Being the Continuing Adventures of a Woman and her Trusty Kayak in New York Harbor, the Hudson River, and Beyond.
(with occasional political rants just to keep things lively!)
Nice little thaw we had there for a few days. There was hardly any ice in the Allegheny at all. Saturday was about as nice a paddling day as you could ask for out there.
I hope Saturday behaves itself - we've got another proxigean tide coming up on Saturday, and Sebago's been plotting a proper Proxigean Paddle. I'm particularly psyched because proxigee makes the highs higher & the lows lower, and the timing of the last one was good for catching the looooow low, and this time we'll be out on the other end of the cycle seeing the high high water. Conditions permitting, some of us want to head out to Ruffle Bar - there's a marsh there that lets you paddle quite far into the island at normal high water& we're wondering if with this, we might be able to paddle all the way through to the beach on the other side! Whether we can or not, it'll be most interesting to see the flipside of the extreme tide I posted about back in December '08.
The proxigean high wasn't the bank-buster it was last year - apparently this time it was the 1 a.m. low that was the big deal (to the point that there had been a warning about it in the marine forecast). But we were already at the club, and breakfast was delicious, and we had a good icy paddle with a toasty woodstove, sandwich fixings and homemade soup & applesauce waiting at the clubhouse when we finished (the food was a nice surprise, I only thought we were getting breakfast.
The photo is of my spare paddle, a Greenland paddle I carry on my front deck at all times except when I'm using it (at which point the Euroblade becomes the spare). It became a very icy paddle on our icy paddle!
Personally, I think this was probably the coldest weather I have ever paddled in. I usually start to shy away when I start seeing temperatures in the teens. I definitely don't remember ever collecting as much ice as I did today!
And if, like myself (at least until I checked in on my email this morning), you haven't got a clue what a Proxigean Tide is, don't worry, you'll find that out there too.
Thanks, DennisG. Here's some more Rockaway Peninsula for you. Starts at the Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge, over Fort Tilden, out to sea. Just past the tree I pause on Coney Island, you can see the Verranzano Narrows Bridge too. Next brief pause is on the Manhattan skyline - it was very clear on Friday.
Oh, and speaking of learning new things, I learned about "graupel" a couple of weeks ago, during a cozy evening curled up on the futon with Extreme Weather, a fascinating giveaway bin find by H. Michael Mogil. I could tell you about it, but I think it's better to let someone who, being a Michigander, has actually had a little more of a first hand experience with the stuff do the honors.
There's an old hulk on the sandbar that extends out to the daymark to the east of Canarsie Pol.
Here's what you see of it near normal low tide:
Here it was at low water on our post-proxigean paddle on Sunday!
TQ ended up having to do that walking-on-the-water impression because yours truly simply had to go see how much of this was there to be seen.
Quite a bit! And by the way, there's usually water over there. Not necessarily enough to float a kayak at normal low, but enough to just cover the sandbar. I knew perfectly well we were likely to run out of water.
But...check out the pretty green sponges!
There was a lot of stuff that was high & dry that's usually underwater, and the animals seemed to be enjoying the smorgasbord. This guy & a couple of others were busy clamming - one ran away, this one did look up a moment after I took the picture but wasn't in a hurry to leave his shellfish bonanza, nor did I want him to (I'd had a great lunch, why shouldn't he?), so I headed on.
In general, those little long-legged shoreline type birds tend to be a little skittish around kayaks, but like the raccoon, these guys (I think they are Ruddy Turnstones but will check with my birder friends) were so focused on the wonderful feast this low, low water had uncovered, they hardly paid attention to us at all as we passed.
A little more J-Bay wildlife, out on the Rockaway Peninsula.
The herd approaches the watering hole with caution...
(12/18 lunchtime update - A few more photos to come tonight - but I'm just signing in to suggest that the kayak-obsessed among you (you know who you are) might find a visit to the 70.8% blog particularly enjoyable right around now!)
If everybody didn't know I was probably at the beach, I would call this picture "Tea in the Sahara".
