Changes coming to Governors Island? Weigh in by October 9th if you're interested!

City of Water Day a few years back.

Just a quick post tonight to share some stuff a paddling friend from way back has been sharing on the NYC Kayaker Facebook group. Unfortunately I have to preface it with an "Uff da!", to borrow a most useful exclamation of dismay from friends of Norwegian descent - it turns out there was one public meeting to review the scoping document, that was a week and a half ago, and the NYC Gov website announcement is VERY vague about submitting comments, just says "Written comments on the Draft Scope of Work may be submitted to the Mayor’s Office of Environmental Coordination until 5:00 P.M. Tuesday, October 9, 2018." There is a contact page, I've sent a message asking if that's an acceptable place to submit a comment. Will update if I hear anything. Worth a try and there's also a mailing address there for snail mail submissions.

Click here for a NY Times article about some possibilities

update slightly later - OK, maybe I can relax a little bit, the Times article does refer to September's meeting as being the first of several. 

I'm not the biggest Gov's I user, but I have been there for one Figment art festival, one Porch Stomp folk music day, I think 2 Halawai Hawaiian potlucks - all lots of fun. I also went to a few City of Water Days there before we started doing City of Water Day In Your Neighborhood open houses in Canarsie. This year, though, the main City of Water event moved to the South Street Seaport Museum for unstated reasons. Actually one of the coolest things about the early City of Water days was that participating boaters got to bring our tents and camp out for a night, that was so much fun - I would pick that over glamping (starting at a hundred and fifty bucks a night and going up to $800 a night!!! for two people!!! gaaah!!! oh, but you get a concierge so I suppose that's not so bad, right?) ANY DAY. :(

Anyways, pardon me for a somewhat blithery post, I am really just chucking this out there fast because the cutoff date for comments is so darned close and although this blog is not as rabble-rousy as it was back when I was fighting for storage on the Hudson River waterfront, I still think it's very important for people to make themselves heard when they are given the chance. If you read that Times article and find you have some thoughts on the matter, please do try to get them in to the powers that be - I don't know if it'll make a difference but it's worth trying. I am hoping people who care are more aware of this, I've been really caught up in other things for the last couple of months and this just totally took me by surprise when I finally really started reading stuff tonight.

Thanks!  

A Great Afternoon at Hoboken Cove

Test spin on a shiny new Epic V5. Whee! Nice boat. Photo by Epic rep Gerald Kastner, thanks Gerry! My photos are down below. Click on any photo for a slideshow view.

It wasn't as easy to get there on a weekend as it would've been on a weekday, but I did make my way to Hoboken yesterday for the first annual Hudson River Cup, put on by Ke Aloha Outrigger and the Hoboken Cove Boathouse. If you happen to be in the Hoboken area, do follow those links for their regular activities, I was there for the festival but they do public paddling programs all summer, and there's a food truck pier a little ways north of there, you could make a very nice waterfront afternoon of it!

There was actually a moment on the way there when I nearly threw in the towel and went home - the issue was that the map program Facebook uses said that I could catch a ferry from the WTC, which turns out not to be true on weekends. If I'd thought to check that, I could've just gone to the 39th street Waterways terminal in the first place, where they did have a ferry to 14th street in Hoboken 7 days a week, that's how I got home and that worked great, but that mistaken direction sent me through the WTC area, which on a lovely summer day was of course swarming with hucksters shoving pretty souvenir books about the time all those people died under all the tourist noses. I know they're just trying to make a living and all but it feels so disrespectful and I just don't handle it well, having been there myself that day. To get to the ferry terminal, looking forward to a nice boat ride across the river after running that gauntlet, only to be told that that ferry doesn't run on weekends, was deeply disheartening, and I really did think about just heading for home. I think it was around noon or so, though, and the festival was slated to go on until 5, it wasn't like I was going to miss ALL the fun, so I decided to suck it up, take the PATH train, and hoof it the mile to the boathouse . 

And I'm so glad that I did, because I started to unwind just walking along the Hoboken shoreline; this was definitely my first trip to the Hoboken Cove Boathouse, and possibly even my first visit to the Hoboken shoreline, and their riverfront is pretty nice, with lots of parks (including a big run-through fountain that I was tempted to run through myself) but still an active little bit of a working waterfront too. By the time I got to the boathouse I was feeling a good bit less rattled, and there was the wonderful musician Bill Wynne singing songs from Hawai'i, and outrigger sprint racing going on in the cove, and so many old friends from Pier 63 days to say hello to. Ke Aloha is one of the area's newest boating clubs, but came about after some kind of split at the long-established New York Outrigger sent many of the original paddlers from that club looking for a new home. It may be a new club, but there's a ton of experience there, they have got themselves a lovely spot at the Hoboken Cove Boathouse and it's great to see them doing well there. I'm on something of a quest to get back in shape this year and with them not being that hard to get to from where I work, joining them for some practices may be an option worth considering.

