Release Date 11/22/2008

I released the message in Jamaica Bay while kayaking.

It was a bitterly cold day, below freezing with 25kt wind. Originally we were going to paddle from Plumb Beach to a party for the new Gateway Bike and Boathouse East of the Riis Beach in Rockaway, but we modified the plans due to the high winds.

We first went to the new Boathouse site on Rockaway, but we couldn't agree to launch there, so we launched in a more protected area under the Marine Park Bridge.

It was really unpleasant to paddle with gloves and poggies, but it was so cold that I had to, and even then my hands got cold.

We paddled along the Floyd Bennett Field for an hour or so, then turned around as we got cold and drove to the party.

It is great to see that a new Boathouse is starting-up for the Rockaways, and it was fun to meet them, as well as some old friends:

Truth:
Sometimes you have to change your plans.

Release Date 11/9/2008

Message released in the Hudson River off of Hoboken. I was testing my kayak after patching a LOT of holes in it. The repairs were fairly successful, (it still seems to leak almost everywhere, but it is a lot better)


There was a big Navy ship at the cruise ship terminal, so I had to cross to Jersey and then paddled South against an fairly strong current. I found some cool stuff: 1) A life jacket for the DTBH.

(What's up with name of a ship of "stag hound", Is it owned by bimbos???) 2) A 5 gal industrial gas tank, partially full of gas that I "donated" to Stevens Institute. 3) Some nice lobster floats for my collection. It got dark in Jersey City, and I had a quick trip back. Truth: It gets dark fast in the winter.

release Date 11/2/2008

I released this message on the Hudson River near the marina in Alpine NJ. We had paddled up there to check out the leaves and enjoy a really nice November day. It was warm high 50's low 60's and I was only a little hot in trilaminate wetsuit.

We had a good ride up on the current and a slowly building current for the return trip. I left Pier 96 at 11:00, and we arrived in Alpine around 13:45, and left around 14:45, returned to pier 96 around 17:00.

I then towed a double that was left at Pier 96 during the Mayor's cup back to Pier 66, and finally returned our "Pirates of the Hudson" kayak from Halloween to Pier 40, and paddled back against the current in the dark.

Truth: You can get away with a lot when you dress-up like a pirate.

Release Date 10/29/2008

Released this message near the entrance to the Suwannee River in Florida.

I was on a hunting trip for wild hogs and deer. It was muzzleloader season, and I was using my new gun. It was cold and windy, which made hearing the hogs difficult, but we did get on small hog on the first day.

This is a beautiful part of the Florida, and most of it, even outside the refuge is still undeveloped.

Truth: wearing a hat will make you warmer.

Release date 10/19/2008

This was the second time I was doing the Mayor’s Cup Kayak race.

I decided to do something different and paddle help the Achilies Track Club by paddling with some handicapped people in a double.

I did the training the day before and met my fellow paddler, a very determined woman who had MS and really really wanted to win. During the practice we check out the other paddlers, and we looked pretty good up against them. There was one injured veteran who looked very strong, said he knew how to kayak, but wasn’t practicing.

Race day it was very windy directly from the North, I knew it would be pretty choppy, especially when the current picked up around noon. We started very early at 10:30, well ahead of the other, classes.

Once we got out of the harbor, it was indeed pretty rough, and the big plastic boat was indeed a piece of crap and really slow. The Marine I was worried about was paired with a very fast looking paddle with a wing, in a seda double. They basically disappeared as soon was started, in an hour I couldn’t even see their safety boat.

I had trouble paddling at “full speed” because the boat was so heavy I couldn’t paddle at my usual racing stroke rate, and felt like I was muscling it too much with my arms and big slow heavy strokes, not what I wanted to do. The rudder pedals also killed me because my stroke has a huge amount of foot pressure to it, and I basically couldn’t use any or the boat would turn because I moved the rudder.

My boat mate was a real trooper, and just kept paddling throughout the whole thing. At times she really got dumped on by the water.

We were neck and neck with one other boat in our class, who I found out later had a world class whitewater paddler in the stern, but she was a very small woman, and the problems I had with the boat must have been 10 times worse for her. They edged ahead of us for a while, but then I got further out in the current, and we left them behind.

At the GW bridge people began to pass us, first a few OC2s then a friend from the DTBH.

I was getting really cold. I wasn’t wearing my pfd, and just a very light shirt and paddling jacket. I couldn’t generate enough heat from paddling because I couldn’t move fast enough in the big boat.

Just as we were about to enter the Harlem River, something I was really looking forward to since the wind would be close to with us, and it would be warm, they cancelled the race, and we had to paddle all the way back. The first bit of the return trip was against the current, and we almost capsized in the following seas until I got over near the shore.

There was a big accident at the start, and the cops forced them to stop the race. See:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/20/nyregion/20kayak.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

It would have been a very long race, because we were so slow going up the Hudson we would have had the current against us in the Harlem, and the boat was indeed a piece of junk.

The race organizers had a really cool interactive GPS based chip system to track the race, It’s a flash application, and not perfect, but once you get it to work its really neat:

http://spectator.sport-track.com/spec/start.php?id=9122&raceid=16745

The system is a little confusing because we all started at different times, and I think the chips were all activated at different times.

Release Date 8/17/2008

I released this msg off of Breezy Pt. in Queens.

We spent the morning providing safety support for the CIBBOWs swim race. The race went well and we were on time. I got to the boathouse at 4, everyone else @ 5, and we were on the beach by 6:40.

After the race we paddled over to try some surfing, but there wasn't much surf. We then had lunch and a few drinks. I was really tired, so I took a nap.