It's one of a very few I took on my last winter paddle - first off, the weather was extremely breezy & I had to concentrate on paddling, and secondly, I was out of reach of my charger for the weekend & wanted to save the batteries for the very unusual and fun event that some very smart folks at Sebago had put together in honor of the midafternoon arrival of the Supermoon Proxigean Low Water - a shorewalk right in our own Paerdegat Basin!
It was GREAT - thanks to all who helped organize, I really enjoyed seeing our familiar basin from a different point of view!
More pictures from both days (but mostly the shorewalk) can be found here.
As we approached the Paerdegat at the end of yesterday's paddle, this barge (part of the bridge construction equipment) reminded me that I had not gotten around to grabbing the ball that has been being tossed around since Capt. JP kicked it off. So, having ascertained that TQ is comfortably settled on the Evil Futon of Nap with a book & a beer & therefore almost certain to be dozing off in an few minutes & peacefully asleep for an hour or two - here we go!
Seems like overall, it hasn't been the best year this country has ever known - the oil spills, the continuing bad economy, the vile politics engendered thereby (I still thank God that Paladino started threatening to hit people before he got anywhere CLOSE to office, although it's really too bad that he didn't start sooner so that the Republicans could have fielded an actual viable candidate - not that I'd have voted for that person but it would be nice to have an election one of these days where you actually might have a hard time deciding), etc. etc. - but I'll leave the heavy lifting to the professionals & stick to my own year in NY & beyond - which was really pretty good all around.
Got off on the right foot with a great Frostbite Regatta. TQ couldn't make it here for New Year's (and after a couple of nightmarish Greyhound trips on holiday weekends I had given up on going there for holidays) but it was still a lot of fun. Funny thing looking at the comments there - last year I was saying "Wow, 2010 sounds so weird & futuristic!", this year I've been saying "Wow, 2010 didn't sound that weird, but 2011 sounds so weird & futuristic!". I guess I just got used to 2010. :D
January was mostly uneventful on the paddling front - it was very cold (as I'm reminded by the picture above, from one of a couple of Proxigean Paddles) and I spent a lot of time hypnotized by the whole Ady Gil thing (remember that) and then feeling helpless as we watched the horror unfold in Haiti.
On a happier note, I went fishing for the first time since I was a kid when Andy Novick organized a herring fishing - no fish, but had a good time anyways.
And I finished off January with a post that led to something really, really great. Dennis G. Moonstruck had sent a link to an absolutely glorious photo that a Chelsea Yacht Club clubmate of his, Dennis Truett, had taken one of the magnificent old stern-steerers that are restored & sailed by the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club - which I paired with a post about how with it being such a cold winter, I'd really gotten fascinated watching the ice yachters getting happier and happier as us softwater boaters got crankier & crankier - happy because they were at the point where they could get out and sail.
Well, that post was just supposed to be an observation on how there were some people who were delighted with having such a cold winter - but my friends Tugster and Bowsprite read that, got excited & I think it may have been the very next weekend when I was amazed to find myself out on the ice with those two & another old friend from kayaking who lives up there, Jeff Anzevino. Jeff turned out to actually know some of the iceboaters, he got us proper directions how to get there & oh my, was it a glorious day...
I was blogging about it for days and days afterwards - it was all the more fun for all the cross-posting with my friends. I even made a music video:
March was pretty uneventful - work started cranking up with budget season as usual, but I got a nice early start to my own sailing season thanks to my friend Chris getting a drysuit for Christmas. March 6th - WOOHOO! There was a very big storm, and at the end of March, the legalization of beekeeping in NYC kicked off a big debate at Sebago, which was rendered moot when we found out that NYC Parks still had a no-beekeeping-in-parks rule.
April was pretty uneventful as far as being on the water - work was in serious high gear and I think I got sick or something, there are vague references to a missed marsh-grass planting & beach cleanup. I did get in my normal Spring pilgrimage to the BBG & got a nice photo rainbow, and then later I did the same thing with Victorian houses in my neighborhood. Main event of the month, though, had to be the first of the big NYC Vision 2010 Waterfront Planning Meetings.
May: Work work work. Plus served as starter, recorder, and unofficial photographer for Sebago's second annual Laser District 8 Regatta. It was a great day, and I'm looking forward to 2011.
