By Johna Till Johnson
Photos by Vladimir Brezina
At the time, it didn’t seem like a big deal: On a sunny weekend in late October, we decided to circumnavigate Manhattan.
We didn’t anticipate, though, that, thanks to Hurricane Sandy, it would be our last circumnavigation of the year, indeed our last major trip in New York waters. And so this trip has a special resonance in our memories.
A Manhattan circumnavigation is usually a pretty predictable trip, though always a treat. It’s not particularly long by our standards, but packed with variety. The scenery ranges from the urban…
In the East River: the Empire State Building, with Vlad in the foreground (photo by Johna)
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to the bucolic…
Fall colors in the Harlem River
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Riding the chop and keeping an eye on the ferries down by the Battery
and the paddling conditions vary nearly as much: The water down by the Battery is often exciting (enhanced by ferry and other shipping traffic)…
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Heading up the Harlem River
but the long glide up the Harlem River is usually tranquil.
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All in all, we looked forward to a lovely, if unexceptional trip.
Unexceptional except for being our last long trip of the year. The following weekend, we toured the Gowanus Canal—a scenic, but short, excursion.
And the Monday after that, Sandy arrived.
Our Manhattan paddling home at Pier 40 was shut down, and the pier itself remains closed (though we’re hopeful it will reopen soon). In addition, there continue to be some restrictions on paddling in New York Harbor. So we haven’t been out (in New York waterways, at least) since.
Which made this “unexceptional” trip rather exceptional, after all.
So our recollection of this circumnavigation is tinged with a bit of melancholy and a sense of loss. As the graffiti has it:
“Alas this bitter life filled with sweet dreams” — Poetic graffiti in the East River
But even an “ordinary” trip has moments of incandescent beauty, which will live on in our memories…
The George Washington Bridge: Yellow and blue nocturne
We hope to be back on the waters around Manhattan in 2013!
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The individual photos are here.
We didn’t really know what to expect when we started blogging. We certainly had no idea that the best part of blogging—truly, the very best—would be discovering the vast audience of sympathetic readers out there, many of whom have wonderful blogs of their own that we now love and follow.
Vladimir Brezina (RIP) 
Johna Till Johnson
Wind Against Current 