out that Carolina's repeated "I really need help tomorrow!" messages on Facebook actually meant that SHE REALLY NEEDED HELP. Duh. Figured it out in time to go have what really turned out to be a fun day of moving maritime artifacts (all quite cool & all for sale - need an awesome knot board or three matching nameboards from the Majestic Star? Go see Carolina!) - more pictures later but for now, here's PortSide NewYork's founder Carolina, curator Peter and IT guy Dan out in front of the office, with the artifact that I decided was a "Steam Punk Fern Stand" (extra credit to the first person who can correctly identify the thing), discussing signage (or maybe buoyage - they were thinking a big mooring ball could be hung from the fire escape or something).
And oops, I've already gone on way longer than I meant to - I'd really just started out with the intent of sharing some pictures from Sunday that I'd already uploaded to the Sebago blog for Andy to use.
Sunday's fun was a training session for the NYU Poly Concrete Canoe Team. Yep, you read it right, concrete canoe! Ever heard of the Concrete Canoe Competition? It's an annual competition among engineering students from all over the country. Their challenge? To design, build, and race a concrete canoe. I've known about this competition for a long time, but I learned a whole lot of fascinating details about it on Sunday when Sebago hosted Brooklyn's own NYU Poly team. Fascinating stuff - they don't just go buy some bags of Sakrete at home depot like the average person would if told to make a canoe out of concrete - no no no, formulating and mixing concrete particularly suited for the task of being a canoe is half the battle. They design the boat, they pour the boat, they unmold the boat, they decorate the boat (and again, they can't just hit Home Depot for some paint, the decoration is done with special concrete stains and the artwork can be beautiful if the students want to go that way) and then they race the boat.
And the last piece is where we came in. Andy Novick has been following the NYU Poly teams for years. Every year they build a great boat, they win prizes for designs & papers & all the intellectual stuff, but then they get in this great boat that they built and they haven't got the slightest clue of how to actually move it through the water. Andy's been extending invitations to come to Sebago to learn for ages - this year, we finally had takers!
And a nice bunch of young engineers-in-training they were, too.
I was mostly there as a safety boat & picture taker - they didn't need any help, but here are the pix!
Dry-land intro:
Bring out the war canoe!
Down the ramp...
and onto the water
And they're off!
Out in the basin...1,2,3,4, you're beautiful, number 5, you're killin' me here - seriously, though, they really did make a lot of progress in a not much time, there were plenty of good stretches where they were all in sync & moving the canoe well.
Back on shore
Watching videos of paddlers with great technique
Unfortunately the 2nd spin in the canoe had to be called off as it was getting too breezy to work well.
The team gets a few quick pointers from Joe "World-Famous Joe Glickman" Glickman (we're all kidding him a little bit after his success with Fearless, his recent book about Freya Hoffmeister)
Want to learn more about the Concrete Canoe Competition? Click here to visit the official Concrete Canoe website.
Sermon Postponed Indefinitely...
OK, left a comment over on the Roosevelt Islander suggesting consulting with CG, CG Aux, or maybe a professional outfitter about whether their proposed location was really suitable for what they wanted to do.
Their response:
"Earlier today, representatives from NYC kayak/boatclubs with a great deal of experience paddling on the East River attended a meeting with RIOC staff to discuss the RFP. Although the Kayak/Boat Club representatives acknowledged the challenges of operating a kayak facility at this site, they also expressed their strong desire to participate in establishing such a facility."
My initial reaction was "I don't get it. I really, really don't get it. I honestly didn't think any of the local paddlers who knew what they were doing would touch this one with a ten-foot canoe pole..."
Turns out however that those were friends who know the area better than I do. I'm still not sure I like the idea, but it's not really my business. It sounds like there will be more explanation forthcoming - it also sounds like maybe some brakes will be put on the ridiculous rush, and if my friends were to be selected, certain things that the RFP mentioned (like rentals) would be dropped in favor of a pretty closely controlled operation, - so for now, no sermon, I feel like I've said my bit & that's enough.
Still seems like it would've made a TON of sense for the RIOC to get an opinion from someone who knows boating safety but does not have a direct interest in running their facility, but the mental pictures I was painting for myself when things like rentals were supposedly in the picture have gotten a little less frightening.
Their response:
"Earlier today, representatives from NYC kayak/boatclubs with a great deal of experience paddling on the East River attended a meeting with RIOC staff to discuss the RFP. Although the Kayak/Boat Club representatives acknowledged the challenges of operating a kayak facility at this site, they also expressed their strong desire to participate in establishing such a facility."
My initial reaction was "I don't get it. I really, really don't get it. I honestly didn't think any of the local paddlers who knew what they were doing would touch this one with a ten-foot canoe pole..."
Turns out however that those were friends who know the area better than I do. I'm still not sure I like the idea, but it's not really my business. It sounds like there will be more explanation forthcoming - it also sounds like maybe some brakes will be put on the ridiculous rush, and if my friends were to be selected, certain things that the RFP mentioned (like rentals) would be dropped in favor of a pretty closely controlled operation, - so for now, no sermon, I feel like I've said my bit & that's enough.
Still seems like it would've made a TON of sense for the RIOC to get an opinion from someone who knows boating safety but does not have a direct interest in running their facility, but the mental pictures I was painting for myself when things like rentals were supposedly in the picture have gotten a little less frightening.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
I Have Not Yet Begun To Preach
Well, that got to be a very interesting discussion over the lie-down paddlesurfer yesterday, especially after he actually left a comment introducing himself.
One guy making his own decisions about what to do & how to do it on the waters of NYC is not what's bugging me this week, though. What's really bugging me this week (and if you're a Facebook friend of mine you may already know this) is an RFP for a new kayak facility that's just come out. Usually I'd say "YAY" but in this case, they're talking about putting it on the eastern channel of Roosevelt Island.
Personally, I don't think you could come up with a much more ill-conceived location. You've got currents that top out at speeds around 4 kts (faster than the average paddler can paddle) and heavy commercial traffic (and I mean heavy as in "lots of boats" and also heavy as in in HEAVY) operating a very restricted channel. Not a place I think of as somewhere I'd want to be responsible for a group of novices.
More later (although I pretty much just said my piece there, really - couldn't quite bring myself to just say "Bad idea, I'll tell you why later") but for now - here's the proposal, and here's an update from a recent community meeting.
It's not really any of my business but it really, really worries me.
More sometime when I'm not on my
Monday, April 16, 2012
Turn, Turn, Turn, and, The Large and the Small Of It In Buttermilk Channel
Enormous, fully loaded container ship deftly spins 180 degrees in place using bow thrusters and the aid of a single tug.
Southbound in the Buttermilk Channel
Buttermilk Channel: the large and the small of it. Current had just turned to southbound so in addition to the container ship leaving the Red Hook Container Port, there was a parade of tug & barge units coming down the East River - and then Carolina spotted something odd up to the north.
What is it? A seal? A dolphin? A piling with a seagull flapping on it? Nope, it was a guy laying on a surfboard paddling with his hands. We asked if he was OK, thinking maybe he was a standup paddler who'd lost his paddle. He said he was fine & paddled on.
All I can say is, "Whoa, dude. Long way to the break."
More on why I ended up in Red Hook, instead of helping out with spring dinghy prep at the Sebago club work day on Saturday, tonight, or sometime this week outside of work hours, but I happen to have the chip I was using over the weekend with me and I just couldn't resist popping these up now. Never quite got the stand-up paddleboard as a means of travelling distances on flat water (although they look absolutely awesome for surfing), so this I thought this was just wild.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Foodie Friday - Simple Pleasures
1. Pizza
Mixed emotions about seeing local pizzeria DiFara's make yet another "best pizzas" list. Always nice to see local pizza icon Dom getting the recognition he deserves - but dang it all, Muskie, it's already hard enough to get a slice there and this is not gonna help that one bit!
Pizza shovels are for wimps:
The guy's been making pizza for so long he's got oven mitts for hands.
Artist At Work:
That's Amore!