July: Sebago had a great All-Club Invitational. I got drafted to guide an unplanned long trip, a circumnavigation of the bay. It was hot hot hot but I had a great time & we got to see an incredibly unusual visitor to the Bay: The high point of the month, though, had to be getting to say "Aloha" from Hawaii. That trip may warrant a separate wrap-up...
August found me returning to NYC (what, you thought that was a given?) and joining Tony & Walter, aka "Pinky and the Brain", aaka, "Co-Chairs of the Cruising Committee", on a fabulous trip to Orient Point. I must've been reading the Malden Yacht Club blog, 'cause I still read that post & think I was channeling Ol' P when I wrote it.
September - Started off the month with one of my unusual political rants plus a trip downtown with a camera in a feeble attempt to make a point. I don't know if it did a shred of good but I was absolutely incensed by the way people were acting over the Park 51 Community Center. The main paddling event was of course the 5 Years Around Long Island crew's reconvening for a mostly successful Year 4 - we had the usual group paddling problems (we have some different styles & speeds & that's been really a constant issue that we've never been able to solve to everyone's satisfaction) but we made great time & I'd say the main thing that makes me say "mostly successful" instead of "totally awesome" is really the fact that John H. had to drop out for Day 3 - he had had shoulder surgery earlier in the year & felt like he'd had enough after Day 2. Fortunately he & John W. were able to go back & pick up the Day 3 leg later in the summer - John is one of the people who is making this happen by being ground crew, so it was especially nice that he got to paddle some of it. Here's where we are - anyone want to start a pool as to whether we'll really wrap up in Year 5? :D
October: I continued to suck at dinghy racing, but the month ended well as TQ & I had a wonderful trip to Cape Cod. I actually had a great time with some wordless posts while we were there - don't think I ever quite finished the trip review but we had a fantastic time watching whales, paddling, eating seafood & sailing! It was especially fun meeting Dan Kim & I just told Tillerman that one of my main regrets of 2010 was the sudden attack of don't-want-to-be-a-botheritis that kept me from lining up lunch with him & Tillerwoman en route - apparently they have these things called "stuffies" that are not to be missed, and we missed them. Other than that, oh what a trip!
November: One word. CLAYMATION! I have always loved animation & I was thrilled when New York International Children's Film Festival announced an adults-only benefit where you could drink cocktails, play with clay & make a movie.
I was going to do one for the holidays, but that got set aside when I got the first piece of news that led to the biggest week in December. I'd been having a fun blogging month anyways - I got very silly looking for cute guys for Bowsprite, and I got very nostalgic (and hungry) trying to convince Tillerman to go to Hawaii, and I was blown away by Bernadette Peters & Elaine Stritch in A Little Night Music, my first Broadway musical in years, and I got to blog the solstice eclipse - but the year really ended with a bang with TQ moving to Brooklyn, an unbelievable Christmas Eve feast, a wonderful Christmas Day paddle and then of course the Great Boxing Day Blizzard of 2010 - it was indeed An Eventful Holiday Weekend.
And that's the wrap-up!
And again, here's a warm Hau'oli Makahiki Hou from Brooklyn, with best wishes for a peaceful, happy, healthy 2011 for all.
Bella & Buzz weren't the only ones who enjoyed the J-Bay breezes this weekend!
TQ & I were originally thinking hike Saturday, paddle Sunday, because the forecast was for the wind to be SLIGHTLY less honking, but then he ran into Steve the Paddling Chef during the week & Steve mentioned that he wanted to go paddling but had taken on double holiday cooking duty of a Seder on Friday & Easter dinner on Sunday, so only had Saturday.
TQ & I were so antisocial with our paddling planning this winter (it's not that we don't like paddling with other people, we just like to be lazy sometimes about trip planning, you know, leisurely breakfast, another cup of tea, head to the club whenever we're ready), and I love paddling with Steve, and when I asked what he had in mind & he came back a nice reasonable start time of 11 am and a nice reasonable paddle for a windy day, I was sold.
Although I knew it was gonna be a tough one. Couldn't resist going on Facebook while TQ took the dogs out for one last potty opportunity and saying:
Today: NW wind 15 to 17 kt, with gusts as high as 23 kt. Sunny. Seas around 2 ft.
