By Vladimir Brezina
The weather is finally getting warmer, and the days longer. Time for one of our favorite paddles!
In yesterday’s variant of the trip, we paddled up the East River, through Hell Gate, and past Throgs Neck out into Long Island Sound, just in time for lunch at Sugar and Spice on City Island. Then back down the East River to Hell Gate, up the Harlem River, and finally down the Hudson River home.
Here are a few photos…
(click on any photo to start slideshow)
We leave Pier 40 and paddle down the Hudson
Jersey City across the river
Round the Battery
Under the buzzing helicopters into the East River
The ships of the South Street Seaport
Under Brooklyn Bridge
Looking back down the harbor
Under Manhattan Bridge
A lovely spring day!
Last look back at Downtown Manhattan
Under Williamsburg Bridge
Approaching Midtown Manhattan
The United Nations
Spring is in evidence
Architectural sights
Queensboro (Ed Koch) Bridge and the Roosevelt Island tram
In the shadow of the Queensboro Bridge
We are about to enter Hell Gate
Hell Gate is placid today
… even though there’s a good current
We pass the ruins on North Brother Island
The prison barge
Under the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge, toward Throgs Neck
The Empire State
Under Throgs Neck Bridge
The most important building of the SUNY Maritime College
Pink against the blue
We paddle out into the broad Long Island Sound
City Island and Hart Island ahead
Gull raft, with Hart Island behind
Johna gets too close
The Michael Cosgrove waits for bodies
The towers of New Rochelle in the distance
High Island, with its transmission tower
Still closed for the season
… but not for long now!
Back in the East River
Once more under the Bronx-Whitestone Bridge
Still having fun!
Planes pass over us to land at LaGuardia
The Manhattan skyline glitters ahead
Ruined waste transfer station
Toward Rikers Island
Hell Gate once more
Johna’s favorite bridge!
Hell Gate is again calm
Under the Triborough (RFK) Bridge
Manhattan silhouette
Rafted up for tea at our favorite barge
The we paddle up the Harlem River, under the other span of the Triborough
Under the Harlem River bridges in the late-afternoon sun
The Park Avenue Bridge
Harlem River scene
The 145th Street Bridge
Past the ferry dock of Yankee Stadium
Under Macombs Dam Bridge
Evening colors
Toward the Broadway Bridge
In Spuyten Duyvil,we catch the afterglow of the sunset
Henry Hudson Bridge ahead
The Columbia “C”
We pass under the Henry Hudson Bridge
… and under the Amtrak railroad bridge out into the Hudson
We approach the lights of the George Washington Bridge
Blue and gold nocturne
It’s still not completely dark to westward
Midtown illuminations
Vladimir Brezina (RIP) 
Johna Till Johnson
Wind Against Current 
Wow! I’m exhausted just reading and looking at your beautiful photos. Do you two ever just go out for an hour or two? :)
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Johna sometimes does go our for an hour or two, if other people want to do a short trip or to practice strokes. But generally we don’t—we go for the whole day.
There’s a significant overhead in time and money, which is the same for a short trip as for a long trip, getting down to the pier where we keep our boats. And then there are the currents—unless you go out around slack, it’s easy to leave, but not so easy to get back until some hours have elapsed.
So a short trip just doesn’t seem worthwhile. We might as well go for the whole day. Besides, that’s what we do… :-)
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Well good for you! As I sent off the comment I thought to myself it’s probably not as easing as pulling one’s bike out of the garage and riding. I admire your endurance and love of the sport.
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It would be easier if we lived on the water out of the city somewhere. As it is, even pulling the bike out of the garage isn’t all that easy—especially since we don’t have a garage ;-)
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Oh yes Vlad I reminder that amazing high rise view. Hard to find all the perfect things in a spot to live. Cheers.
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You’ve got to like what you’ve got… :-)
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:)
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Reblogged this on Locating Frankenstein's Brain.
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Thanks!
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What a beautiful day for a paddle. I enjoyed it!
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Thanks, Andy!
(I answered your comments on a couple of the individual photos too. Thank you for taking the bait… ;-) )
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Thanks, I appreciate the detail :)
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Oh my gosh, I feel soooo incredibly lazy! ;-) How many miles was this journey?? (Enjoyed the trip and got a kick out of the gull boat – both stationary and in flight – marvelous!)
