We paddled up from Valentino Pier to North Brother Island at
the entrance to the Long Island Sound.
It was my first time out since Hurricane Sandy, and the
water seemed a bit muddy, but otherwise things were mostly back to normal. We
rode up on the very end of the flood current enjoying the sunshine and free
ride of the current. A bit of barge traffic, but otherwise it was pretty quiet.
We checked out the new FDR memorial, a careful check of the
rules online does not say no boat landing, but there were a lot of guards
standing around…
If it was possible to land anywhere there it might be a good
stopping point.
I tried fishing, but the only thing I caught was a snag
under railroad bridge next to the Triboro. I snagged another fishing line that
must have been laying on the bottom.
We had a quick cold lunch on NBI. There WAS a lot of hurricane
damage there, many down trees, but whoever looks after it had already been out
there with chain saws and chopped them all up. This must be something to make
them decompose faster, since they seem to do it in lots of parks around the
city as well.
On the way back we saw a couple of yahoos in a motorboat
that were stuck on the U Thant Island.
They were pinned bow
on into the rocks and the strong ebb current was holding the boat there. The
motors weren’t strong enough in reverse to pull them directly off. We tried to
help, but they shooed us away. We noticed they finally got free about 20
minutes later by turning the boat sideways.
Truth: Sometimes things stay the same.
