Release Date 10/16/2011

I went for an afternoon paddle on a weekend, and I FINALLY saw the parrots of Weehawken, after many years I finally made it there.

All the Tide Race boats were out at a show, so I took the Outer Island. Like the LV Explorer, I find this boat difficult to control because I can’t hook my knees into it well. 

It was windy from the South so we didn’t want to get too far up river, hence the parrot stop for lunch.

Truth:

Wood is softer than rock.

Release Date 10/10/2011

I went with some friends to go surfing at Breezy Point. It was another really nice day, but there was no surf, or very very little surf anyway. 

We had fun farting around in the little waves, and then had a nice lunch of Bagel Hole bagels and Bandit box wine.

It was cool to skip out on work for a day and lounge in the last really nice day of the year on the beach!

Release Date 10/9/2011

 

We went for a BBQ picnic on the piers down below the Gowanus Canal entrance. It was an afternoon/evening picnic that I extended into a sleepover in a bivy bag. 

Current turned back to flood about 3:30PM when we arrived.

I called and emailed everyone I could think of, and finally got a pretty good of about 12 people in the end from Pier 96, Pier 66, Pier 40, and Red Hook. 

I didn’t do a great job on the fire. I wanted to keep it on the “downlow” so as not to attract attention, but it was ok, and another smart person brought a campstove to take up the slack. I put the fire too close to the water so it was snuffed out during the fish cooking session, but the stove came to the rescue. 

The night was really nice, warm about 70 degrees, and an almost full moon. There is a bit too much ambient light from the neighboring piers. I watched tugs and all kinds of boats go in and out of the harbor all night. There is a perfect view of the Statue of Liberty from here.

It was a crazy warm day, it must have been 80 in the height of the afternoon.

I forgot my camera, but I got a woman to email me this picture of me trying to drown her kid by giving him a ride.

I paddled the Tide Race Xplore S, which is a nice boat, sort of like an Explorer.

I had always wanted to camp here, but it was kind of anticlimactic as a solo event. I got up early and left so I could try and go surfing on Monday 10/10/2011.

Truth: Fire is Hot

Release Date 9/30/2011

I went for an afternoon paddle in the Hudson. The original plan was to go out with some  of the folks from Red Hook, but none of them could make it, so I went on my own from NY Kayak.

I was trying out one of the Tide Race boats the “Xcape”. It was a bit too wide for me, and super stable, meaning it was difficult to get it up on edge, but when I did it felt like it would go right on over, no secondary stability, and very wide.

I paddled north in a pretty strong ebb around 5:00PM. I got up to the cruise ship terminals, and had to wait while one of the boats pulled out.

I then went around the terminal, which was very difficult in such a strong current, it totally wore me out. I rested for a bit at pier 96, then flew home in a  stiff current.

My arm that has been bothering me really hurt the next day, but after 2 days it felt pretty good again.

Truth: Its good to try everything.

Release Date 9/25/2011

The “Inlet”.

Low Tide at the inlet was 11;40, and we got into the water about 12:00PM after a leisurely trip over Bellport.

We had an easy paddle over  from a launch at the East Moriches Coast Guard Station. Soon we were in the current being drawn toward the inlet.

It was a pretty busy place with a bunch of people fishing for stripers in the outgoing tide. We got blown right out and did a bit of surfing out on the East side of the inlet on some pretty big waves.

Then we paddled over to the West side and surfed a few waves over there. I was using a borrowed boat a pretty heavy plastic Baja, and I was happy to have it but I wasn’t strong enough to kick it around in the surf, and wasn't really dressed for a swim, so I was pretty cautious. 

We surfed the waves over there, and decided to stop lunch around 14:30. It was overcast, but the wind was mellow and had very relaxing lunch and some refreshment. We started back around 16:00. We surfed a bit after we left, the waves were reduced, but still substantial.

There was a nutty guy buzzing the inlet in an ultralight and flying very close to the water and the beach, like 10 feet, and we took a bunch of pictures.

By the time we got to the inlet we were very quickly being sucked right into it. A prefect Trip. Still a ton of boats even late late in the afternoon. I was fishing but not very enthusiastically, and I I didn’t catch anything.

We  got back just before dusk and could easily find the put-in.

I'm using some borrowed pictures, my camera has gone missing, but I hope to get it back soon it has pictures and a truth...

Truth: