By Vladimir Brezina
A routine paddle from Lower Manhattan up the Hudson—up the West Side of Manhattan, under the George Washington Bridge and along the Palisades—and back, about 30 miles. Nothing special.
But I do have a few photos…
(Click on any photo to start slideshow)
We leave Pier 40
Paddling up the Hudson: looking East…
… and West (photo by Johna)
Midtown piers, and the George Washington Bridge in the distance
But first we cross the river…
… to inspect our favorite wreck, the Binghamton
Haven’t been here for a year or two…
… and the Binghamton is noticeably more decayed now
Sitting on the muddy bottom
Not going anywhere now
We drift past the wreck
Midtown Manhattan in the distance
Vlad in action (photo by Johna)
But now it’s time to put the camera away (photo by Johna)
… and paddle on north, to the George Washington Bridge…
… and along the Palisades
Later, we return
The bridge and the city beyond grow bigger
Under the bridge…
… and down the Jersey side of the Hudson…
… for better views of the Manhattan skyline across the river
Midtown again
Photo-op
It’s hard for the kayak photographer to resist putting that red kayak in front of the gray skyline :-)
Down the river, the destination is in sight
Sky over Jersey
Almost home!
Vladimir Brezina (RIP) 
Johna Till Johnson
Wind Against Current 
Love the photos!
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I am very happy to hear that! :-)
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nice workout!
that shipwreck
seems like
prime NY real estate :-)
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Well, it’s in New Jersey rather than in NY… ;-)
While it floated, the Binghamton was at one time a prime piece of real estate—a restaurant—but events overtook it, and now it’s far too late for it to recover, as the photos show. I believe there is pressure for the owners to remove the wreck, and then the location will revert to just an unprime piece of muddy water…
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Yes, we remember dinner on the Binghamton. It’ changed a bit! M :-)
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At one time it looked like this—
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I love/loved that place every time I would paddle past it…I remember when it was a restaurant.
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I must have paddled past it a hundred times before I realized it was there (I usually kept to the Manhattan side of the river). By that time it was already a ruin.
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Bummer about the Binghamton. Every time I see it it looks a little worse for wear. I wish someone would fix it up. Maybe it could be towed to La Marina :)
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Too late to fix it up, unfortunately. Even towing it away would be a problem as it’s already full of water and sitting on the bottom, no longer rising with the tide…
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Wow, 30 miles! That’s a lot of paddling. Great views, though. :-)
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Not that much paddling if you go with the current :-)
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Ah, so it’s not a round trip? Cars at both ends?
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Cars? Nobody we know in NYC owns a car, and we don’t either… :-)
No, the river is tidal. The current takes you there, and then the current takes you back.
So it’s totally a round trip. We usually prefer trips that are round in another sense, however—where we go out one way, and come back a different way (as in a circumnavigation). But we still try to have the current with us both ways.
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Wow, that’s a long tide — 15 miles?
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Well, the Hudson is tidal all the way up to Albany (actually Troy), about 140 miles up the river from NYC. And the flood phase of the tidal current lasts about 5 hours, the ebb phase about 7 hours—plenty of time to paddle 15 miles, and more, in each of the phases…
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I never knew any of that. Thanks. Sounds very appealing, really.
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It is appealing, because the current does about a third of the work :-)
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lovely photographs as always! thanks for the ride! :)
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You are most welcome! :-)
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Thanks for taking us along!
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Very glad to have you along!
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