Wind straight out of the Paerdegat - perfect conditions for a Torture Paddle! Woohoo, let's go!
Windspeeds ended up being even higher than forecast (iWindsurf.com, which offers free forecasts & also actuals as recorded at JFK, right on the shores of J-Bay, gave the actuals as starting out around the forecast, but building to close to 20 steady & gusting to close to 30 in the afternoon). So many ways it could've been a day we all wished we'd just stayed home. If Steve had planned a longer trip. If it had been colder. If it had been raining. If my shoulder had chosen the middle of the slog back to decide that it wasn't as fine as I've been assuming it is (well, that's why you go with friends).
Fortunately none of those things happened, and in fact we started with a nice surprise when Pete (another person who's great to paddle with) turned up out of the blue - he'd been planning a cautious solo trip along the shore & was happy to join us as we headed for Ruffle Bar. We had a totally awesome (duuude!) high-speed surf run out. We stopped for a nice break on the south shore of Ruffle Bar; Steve brought chili chocolate (yum) to share, I'd brought a thermos of green tea with honey that TQ and I found hit the spot and we all had a bit of food to fuel the long paddle back. Steve found us a nice spot for our break that offered a little shelter from the wind, but even so there was still a wind-chill factor - base-temperature-wise you would've thought this would've been a day when a drysuit was suffocating, but you would think wrong, a drysuit with a light layer underneath was perfect and the hot tea, which I'd thought was probably going to be total overkill, actually tasted delicious.
Somewhere in here there was another one of those proxigean tides I always get such a kick out of - don't know if it was Saturday or maybe a day before or after, but we landed on an unusually wide beach for Ruffle Bar & sat there watching the water recede further & further. It was actually funny paddling home, there was one point when I swear I was half a mile from any of the islands but the water was still about 2 feet deep. There was a Sebago foliage trip on the Hudson that went a bit wrong one time when the wind against the current kicked up heavier chop than some of the paddlers could handle - I wasn't on that trip but Pete was on it, and he totally cracked me up when he said "We forget how spoiled we are here in Jamaica Bay - most of where we paddle, if anything goes wrong, you just stand up!". I think that was my first year at Sebago, but I still think of him saying that on these days when you practically have to go to the dredged channel to find even enough water for a kayak!
The trip home was indeed a lot slower - but this was where the mindblowing gorgeousness that Steve had been kind enough to arrange came into play.
The Manhattan skyline was about as clear as I'd ever seen it (click on this one for a full-size view)-
and with the wind & the sun, everything was just so sparkly...
Yes, it was much longer trip home that out - but on a day that nice it just wasn't the torture paddle I was expecting - turned out to be a fine spring day on the water.
Salty, though! Not that I'd thought twice about it, but I really was glad I was wearing my drysuit, I wasn't noticing the spray that much but the caked salt says that it could've been a very damp & chilly paddle home without it!
Proxigean Paddle - January 2010, possibly still my coldest paddle ever!
Well goodness gracious, it's felt like summer again for the last couple of days here in NYC, but the flaming maple tree I see outside of my window every morning says, "Nope, it's still Fall", and (groan) that means winter is right around the corner.
Does that mean the NYC paddling season is coming to an end, though? Nope, no way, no how. A lot of people do hang up their sprayskirts (or move indoors to the various pool sessions) for the winter, but it is absolutely possible to keep going through the entire winter if you have the right gear, skills, and knowledge. Interested, but not sure? This is a great time to find out as outfitters will frequently hold cold-water workshops this time of year.
The first of those that I've heard about this season, as announced on the NYCKayaker moderated email list, is coming up this Saturday at New York Kayak Company, located on the south side of Pier 40, which is right at the Hudson River end of Houston Street. This one's got an unusual spin as Randy's Kokatat rep is also the area's GoPro rep, so it's going to be a combination winter paddling and GoPro for SUP and kayak workshop. The fun starts at 11 am. Bring your own booties if you want to go swimming. The workshop is free but Randy would appreciate RSVP's at 212-924-1327.