2. Backyard Chicken Eggs:
PAAS, schmaas. I always loved decorating eggs when I was a kid (and come to think of it had a lot of fun learning to do pysanky from a friend's sister sometime back in the 90's, when I guess I'd have to admit to no longer being a kid), but I think this bowl of backyard chicken eggs might just be prettier than any Easter basket I ever had:
Courtesy of the backyard chickens of an old friend from Pier 63. I used to call Daniel "goofyman" on this blog, after "goofy-footed" - when he was learning to roll, he discovered that although he's right-handed, it was easier for him to get the roll on what most right-handers would consider the "offside", with the left hand guiding the sweep instead of the right. He and his family moved to my neighborhood a couple of years ago, they got one of the nice houses in the area and they've actually got this great little backyard food thing going on - they compost, they garden, and they have 4 chickens who I'm always happy to get called on to take care of. Not only are the eggs fantastic, but I actually like stopping by to see them - they're much friendlier & more interested in people than I ever thought chickens would be, and it's fun watching them and seeing what sort of treats they like. Last time they got the wilty parts of my last chard pickings, this time I discovered that they absolutely adore apples; I offered them a core from one I'd eaten on the way over yesterday morning (which was last day of chickensitting this time) - they grabbed it with gusto & there was a very happy-sounding chorus of "brrrrrk brrrrk brrrrk!" as they gobbled it up.
Daniel had told me they were laying well right now, and when I went to check in on them on the first day I found six eggs in the nest boxes! Had to take a picture - partly because they were so pretty, and partly to post over on Facebook, where a friend who lives up near Poughkeepsie had just read an article in the Times about backyard chickens and is thinking maybe he should get some.
Yes, Jeffrey, you should! :D
Mixed emotions about seeing local pizzeria DiFara's make yet another "best pizzas" list. Always nice to see local pizza icon Dom getting the recognition he deserves - but dang it all, Muskie, it's already hard enough to get a slice there and this is not gonna help that one bit!
Pizza shovels are for wimps:
The guy's been making pizza for so long he's got oven mitts for hands. Artist At Work:
That's Amore!
2. Backyard Chicken Eggs:
PAAS, schmaas. I always loved decorating eggs when I was a kid (and come to think of it had a lot of fun learning to do pysanky from a friend's sister sometime back in the 90's, when I guess I'd have to admit to no longer being a kid), but I think this bowl of backyard chicken eggs might just be prettier than any Easter basket I ever had:
Courtesy of the backyard chickens of an old friend from Pier 63. I used to call Daniel "goofyman" on this blog, after "goofy-footed" - when he was learning to roll, he discovered that although he's right-handed, it was easier for him to get the roll on what most right-handers would consider the "offside", with the left hand guiding the sweep instead of the right. He and his family moved to my neighborhood a couple of years ago, they got one of the nice houses in the area and they've actually got this great little backyard food thing going on - they compost, they garden, and they have 4 chickens who I'm always happy to get called on to take care of. Not only are the eggs fantastic, but I actually like stopping by to see them - they're much friendlier & more interested in people than I ever thought chickens would be, and it's fun watching them and seeing what sort of treats they like. Last time they got the wilty parts of my last chard pickings, this time I discovered that they absolutely adore apples; I offered them a core from one I'd eaten on the way over yesterday morning (which was last day of chickensitting this time) - they grabbed it with gusto & there was a very happy-sounding chorus of "brrrrrk brrrrk brrrrk!" as they gobbled it up.
Daniel had told me they were laying well right now, and when I went to check in on them on the first day I found six eggs in the nest boxes! Had to take a picture - partly because they were so pretty, and partly to post over on Facebook, where a friend who lives up near Poughkeepsie had just read an article in the Times about backyard chickens and is thinking maybe he should get some.
Yes, Jeffrey, you should! :D
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
One more post for PortSide NewYork
I'd posted a link to an update not too long ago when I'd gotten an update on the status of the search for a home for the Mary A. Whalen, saying that I thought could be read as "cautiously optimistic". They'd gotten temporary office space, and options are being looked at and discussed, and it didn't sound too bad, but here's the catch...
There's still no actual home for the tanker and the end of April's coming up awfully fast.
I wanted to write something eloquent but I have simply been too brain-fried from budget & royalty season. So, I'll just try to keep this simple -
I want to see PortSide NewYork keep on going and thriving on NYC's waterfront. There are an awful lot of us who are very attached to being on and beside the "Sixth Borough". Some work on it, some play on it, some want to live next to it, some just want to enjoy it as scenery. All well and good, but the various ways various sets want to use it aren't always complementary, and left to our own devices, I think we get a bit of a blind-man-and-the-elephant thing going on - can't see the other guy's version. I myself still remember writing some sort of wretched essay early on in my paddling career; someone had actually asked me to and I think they were after the newbie's wide-eyed wonder thing, which I gave them in spades. I've lost track of that particular piece of writing & I'll be happy if it stays lost for good. I don't remember much of what it said but I call it wretched because I clearly remember starting it off with a paragraph of mournful reflections on crumbling piers, blah blah blah.
