Thursday, March 01, 2012

Release Date 2/26/2012


It was still a windy day, but not nearly as bad as the last time. Tides again dictated a North paddle.

Although I planned to meet friends on the NYC side, the wind forced me to go up the Jersey side, then I had to cross over and get their attention because they didn’t get my message.

I have been paddling the Tide Race X-Plore S on all these trips and I’m really liking it. Hard to tell if it is as fast as my old touring boat, but it is very comfortable, and I think it will be good in bigger water. Hopefully I can try it in the surf sometime.

We went back to the sunken restaurant barge, but this time I was able to board by climbing up the side with some boat stabilizing help.

We even found a few cool souvenirs that were left aboard. It’s funny the thing must have just sunk all of a sudden. Some of the pots in the kitchen still have something in them, with plastic wrapped over it, like it was the middle of dinner service when they abandoned ship.

It’s build on a barge, and when I looked down the stairs I can see its on the bottom and full of water.

We then went in for lunch again, and I resisted all samples.

By the time we headed home the wind had dropped way off, and it was a really nice day.

Truth: Marine Salvage is cool.

Release Date 2/12/2012


This was another day when all my friends but one bailed on a trip because of the cold and really high wind.

I paddled up from Pier 40 to Pier 96 on the Jersey side of the river to get a bit of shelter from it. The wind was from the W and NW, so it was much smoother on that side, and when close enough to land there was less wind.

We played around this sunken riverboat/restaurant a bit, but we were too cold to attempt to board it.

I met up with my paddling friend at Pier 96 and we made it up to Misuwa, before the cold and hunger drove us in for noodles and sake.

We had a nice lunch, and a carbonated sake to warm up.

They had a cream-puff stand set-up, but it was too crowded and the line too long for us to get any.

I then got on a kick and went around the store trying every free sample, and buying something from every sample giver. It was the kind of foolish obsession that sometimes seizes me. Now I have a bunch of weird food to eat. So far the Nori is the best thing.

I got a great idea to re-warm myself before going back outside into the cold. I put my sleeve up to the hot air hand dryer in the men’s room and it caused me to blow-up like a balloon.



Truth: Carbonation makes things fun.