Here's Randy's full announcement: When: Saturday, October 18th at 11 AM
Where: New York Kayak Co. at Pier 40
What: Tom Harsh represents Kokatat and Go Pro. This Saturday he will be coming to New York Kayak Co. to discuss how to dress for off season paddling. As days grow shorter and temps fall, Kokatat makes it easy to manage challenges to safety, comfort and performance. Tom Will also be presenting an Introduction to Go Pro for SUP and Kayak.
Join us to see and feel the apparel, and hear what Tom has to say about dressing for maximum enjoyment of your off season paddling opportunities. Topics will include strategies for avoiding hypothermia, proper layering, and material selection. We will examine the differences between various wet and dry items and how to select the garments that best suit both your off season paddling goals and budget.
Have you ever worn a dry suit? This is your chance to not only try one on, but people who BRING THEIR OWN IMMERSION FOOTWEAR and sign a waiver can see what its like to go for a short swim in a dry suit - it’s really fun! Additionally, attendees will receive10% off all Kokatat items - even our over-stock dry suits, jackets and PFDs here at the shop that are already on sale! We are overstocked in size small for both men and women - so if that’s your size, now is the time to get a dry suit! In addition to dry suits made for kayaking, we have lighter paddling suits specially made for SUP and surf ski paddling, and a few made specially for kayak fishing.
This is also a great opportunity to learn how to use a Go Pro. We can combine the demos so you can take a camera into the water.
Apparel discussion will begin promptly at 11, and Go Pro will start at 12. Please spread the word and call the number below to reserve your spot today. Hope you can join us!
Randall Henriksen New York Kayak Co. Pier 40, Hudson River Park
www.nykayak.com
That's TQ, walking to get to someplace where there's enough water to paddle. That's a channel marker in front of him so he hasn't got much farther to go.
High water mark, probably from Friday. I have seen our ramp floating fairly close to flat but this is ridiculous!
Here's a post about the water levels in Victoria, BC. And here on the other side of the North American continect, the word from South Norwalk, CT this morning is that Water Street is more Water than Street today - the sidewalks are dry but the street is flooded.
Sebago's cold-weather paddling crew is planning a trip to the Wharf Bar & Grill on the Rockaway Peninsula on Sunday (looks awesome, weather in the mid-40's & not much wind) & we're going to make a stop at Ruffle Bar on the way back for some beachcombing.
Going to be very interesting seeing how much of J-Bay ends up high and dry by low water. I remember having such a good laugh my first winter as a Sebago member when Vice-Commodore Pete saying (after a Hudson River trip where things went significantly awry) "We get spoiled here in Jamaica Bay, 80% of the bay, you get in trouble, you just stand up & walk to shore"!
I'm betting that's even more true than usual at low water this weekend.
Honest, it's not just the food that makes him one of my favorite paddling companions - that smile you see in every picture except the last one (and you can bet it's there in the last one, he's just a little too far away to see it)? That's just his normal expression. He is one of the most naturally cheerful people I know. His two favorite phrases? "Uff da!" (a Norwegian expression of dismay which is the term he uses at times when crankier folks like myself would be using terms of a far less easy-on-the-ears nature) in 2nd place, and "It's like a dream!" in first, by a mile.
A great guy, and a great chef, and so I was absolutely tickled to see him get a nice little plug in the popular local Ditmas Park Blog. If Steve recommends something it's just GOING to be insanely good, and it happens to be the time of the year when I'm making my favorite green tomato rice recipe to use up the tomatoes that came too late, and I thought a little of this would add a nice flavor.
Here's the ham -
All the ingredients:
The recipe I like is actually something TQ found on line the year a couple of years ago when we had that terrible tomato blight in the Northeast. Click here if you'd like to see it. Ironically, that was probably my best year ever for tomatoes - at the same time as TQ's vines were withering away in Pennsylvania, sending him scrambling for ways to cook green tomatoes, I was picking delicious monsters like this. He served this rice with dinner one night & it's become my favorite way of using up the last tomatoes.
I usually skip the bacon & do the frying in olive oil; the Mangalica ham IS very expenive but it doesn't take much to add a very nice flavor.
