


I released this bottle off of the Norwalk Islands in Norwalk CT. The note in the bottle says the Thimble Islands, but I forgot to let it go until I got to Norwalk. We paddled in the Thimbles, then cartopped back to Norwalk. We were camping on the Grassy Island. This was a nice spot, but it was covered in trash. We did a trash pick-up, but didn't have enough bags to do a really good job. I did take one giant bag of trash out, and also had a lot in the hatches and in other people's boats. This barely made a dent on the island.We did find some cool stuff beach combing, and made a scary totem for the next people out of an old decoy, a doll, and other stuff. I also found a deer antler, some nice lobster floats, and a new PFD for the Downtown Boathouse.I caught a small stripped bass, but it was too small to keep. It sure did look tasty though!Truth: Kids look like their parents.



This was the final leg of my Cape May to Brooklyn paddle. We launched at Sandy Hook around 12:15, and reached Red Hook Brooklyn around 18:00, with a 45 minute break at Voodoo Beach under the bridge.It was another lovely day, and we all paddled in the shorts and T-shirts. Air temperature got up into the 80s. Shortly after launching I saw an orange floating in the water, then another, and another, they seemed to be perfectly good, so I started picking them up. In the end I picked up 20 of them, and there had to be two times as many still floating in a giant orange slick.See the Atlantic Sea Kayaker message board for the real story.
We ate one, and I took the rest home. I'm still eating them 5 days later. It was funny because they weren't even all the same, some Navel, some Valencia, etc etc.We paddled up the harbor dodging the large ships. I released the bottle right in the middle of the entrance to the harbor, that is the light at Romer shoal in the background. We saw the Queen Mary leaving as we paddled up past the Narrows, it really looked like it was going to hit the bridge.While paddling along the shore in Bay Ridge a small fish jumped right in my boat, and we watched somebody land a large bluefish. To go back and get my car, I rode my bike into Manhattan, and took the SeaStreak ferry to Atlantic Highlands, then rode back out to the park to get the car. Truth: Summer always comes.