I got there just in time for the 2 mile kayak and SUP race. I hadn't planned on racing, but when Jon, who's the one who told me about the day, saw me he asked me if I wanted to, and I figured "Why not?", if I could borrow a boat. One of the volunteers pointed me to a Drifter, which is not the boat I would ordinarily pick for a race, but I was just out for fun and figured I'd give it a shot. This actually worked out well - there was a moment when I noticed there were 2 Epic surfskis on the beach and thought "Oh dear, I'm going to get thoroughly smoked here", but those turned out to be demo boats and the only other kayak racer was one of the Cove's volunteers, who was in a Scupper Pro. With both of us in sitatops, it actually ended up being a pretty good race. He had the lead for the entire southbound leg, where we had the current with us, he'd done a better job at the start than me and although I wasn't too far back, I couldn't gain ground, we were pretty well matched in our sit-atops.

I had one horrifying moment when I rounded the buoy and discovered that I could hardly make any headway against the strong current AT ALL in this short, wide boat, for a second I was having visions of how embarrassing it would be if I couldn't get back under my own steam, but I was able to hold my ground while sidling over to get closer to shore and into the shelter of the piers, where I was able to move along much better. The other guy didn't know that trick, and that let me pull away and come in first by quite a ways. He did figure out what I was doing eventually, so he got something good out of it - you only get to pull that trick on a less experienced paddler once, at least if they are paying attention, which he was! You can really wear yourself paddling against that Hudson current, I remember that well. Actually the hardest part of the race for me was probably the last 50 yards or so, where you had to go out around the last pier and on to the finish marker, for that you did have to be out in the current a bit and man, it was a slog (Gerry the Epic guy actually said he was watching me finish and there was a good moment or three when I literally wasn't moving forward at all, and I believe it). I got there though, by that point I was not about to give up. I do hope next year they have more kayakers, it sounds like they had a good turnout from the outrigger community, I would love to see this grow. Spectacular setting for racing, too, with that cityscape across the river and the folks enjoying the Hoboken waterfront cheering us along.

Back at the boathouse, Aloha Hula NYC was performing, cornhole games were going on, and I tried out the Epic V5, which is a totally sweet little entry-level surfski. Someday I'm going to be in the market for a replacement for my Kayak Centre surfski, which I have literally repaired with duct tape and wire, and which I expect to just sink out from under me someday, hopefully not too far from the dock in the Paerdegat. V5 is definitely going to be in the running, I don't use my surfski for racing, more for summer workout paddles, the V5 is much more stable but still moves nicely, and is not horribly expensive. This is a totally unsolicited plug, I just really liked that boat, would be a lovely summer paddling craft. I should've tried the V8 that the Epic rep had there too, but the awards were starting up so I had to go get my coconut trophy! Finished off the day helping bring the OC-6's up from the beach; Aloha Hula NYC was dancing again, and it truly felt like a little taste of Hawai'i right there on the Hudson River shore.

Came home with my coconut and a plumeria lei that's still smelling lovely tonight. So glad I stuck out the bumpy start to the day, it was well worth the trip. Such a nice day!

 

Hudson River Park User Survey

Today I would just like to share a link to a user survey that the Hudson River Park Trust has put up for the public. I filled this out a while ago after hearing about it from both the NYC Watertrail Association and PortSide NewYork on the very same afternoon; I meant to share it here but it slipped my mind until it appeared again today on the Lilac Preservation Project Facebook page. There's still time to fill it out, last day is March 6th. I of course went for historic ships and water access everywhere I could! Click here to visit the survey. Thanks!  

Grand Re-Opening of the Kayak Dock At Governor's Island

There was some very good news for New York City kayakers (and people who aren't kayakers yet but would like to give it a try) announced by Graeme Burchall, current head of the Downtown Boathouse, on the local kayak email lists today - there will be an opening ceremony for the newly-installed kayak dock at Governor's Island on Wednesday. There was a kayak dock in the past -- the photos above and below were from City of Water Day 2011 -- but at some point it got damaged beyond repair and it took a lot of time, grant-writing, and hard work by Graeme and the DTBH crew to get it replaced.

They pulled it off, though, and now the DTBH will resume running their free kayaking in the embayment on weekends for the rest of their season. The dock will also serve as part of the New York City Watertrail, so more advanced kayakers will now be able to paddle to Governor's Island and land there when the island is open (the one request is that paddlers who arrive that way check in, as safety plans for the island do require the operators to know how many people are on the island at any given time; there will be a phone number posted at the dock that paddlers can call to do so).

Congratulations to the DTBH folks for bringing this beautiful location back into play! I can't make the opening shindig on Wednesday but for anyone who's interested, click here for details. Arrival by human-powered vessel encouraged but not required. Should be a fun event!

