By Vladimir Brezina
A Manhattan circumnavigation is the classic trip of New York City kayaking. No two Manhattan circumnavigations are the same. After having done a couple of hundred of them, probably, I can safely say that. And last Saturday’s was one of the best. It had it all—perfect summer weather, a variety of marine traffic to liven things up, a few exciting waves, a secret cove with ripe mulberries, and as a finale, a spectacular sunset…
Here are the photos. (Click on any photo to start a slideshow.)
A beautiful summer day at Pier 40
The Downtown Boathouse’s free kayaking season is in full swing
Johna launches
We set off
Past North Cove with its super-yachts
Summertime traffic
In the East River, more traffic
Johna focuses
Fun With Ferries begins
Typical summertime conditions ;-)
In the hole
Shark
Manhattan Bridge vista
Yet more traffic
The Williamsburg Bridge and the Domino Sugar Factory
In the Manhattan-side channel past Roosevelt Island, with the Queensboro Bridge ahead
Mill Rock, defended by birds
In the secret cove, a remnant of Little Hell Gate
White mulberries!
Vlad picks the low-hanging fruit (photo by Johna)
More mulberries!
These are red
And some are already ripe
A fast dip underwater
… and a roll to cool off
Almost out in the Hudson, where huge ships pass…
Sunlight over the Palisades
Under the George Washington Bridge
Manhattan vista
Johna practices sculling for support
We continue toward Midtown
The sun’s spotlight plays on Midtown
Midtown reflections
Plenty of other kayakers are out
A beautiful summer evening on the water
Saturday evening crowd
The classic view
Home in sight
Two suns over New Jersey
Back in the Pier 40 embayment…
… we watch the sunset
Last minutes of the day
Freedom Tower in the dusk
.
These and other photos from the trip are here.
Vladimir Brezina (RIP) 
Johna Till Johnson
Wind Against Current 
amazing photographs… I enjoy the opportunity to go on your adevntures with you via wordpress, thanks
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You are most welcome—thank you for visiting!! :-)
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Stunning photos. It is always interesting to see the view of the city from the water.
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My favourite – it has to be the sunset. Amazing.
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Thanks, Colline!! Yes, the view from the water is special… :-)
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Looks like a wonderful day on the water. I love the sunset view and the mulberry picking.
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Somehow we always manage to return just in time to see the sunset :-)
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Perfect timing! :-)
With the heatwave in the city. Is it cooler on the water?
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Much cooler—probably 10 degrees (F) or so. Then if there’s wind, it can get downright chilly on the water even in the summer. But there are other summer days when there is no wind and it’s oppressively hot even out on the water. I don’t do well in heat, and on those days I much prefer to paddle at night…
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Ahhh! How interesting! I like the sound of the 10 degrees cooler bit. :)
So, you can actually paddle at night? Obvoiusly it’s not too dark to see and paddle around, huh?
I’m enjoying this different view of the city. Thanks for sharing your experiences and answering my questions. :-)
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We paddle faster at night ;-)
Around New York there are so many lights that it’s never really dark at night. Actually, the lights impose a different problem—how to distinguish between shore lights and those on a boat that’s about to run you over…
Even outside built-up areas, there’s often a moon, and even when there isn’t, it’s surprising how much you can see in the dark once your eyes become adapted to it.
Most importantly, you don’t really need to see the water when kayaking, once you have some experience.
Night paddling is actually a lot of fun!
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So VERY interesting! Who knew!? I didn’t. It’s good to learn something new every day. Thanks! :-D
Happy Paddling!
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You are most welcome! Thank you!
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Looks great – It was a beautiful day, Don’t let it get away, A beautiful day
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See the world in green and blue… :-)
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Beautiful summer time!! Thank you for sharing :)
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You are welcome, Amy! :-)
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Beautiful sunset! Thank you for sharing. About how long does a leisurely paddle around the island take?
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That depends on your definition of “leisurely”. Serious and semi-serious racers can do it in under 5 hours.
Without a lot of effort (but with favorable conditions) Vlad and I completed one in 5.5 hours recently.
But, that requires making few to no stops (no bathroom breaks, photo shoots, or picnics).
If you’re more inclined to those, your time will be more like 7-8 hours, maybe longer (depending on how long you picnic). My first circumnav went from (I think) 9 PM at night to 7 AM the following morning–so 10 hours. But that included several breaks–not to mention the coaches needing to track down some errant paddlers who took the wrong course. In the dark!
Fortunately, there are great places to stop right before Hell Gate and afterwards, so you can pretty much decide whether you want to do a “slow” trip (lots of breaks) or a “fast one”—and time your start accordingly.
Hope that helps!
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Yes it did. That was interesting. You must be in good physical condition to be out there that long – impressive! Thanks for the long answer to lakenormanprep’s question. You could probably take this and develop it into a blog post (my 25 cents).
Nancy
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Actually, the Manhattan circumnavigation is basically a half-day trip, which we often do when we have something else to do that day as well. When we go out for a full day, we paddle for anywhere from 12 to 16 hours (occasionally longer), on a trip that may include a Manhattan circumnavigation as part of it, such as this one.
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Just to put the times Johna mentioned in perspective, in the first Mayor’s Cup a few years ago (a race round Manhattan that has since been discontinued), Greg Barton (an Olympic gold medal winner) won in a surfski with a record time of 3 hours 21 minutes. (I believe that record was broken in subsequent Mayor’s Cups.) The fastest sea kayaks (the class of boats we paddle, although their boats were probably faster) came in at around 4 hours. So we still have considerable room for improvement :-)
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Hopefully, I didn’t start anything. :) I was just curious. I have family that lives up in the area. They paddle a good bit when they come visit us down here but I haven’t heard of them paddling in the city (well, around the city). Thank you for the info!
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No, you didn’t start anything! :-) :-)
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wow circumnavigate? how far did you kayak? i assume the island is pretty big, right?
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It’s about 26 nautical miles around, depending a bit on how you go, so let’s say 30 land miles.
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Great photos of your circumnavigation around Manhattan! I grew up there. It was nice to see it from a different point of view.
I liked two photos in particular: Sunlight over the Palisades (beautiful lighting) and Two Suns over New Jersey. When did NJ get 2 suns? I have family there…have they been keeping it a secret? :)
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Two suns over New Jersey but they illuminate Manhattan, of course ;-)
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I didn’t see the Statue of Liberty in your pictures, so I’m happy to have shown it, even from a distance of 1500 miles and 37 years.
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Thanks, Steve! Happy 4th!
Actually, the Statue is visible in the sixth photo, behind the sailboat. It’s hard to get away from the Statue in the harbor…
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What a great way to see NYC. Forget 5th Avenue. Loved the photo story.
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Yes, it’s a bit different from 5th Avenue :-)
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Beautiful pictures and the story!
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Thanks! :-)
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Wonderful photos!
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Thanks, Carissa!
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Amazing pics! Nice landscape, and I really like the vibrant colors of kayaks in front of it!
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Why do you think we all buy kayaks in bright colors? ;-)
Thanks!!
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