If I could go back & whisper in my own ear as I was writing that, I would tell myself, "Stop writing. You don't know how little you know. You haven't gone around Staten Island yet. You haven't paddled the Brooklyn waterfront. You haven't seen anything but a teeny little piece of the NYC coastline & trust me, there's WAY more out there than you realize. Wait until you've seen more. Wait until you've hung out with people who earn their living out there on the harbor. You'll have a very different picture then."
I think I could've learned all of that a lot faster if there'd been an organization like PortSide NewYork around. The organization, and the handsome old tanker on which it is based, has served as a great place for all of the different types of people who appreciate different aspects of the waterfront to gather, teach, learn, and enjoy all sorts of wonderful programming.
To learn more about all the different stuff that goes on there, check out their blog. It actually does a pretty good job of showing why I have had a hard time figuring out what to say - there's just so much, where do you start? It's a bit like describing the crowd that turned out at the planning meeting at the start of all of this - we had lawyers, sailors, historians, artists, kayakers, engineers, food truck vendors, deckhands, pilots (both nautical & aeronautical, I think), photographers, journalists, at least one finance analyst(hiya)- really an amazing range of people.
That's all I can really think of to say right now except that I hope that there's good news sometime soon. There just isn't much more time.
Want to help out? Easiest way is to sign the petition. For more ways to help, here's the link to the same e-mail newsletter I'd linked to before - at this point I think it's still the best rundown of the current status as there is.
Hoping for the best.
There's still no actual home for the tanker and the end of April's coming up awfully fast.
I wanted to write something eloquent but I have simply been too brain-fried from budget & royalty season. So, I'll just try to keep this simple -
I want to see PortSide NewYork keep on going and thriving on NYC's waterfront. There are an awful lot of us who are very attached to being on and beside the "Sixth Borough". Some work on it, some play on it, some want to live next to it, some just want to enjoy it as scenery. All well and good, but the various ways various sets want to use it aren't always complementary, and left to our own devices, I think we get a bit of a blind-man-and-the-elephant thing going on - can't see the other guy's version. I myself still remember writing some sort of wretched essay early on in my paddling career; someone had actually asked me to and I think they were after the newbie's wide-eyed wonder thing, which I gave them in spades. I've lost track of that particular piece of writing & I'll be happy if it stays lost for good. I don't remember much of what it said but I call it wretched because I clearly remember starting it off with a paragraph of mournful reflections on crumbling piers, blah blah blah.
If I could go back & whisper in my own ear as I was writing that, I would tell myself, "Stop writing. You don't know how little you know. You haven't gone around Staten Island yet. You haven't paddled the Brooklyn waterfront. You haven't seen anything but a teeny little piece of the NYC coastline & trust me, there's WAY more out there than you realize. Wait until you've seen more. Wait until you've hung out with people who earn their living out there on the harbor. You'll have a very different picture then."
I think I could've learned all of that a lot faster if there'd been an organization like PortSide NewYork around. The organization, and the handsome old tanker on which it is based, has served as a great place for all of the different types of people who appreciate different aspects of the waterfront to gather, teach, learn, and enjoy all sorts of wonderful programming.
To learn more about all the different stuff that goes on there, check out their blog. It actually does a pretty good job of showing why I have had a hard time figuring out what to say - there's just so much, where do you start? It's a bit like describing the crowd that turned out at the planning meeting at the start of all of this - we had lawyers, sailors, historians, artists, kayakers, engineers, food truck vendors, deckhands, pilots (both nautical & aeronautical, I think), photographers, journalists, at least one finance analyst(hiya)- really an amazing range of people.
That's all I can really think of to say right now except that I hope that there's good news sometime soon. There just isn't much more time.
Want to help out? Easiest way is to sign the petition. For more ways to help, here's the link to the same e-mail newsletter I'd linked to before - at this point I think it's still the best rundown of the current status as there is.
Hoping for the best.
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