A Great Day At Sebago Despite My Best Efforts At Sabotage.

(swiping my own Facebook post for the evening!)
What a satisfying day. I started out completely failing to get myself out for either the rowing workshop (Floating the Apple has given Sebago a Whitehall rowing gig so now we need to learn how to use it) or the paddle Tony P. had called for. Toyed with the idea of just giving myself the day off from "doing" (haven't had just a nice do-nothing day in a long time) but it was looking so nice that I decided to go tend to the garden and take the surfski for a spin. 

Got to the club to find the gig still on land with the cover on and a clubmate and a lady I didn't know standing next to it chatting. I figured this must be Adina from Floating the Apple and introduced myself, asking what had happened to the rowing workshop (I was really afraid there just hadn't been interest, which would've been a bummer). Turned out that it was just that there was a huge overlap between club members who are interested in rowing a Whitehall and club members who are sailing instructors and today happened to be the first day of the big annual 2-day sailing class that the Sailing Committee runs, so the instructors were all out instructing. However, with 2 of us expressing interest, she decided to go ahead and give Marty and me a dry-land intro to the gig, the gear, and rowers' responsibilties, plus some great history about Floating the Apple. 


I was acquainted with Mike Davis, but I'd never heard the whole story about how he came to start up Floating the Apple. It also turned out that Adina and Mike had been involved with working for water access, especially along the stretch of waterfront that we now know as the Hudson River Park, since before the Hudson River Park existed, even on paper - Adina is an architect and worked on a project to update Grand Central Station for the 20th century. This must have been right after the Westway highway project was defeated, so suddenly there was a need for a new plan for the crumbling stretch of waterfront from the Battery up to midtown.

Through the Grand Central project, Adina was invited to go for a boat ride where the city planners were going to unveil the next great idea for the area. Next great idea turned out to be "Hey, let's build a whole bunch of buildings on the waterfront!". Adina was horrified, she called Mike Davis and they started working towards something better. I hadn't started paddling yet but I do recall walking by the McGraw Hill Building (still green & I presume still grooking, that description in one of Allen Ginsburg's poems has stuck in my head to the point that I can't see the building without thinking of that line) and being intrigued at seeing boats being built in a vacant space on the ground floor. That was Floating the Apple.

I got involved with the Hudson River Park after starting paddling in Chelsea a few years later - at that point the Trust didn't exist, there was instead the Hudson River Park Conservancy, there was a lot of planning going on and I and a number of my paddling friends started attending some of the planning meetings, along with Roger Meyer, founder of New York Outrigger, other early members of NYO (many of whom are now paddling in Hoboken as Ke Aloha Outrigger - must go join them for a paddle one of these days!), and of course John Krevey, John Doswell, and other Pier 63 denizens who became fast friends as we followed their leads in speaking up for a park where the river was more than just a sparkling scenic element, but something you could get to, go out on, use and enjoy.

I mostly stepped down from what I called "waterfront politics", which to me was always mostly about access, when I moved my boats out to Sebago, but there was a big chunk of my life when I was attending any meetings that various waterfront community leaders suggested recreational boaters might want to attend, writing letters, sending emails, whatever I could do as one person. Fascinating getting to hear some of chapters from before my time from someone who'd been involved from so much earlier on!

And yes, I learned a lot about Whitehall gigs too! :D

After we finally wrapped up at around 2:00 (the session went long because I kept asking for more stories!), I decided that I would eat the sandwich I'd brought for lunch and then go out for the surfski spin I'd originally planned for the day. About this time, Tony's paddle had got back; I apologized for being too late for the paddle and promptly got invited to join them for wine and pie. I went light on the wine 'cause I still wanted to paddle, and I haven't been surfskiing much lately, but I did have a little, and one of the gang had found some peaches that were very good for this early in the season, and then there was pie, and then I did get out for a 4-mile spin on my surfski, including "one more mile for Glicker", thinking of Joe Glickman, a friend and Sebago clubmate who we lost a little more than a year ago, and who was one of my inspirations for keeping positive and active through my own round with cancer - mine was so much less awful and if he was able to keep up such good spirits all the way through to the end, as he did, I didn't see how I could get mopey about mine.

Extra mile was good, I'd started out feeling very shaky and with each mile I got a little steadier - coming back up the basin on the last leg I finally let a motorboat wake hit me from the side and didn't put my feet down in the water for stability (yes, I was that shaky at the start, it had been a long time!). And after aaaaaalll that I still got back in time to water and weed the garden and pick some chard - first pickings of the season, which I'm looking forward to sharing with a lovely friend from Ithaca soon! :D

Great day on and by the water. So glad I rousted myself out of the house in the morning - of course spending the day curled up on the Evil Futon of Nap with a book would've been lovely too, but what a fine day at the club it turned out to be.