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Yesterday’s variant was probably just under 50 nautical miles, give or take—let’s say 55 land miles.
Sometimes—when we actually manage to start on time :-)—we add a few miles more by going out to Execution Rocks and Pea Island before heading back…
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Impressive!
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We always make sure to thank the local goddess of tidal currents :-)
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It must have been warmer there than it was here on the Virginia coast. A beautiful day for you on the water, so it appears.
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Well, supposedly the high temperature was around 60 degrees Fahrenheit—on land. But subtract 10 degrees for being on the water, and for paddling, wet, into the wind for longish stretches… And then, of course, the temperature fell dramatically once the sun set.
But we were wearing our full winter regalia, so we were all right. When paddling, we’ve learned not to take this “Spring” thing too seriously until at least June…
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Wow… it’s simply incredible!
I have tried kayaking for an hour at max. that too in a lake, but you used to kayak for the whole day ?
Beautiful images and nice write up.
Have a nice day :)
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More than a day, which sometimes turns out to be necessary…
Actually, if you paddle long distances often enough, you get to the point where you can just keep going, it would seem, forever… the need for sleep is the limiting factor.
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This is something you should feel, right?
Only on two occasions I could do it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it :)
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It’s a matter of practice. Unless you practice enough, you won’t enjoy it, and so you won’t practice enough ;-)
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Vlad and Johna,
Lovely paddle! Not much traffic? Perfect tides!
Thanks again for sharing. You keep me smiling.
George
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Easter Sunday? Hardly any traffic at all.
Thanks, George!
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Vlad,
What was the “target” tide at the battery for this paddle? How long did you have in LIS before you turned back toward the city?
George
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We try to leave for this trip roughly when the current starts flooding up the East River.
And on the way back, ideally we want to be at Throgs Neck, for the return trip down the East River, when the current starts ebbing again. (But we can get away with an hour or even two later, especially if we want to go back down the whole of the East River and round the Battery again, rather than up the Harlem and down the Hudson as we did on this trip.)
That gives us at least three or four hours, sometimes more, to play with out in Long Island Sound.
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What a great way to spend Easter Sunday! I always enjoy your posts!
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Thanks!! :-)
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I paddled to Tarrytown and back and after landing at Inwood, saw two kayaks going by in the evening. I bet it was you guys!
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On Sunday? We passed by Inwood around 8 PM, I guess, and I saw that the club door was open. So yes, probably! :-)
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That was about the time, yes. I’d only just landed about 1930. By the time you guys went by I’d finally regained my land legs and about to finish unpacking my boat. Nice day for it!
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Going down the Hudson, we had really good current, and the water tasted more fresh, rather than salty, than usual. Spring runoff!
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Wait, that means you’re back in town… we should connect!
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Just spent 3 wonderful hours in the everglades with you two (looking forward to the end of the challenge…) and now this. Thanks for sharing these adventures with the engaging text and beautiful photos. M
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Three hours! We admire your endurance! ;-) But seriously, we are honored :-)
The last few Everglades Challenge posts are coming soon, we hope!
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what a beautiful spring day! enjoyed your beautiful photos and wonderful captions as always. thanks for the ride!!
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You are most welcome—thanks for coming along! :-)
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Brilliant series of photographs. I was thinking all the way of the dramatic scale of everything including the sky. Then I came across the C for Columbia. Thanks for the trip…
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You are most welcome! Yes, I always wonder whether I should crop the photos more—and I do in some cases—but often I don’t to give just that impression of the sea and sky… :-)
And yes, the Columbia “C” came in very handy…
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Great shots…
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Thank you!
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Just discovered your blog. From our house on City Island we can see the “gull raft” you photographed – that old float has been there, in pretty-much the same distorted condition, for the past 30 years! Glad you got to enjoy our island, and “Sugar & Spice,” a local favorite. Have a good season!
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We paddle past City Island often, but we don’t usually land there. It’s only recently (during this trip) that we discovered the little beach on the East side on which we could land, just a couple of blocks from Sugar & Spice :-)
Thank you!!
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