Yes yes yes.

Launch Party for PortSide NewYork's GetOnBoard campaign - Tuesday, 10/27/2015

Sorry I've still been a little scarce here on social media, you'd think that with 3 weeks of medical leave and a recovery that's going very nicely I'd have all sorts of time to blog and Facebook, but I've been doing a lot more talking and emailing with friend and family, enjoying this nice weather we've been having with some good walks, and then, oh yeah, there are still a lot of doctor appointments, and I'm still kind of sleeping a lot. Improving though!

I have got a couple of posts lined up for one of these days (and then of course I only made it halfway through my Hawaii trip reporting!) but first there's another fun PortSide NewYork event sneaking up here that I've been meaning to post about for a while - once again, this will be at Hometown Bar-B-Que in Red Hook -- I went to the one they had around this time last year, the BBQ was awesome and I had a fantastic time!

Of course the wonderful big change between this year and last year is that last year, the Mary A. Whalen was still in her temporary but quite long-term berth in the Red Hook Container Port, where she was safe and secure but not easily accessible to the public due to various federal regulations. PortSide NewYork was able to carry on with programming using various pop-up spaces, but the staff had been working tirelessly to get the handsome old retired tanker back to a home where people could actually come to events on board, as they'd done during the organization's early years.

I can't remember whether founder Carolina was quite yet able to give specifics at last year's fundraiser, but I think she was at least able to say that good things were in the works, and of course earlier this year, the retired tanker was indeed moved into Atlantic Basin, where she's already been able to host some programs - very exciting that that's now possible again. With those housing issues worked out (woohoo!), PortSide NewYork is kicking off #GetOnBoard, a year-long program to grow the team, budget, programs and space. This year's Home Town Bar-B-Que will be the official launch party for this event, and it really should be a blast - PortSide NewYork throws a great party!

Read more about #GetOnBoard here, and purchase tickets here!

Flashback Friday - Manhattan Kayak Company moves to John Krevey's Barge, Pier 63 Maritime

OK, I know it's supposed to be Throwback Thursday, but I wanted the post with the link to the memorial pictures to be the top post for a while. Still wanted to re-share my story about when MKC moved from Chelsea Piers to Pier 63 Maritime though. I'd written these back in 2011 after John Krevey passed away most unexpectedly; I ran across them again yesterday when I was thinking of adding pictures of Krevey and Doswell to the memorial post and it was just sort of fun revisiting these memories of earlier days in the Hudson River Park and the strange, fun, rusty, seat-of-the-pants little world John Krevey created there at 23rd Street. John Doswell isn't mentioned in this story 'cause we were just getting started there at this point, but he and Jean had their boat, the Laissez Faire, there, so of course that's where I was lucky enough to get to become friends with them as they welcomed the new kids to the barge.

Part 1: Moving to the Barge
Part 2: Making a Home for the Kayaks 

Memorial for Capts. John Doswell and John Krevey - another photo set.

I have another small set of photos to share with you today - not as happy this time, as the event in question was a memorial for Captains John Doswell and John Krevey, both gone from us far too soon. Hard to imagine what sort of waterfront we'd have without them, but I think it would be a lot less fun and accessible. Krevey (both were regularly called by their last names) was providing recreational access to the Hudson at Pier 63 at a time when there was still some resistance to and even resentment of the growing popularity of recreational boating on our reviving estuary, and I think that by welcoming paddlers and trusting us to take responsibility for our own safety out there, he laid a solid part of the foundation for today's growing acceptance of our presence out there.

In the meantime Doswell was drawing the attention of us "civilians" to the working waterfront - there is still a solid maritime industry here in NYC, but the casual visitor to the shores of most of our boroughs could be forgiven if they didn't realize that, with all of the pretty parks that have sprung up in the more residential areas; Doswell celebrated that industry (and let us less-salty types celebrate it too) with the  Working Harbor Committee's Hidden Harbor Tours and the big annual Labor Day Tugboat Race and Skills Contest (those both carry on, that site has details if you're interested).

The memorial was held at Pier 66 (which I still always want to call Pier 63 even though it was moved to 26th street several years ago). A parade of boats was organized, including the kayaks and outrigger canoes that found such good early homes on Krevey's rusty masterpiece ("Pier 66" is actually a retired railroad barge); Hudson River Park based paddling  did ask me if I wanted to join them but I decided that since I was coming from work it would probably simplify my life if I just went to the barge - and besides, that way I could bring my Lumix and get some nice pictures, which I think I did. It was a beautiful evening, with a wonderful collection of people and boats turning out to pay their respects. 

 Click here to visit the album. 

Great news from PortSide NewYork!

It's been a long wait, but after a long sojourn at a freight terminal where TWIC regulations meant limited access, tanker Mary A. Whalen will be moving to a new long-term, publicly accessible home at Pier 11 Atlantic Basin. She'll be moving on Friday, there will be some fun kick-off events over the summer beginning in June, and regular programming should resume by Fall 2015. So exciting!

Click here to read the full press release. Welcome back, Mary A. Whalen!

Chiclet - PortSide NewYork Ship's Cat and Chief Supervisor. Hi Chiclet!

Goodbye, Captain Doswell

North River Tug Race and Skills Contest, 2006

Welcome speech at the 2012 tug race awards ceremony

Presenting the award for Best Tattoo, 2012

I met John and his life partner Jean Preece back when the Manhattan Kayak Company moved from Chelsea Piers to the incomparable Pier 63, run by the incomparable John Krevey. Krevey passed away a few years ago, he was shockingly young and when I read of his passing it shook me horribly; although Doswell (Krevey and Doswell were both frequently called by their last names) had been ill for a while, it still hit me very hard when I found out yesterday that he was gone. He was such a good guy and I'm so glad I had the chance to know him (and so honored to have been invited to Jean and John's commitment ceremony last August - what a warm and wonderful day that was).

What a loss to our waterfront. I dug out these pictures from a couple of the Great North River Tug Race and Skills Contests that I attended because John was truly in his element as one of the organizers of these unique events.

Rick Spilman over at the Old Salt Blog has done a very good job of summarizing Capt. Doswell's accomplishments, and has also posted Jean's statement on John's passing. Please visit, it's worth the read.

1/5 note: Mai Armstrong, a good friend of John's and one of his close associates at the Working Harbor Committee, posted a fine tribute to him on the Working Harbor blog this morning. Click here to read 

Work Day on the Mary A. Whalen - The Big Schlep

Chiclet - PortSide NewYork Ship's Cat and Chief Supervisor. Hi Chiclet!

 More pix from the day on Flickr (click here). 

Hooray, I'm on vacation this week! I'm hoping to get at least one good paddle in, plus our annual Escape from Black Friday. Today it's drizzly and a good day for the final stage of making pozole (this is antithesis of fast food, in fact it's the slowest food I've ever made), but yesterday was absolutely gorgeous and with last week having been a profoundly sedentary one as I wrapped things up for my week off, I was ready for some outdoor activity. Could've gone paddling, of course, but instead I decided to go help out Carolina and company at PortSide NewYork on board retired tanker Mary A. Whalen. Yesterday was the last official day of a project Carolina has dubbed "The Big Schlep" - PortSide has amassed a fairly good-sized collection of artifacts from various old Red Hook maritime businesses; until recently they'd been stored in the piershed in the Red Hook Container Port where the Mary Whalen has resided for the last few years, but this Fall it became time move the collection on board the tanker.

Two reasons - partly to make room for a new port tenant, and partly (better reason) because as Carolina announced at their fundraiser earlier in the fall, there has been real progress towards a long-term, publicly accessible home for the Mary A. Whalen in Atlantic Basin. It's not set in stone yet but it was wonderful news to hear - the handsome old tanker should be a significant tool in the organization's work "to create better use, understanding and enjoyment of the waterfront...and to create thematically-related programs that revitalize our home neighborhood" (from their mission statement) -- open to the public, with her holds housing exhibits on our waterfront's history, and some of the organization's programs held right there on board, but for the last few years she's been parked in the Red Hook Terminal, which is a MARSEC ("maritime security") facility, considered sensitive to attack and therefore with carefully controlled access. Workers at the port, like workers at similar facilities all over the country, are required to have a TWIC (Transportation Worker Identification Credential) card to enter; Carolina and the rest of the PortSide staff have cards and each one of them can bring in a certain number of uncredentialed people, but it's a limited number and the non-TWIC folks need to be physically escorted by a TWIC card holder at all times while in the facility.

I'm glad that the Mary A. Whalen had someplace to stay at all while PortSide NewYork worked on finding a publicly accessible space for her, and of course the organization kept things going without that (in fact they won a White House award for their role in Red Hook's Sandy recovery, that area was hit horribly and they did a tremendous job of helping the whole area get things back together - Carolina, the founder, is a great organizer and advocate and has some good like-minded people working with her), but I think all of PortSide NewYork's friends and supporters are looking forward to the day when the organization can resume regular public programming aboard the tanker, as they used to have before the move to the container port (and as they've still occasionally had during the times they've had temporary permission to move the boat to a more public pier).

Bit of a digression, but I didn't have a whole lot to say about the work day itself except that it was just the fresh air and physical work I was looking for after a long cubicle-bound week - head on over to the Flickr album I linked to at the top of this post for more on the work day itself. I did have a great time helping Peter, who is a professional rigger, working in television, move some REALLY BIG PISTONS - I don't know how much they weighed but somebody said more than a car engine - maybe 300 pounds? And they had to go down the companionway, through the "fidley" ("A partially raised deck over the engine and boiler rooms, usually around the smokestack" - ever need a nautical term defined? Check here!), around a corner, down through the deck grating, into the engine room and finally over to their temporary storage spots alongside the engines. That was a novel experience and a lot of fun - we used a pair of half-ton manual chainfall hoists and it was neat seeing how it worked. The move of first piston took some thinking as we figured out what path it needed to follow (and Peter ended up drilling a hole in one of the deck beams for the last move down to beside the engine, which was a slow and painful job) - the second one, I think we did the moves in about a third of the time.

All in all, another good day on the water!

Dan and Amy Freeman at the North Brooklyn Boat Club

What an interesting evening at the North Brooklyn Boat Club.

It was an odd mix of fun and troubling.

The troubling part was the nature of Dan and Amy's mission. I think everyone there last night, and in fact most serious paddlers (especially canoe paddlers) had heard of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA). In fact I think the gang last night divided neatly into two groups: those who'd been there, and those who hadn't been but think it would be neat to go.

Unfortunately there are mining companies who also think it would be neat to go, and if they get their wish, they'll be gambling with the very cleanliness that makes the area such a draw for paddlers from all over. Very sad. Mark Twain describes some ridiculous scenarios of miners staking claims in the middle of towns with zero regard to property owners during the California gold rush in Roughing It -- mineral rights superseded all prior claims, and I was reminded of those stories as Dan and Amy talked about survey drilling being done all over an Outward Bound camp near where they live and work.

Dan and Amy are wilderness guides who make their living introducing others to the Boundary Waters. If I've got the story right (they told it last night but I was momentarily distracted by one of the two sweet dogs that were there) the trip came about when Save the Boundary Waters came up with the idea of converting a large canoe to the most vivid petition imaginable. There was some discussion of how to get the canoe to DC (ideally they wanted to present it to Obama, but last night Amy said they'd be presenting it to the Secretary of the Interior instead) and at some point Dave and Amy realized that the most impressive way to get it there would actually be to paddle it there, collecting signatures and spreading the word as they go. Brilliant idea, I knew nothing about these plans. I love paddling but I don't tend to read Canoe and Kayak or any of the publications where the proposed mines would have been covered; the last 2 BWCA news items I recall were about a huge storm that leveled a huge swath of forest a few years ago, and another about some idiots who decided that it would be fun to go terrorize BWCA campers. Nothing about mines that could destroy the area forever. I was happy to sign the canoe.

We were treated to the world premier screening of Paddle to DC: A Quest for Clean Water, a short documentary about the project.

Paddle to DC: A Quest for Clean Water from Nate Ptacek on Vimeo.

It really seemed somehow fitting that the first screening was being held on the shore of Newtown Creek, one of NYC's most notorious Superfund sites. As one of our hosts said after the film, nodding sadly towards their beloved but deeply befouled creek, "Once you've lost it, you can't get it back".

BTW, if you missed them at the North Brooklyn Boat Club, there is one more chance to meet them and sign the canoe er petition - they'll be at Columbia University on Tuesday, 11/18. 8 PM, Hamilton Hall, 1130 Amsterdam Avenue, free and open to the public. Hosted by Columbia University Divest Climate Justice. Can't make that but want to sign on? Of COURSE there's an online version. Not as much fun as signing a boat but still valid, click here for that.

And now to the truly fun part - it was great finally seeing this place! I've seen pictures and videos and just based on those, if we had to pick a boat club to win an Urbanest of the Urban award, I seriously think the North Brooklyn Boat Club wins (and that's not just because the kielbasa pasta was delicious, which it was, Greenpoint's an old Polish neighborhood and the club shopped local).

As I said yesterday, this was my first view. I was crossing the creek on the Pulaski Bridge and since I'd already gotten turned around coming out of the subway and making a detour before getting myself properly oriented, I was running a bit late and was worried about finding the place. Then I looked down. Ah, no more worries! 

There's an enclosed shop area at the front, where they do boatbuilding and restoration. Here's a lovely old boat awaiting some NBBC TLC. 

Amy, fellow guests, and the famous petition. Love the graffiti!

Gathered around the firepit. The weather was good but it is November and the fire was a good thing. 

Amy and Dave talking about their trip

Enjoying the world premier screening

Passing tug and barge!

Signing the canoe

My signature - couldn't resist adding the blog name! 

Cozy dog. There were two pups in attendance, both very sweet. This one thinks it's past her bedtime.

Looking down Newtown Creek towards Manhattan. So pretty, but so polluted.

John and Steve show off the bumper stickers Amy and Dave brought with them all the way from Ely.

Checking out the club's ecology exhibits on the way out. Very neat, this place.

Good luck to Amy and Dave, I hope your message is heard! 

Wednesday, 11/12/14 - Meet the Freemans, National Geographic's Adventurers of the Year, at the North Brooklyn Boat Club

Sorry for the lack of advance notice, this one totally snuck up on me.

Dave and Amy Freeman have a petition to protect the Boundary Waters (an area I've never visited but would like to someday, it sounds amazing) and they are paddling their petition (which you might mistake for a nice Wenonah canoe if you didn't know that it is in fact a petition) to Washington DC, collecting signatures as they go. They started in Ely, Minnesota on August 24th, and they'll be at the North Brooklyn Boat Club tonight from 5 to 8, with the presentation expected to start around 6:30. Should be fun!

11/13 update - Hey, if you missed the NBBC event, there's another chance to meet them, hear their story and sign the canoe-shaped petition - they'll be at Columbia University on Tuesday, 11/18. 8 PM, Hamilton Hall, 1130 Amsterdam Avenue, free and open to the public. Hosted by Columbia University Divest Climate Justice. 

Click here to learn more about the Freeman's adventure.

Have You Seen This Dock?

Passing along a message posted on the NYC Kayaker moderated email list. Hoping that local waterfront and boating enthusiasts will help keep an eye out for the lost dock. One of the local tugboat owners did mention on a related Facebook post that a dock this size is very hard to tow and suggested that it may have just been cut loose - whether it's that or somebody actually stealing it for their own use, this is a really lousy thing to do. Here's the note that accompanied the photo:

The board of Manhattan Community Boathouse requests help in recovering their modular dock.  It was at Pier 96 on the Hudson River and was removed sometime in the past two weeks.  The dock is used at the free kayak programs run at this location by Manhattan Community Boathouse (and previously by DTBH).   The board of MCBH has filed a police report and asks the waterfront community to help find the dock, and the culprit(s) that took it.

If anyone has information, please contact the boathouse at

manhattancommunityboathouse"at"gmail.com (replace "at" with @ as usual).

Hope they get their dock back soon!

Gowanus Challenge 2014 - Gallery

So of course the sharks were a couple of the racers at the 2nd Annual Gowanus Challenge last Saturday! There wasn't the turnout this year that there was last year, but there was still a respectable field of racers, the weather was fine, and I think everybody had a good time. I forgot to bring my zoom lens for shots from the bridge, and for the first dozen shots or so I had my camera on a weird setting that turns everything greenish-blue, but despite all that, naturally I still came home with plenty! Click here to visit the Flickr set. 

It's My Park: New York City Water Trail - plus April snow???!!!

Quick lunch break post, just thought I'd share this neat little video about the NYC Water Trail that Queens Commisioner of Parks (and Sebago clubmate) Dorothy Lewandoski recently put up on Sebago's Facebook group. Tons of friends are in here (and me too, rolling at 2:15 and also in the ribboncutting group a bit before - boy was that a fun day)! 

PS...Come on, Spring. I've been singing your praises at the top of my lungs  and you wanna go and do this? 

The Only Paddling Race In The Country Held Entirely On a Superfund Site - Saturday, June 15th

Photos by Rob Buchanan, taken during the summer intensive workshop he's teaching at the New School, "Environmental Action and Research: NYC Waterways". More info and links at the end! 

Yes, you read that title right, and the organizers couldn't be prouder. From their own website:

The race is historic because, to the best of our knowledge… this is the first race where entire course, and the ensuing awards banquet will be held completely on a US Government sanctioned Superfund site. We were unable to get USOC sanctioning, so we'll settle for EPA. The race and lunch party are on June 15th 2013 and we challenge all other boathouses to field teams, and independent kayakers to come on their own and join the fun!

Now how's that for some good Brooklyn chutzpah? Go Dredgers!

The race is a 2.5 mile round trip from the Gowanus Dredgers boathouse to the mouth of the canal and back. It's open to all human powered vessels and the start is scheduled for 11:00 am. Should be tons of fun to either participate or just watch from the shore and cheer the paddlers and rowers along.

For full information, visit their website at www.gowanuscanal.org - click to go there. BTW, it is a fundraiser so if you're a fan of the Dredgers or just think this crazy race is a fun idea, you can pick a team and put a little money their way - gear costs money, safety and first aid training for guides doesn't always come cheap, and they offer free trips on the Gowanus all summer. Every bit helps!

I STILL haven't paddled the Gowanus, this blog about urban boating desperately needs a post about paddling the Gowanus Canal. That almost certainly won't be this weekend, I let this one sneak up on me, best I expect I can manage is spectating and picture-taking (which I'd actually love to do, and not paddling means I can bring the good camera) -- but maybe sometime this summer. Sorry about the short notice, if I did this professionally I think I'd have to fire myself -- or at least give myself a good dressing-down -- for always doing this!

More info and links re Rob's summer intensive, plus an excellent local-info site that he maintains:
Click here for more info on the program. Also, if you haven't visited it before, Rob's been maintaining a fantastic site about the little pocket beaches that are all over NYC (if you just know where to look) for years. I think his site was among the inspirations for the NYC Watertail (see Trip Planning Tools in the sidebar for a link) and it's just gotten better over time. Click here to visit newyorkharborbeaches.org.  

More on Pier 40

There was a very good article about the situation at Pier 40 in the NY Times last week. Thanks to a friend on the NYCKayaker/HRWA Facebook group for sharing that in response to my posting about the the meeting last week - I had hoped that following that meeting, there would be something in the press that I could pass along. This is a well-written discussion of the issues that were discussed on Thursday night, and the individuals and groups that are involved, and I'm happy to pass it along. Click here to read.

Note later - Another paddling friend weighed in on my Facebook posting of this same article, saying that the probable outcome here is that the two sides keep fighting "long enough for the pier to collapse...no one wins, not the kids , not the Trust, not the kayak community". Unfortunately, from what I heard last week Thursday, I have to say I agree. I found myself leaning towards the Durst's concept, because it uses what's there and so actually seems like something that could happen much faster, but the Champions group is very set on their idea being the only way that things should possibly proceed.

Makes me glad, once again, to be out of the Hudson River Park - there are politics in the Paerdegat, including occasional border disputes, but as far as I know, we just don't get to the scorched-earth level out there. I feel very badly for my friends at Pier 40 (New York Kayak, the Village Community Boathouse, and to a lesser extent, the Downtown Boathouse, their program there is just a satellite, so loss of Pier 40 isn't quite as bad, but it has allowed them to keep a toehold in an area where they began) - it must be very depressing to be caught in the middle of all of this.    

Pier 40 meeting - Facebook notes...

Interesting meeting.

It was strange just being there as a curious onlooker. Unlike my politicking days up at Pier 63, I mostly don't know the cast of characters who were presenting concepts; as I mentioned, I'd completely lost track of what happened after Cirque du Soleil so I sort of went in with no idea of what was going to be presented and no preconceived notions beyond something of a personal preference for grassroots efforts.

Personal preferences are subject to change, though.

I don't think I'm going to have time to write up a full report but here were a few impressions I threw out on Facebook when I got home last night (slightly edited):

"I don't know the cast of characters in this section of the park at all, but there's the grassroots-looking set (who I really wanted to like, being a fan of grassroots efforts) and then there's the men in suits, and the men in the suits presented what looked to my uneducated eye like a fairly practical reworking of what's there (including boating), and the grassroots guys were pushing for what appeared (again to my untutored eye) to be a pretty extreme (and expen$ive) redesign, funded by sticking a couple of apartment buildings in on the water's edge, facing the pier. I don't want to rush to judgement when it's not territory I really know, but I found myself leaning towards the proposal of the suits."

"Weirdest moment of tonight's meeting: one of the presenters, dismissively referring to a picture showing the south side of Pier 40 (home to 3 separate and complementary boating organizations) - 'There's nothing you can do with that'. Really? Nothing? What really sort of threw me about that was that it was the group that had styled itself as more of a community, grassroots type. Wasn't expecting them to be so dismissive of the boating, somehow -"

"Maybe I should have submitted my question. I'd written one down about whether the Champions really meant to dismiss the 3 boating groups that call that strip of 'nothing' home as completely as it sounded like they did, but I refrained from submitting because I know so little about that particular community's politics.Refrained from....chickened out...decided to leave to...the...actual residents, really."

"The people at the organizations there (Downtown Boathouse branch, New York Kayak, and Village Community Boathouse) all know what they're doing, who they're dealing with, and I suspect they're already well along with how best to deal with the situation."

I'll be interested to see what develops. The chair of Community Board 2 asked that the concept proposals be made available for posting on the C.B. 2 website - I'll try to keep an eye out for those and link when they're up.

Oh - and what did happen with the Cirque du Soleil? Apparently both proposals that were submitted in response to that RFP were dismissed as economically unfeasible. Pier 40 is in a tough situation - dilapidated and going down fast. Seems like something needs to happen soon, or it'll be too late for anything to happen at all. 

Oh, ouch.

More Sandy fallout,and much worse than the just-discovered demise of the 5-year old rosemary bush in my garden I was lamenting earlier today on Facebook. Boy, it was bad enough having to find someplace to move a sea kayak and a surfski back in '06 when Pier 63 Maritime got shut down - has to be so much worse when you can't just slap your boat on the roof of a car and go.

Regarding the rosemary -- I thought it had made it but it was just slower to succumb to the saltwater ducking than the sage and the thyme. Of the 4 plants that used to always make it though the winter, it's looking like the green onions are the sole survivors, and I'm not sure those are safe to eat after their October immersion in the floodwaters.