By Vladimir Brezina
We’ve been ice-bound for the last month. No paddling—and we were beginning to feel it! But this weekend, finally, winter seems to have released its grip.
Here are a few photos from Saturday’s Manhattan circumnavigation (click on any photo to start slideshow):
From Pier 40, we paddle down to the Battery
Past North Cove
… with its reflecting surfaces
It’s a breezy day
We wait for the Staten Island ferry to leave
Here it goes!
We paddle past
… into the East River
Under the Manhattan Bridge
The Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges
Just here, we always turn around to look back
… at the classic view
Under the Williamsburg Bridge
Past the well-known red buoy in the East River
Midtown Manhattan
The ConEdison power plant in the sun
We continue up the Queens-side channel past Roosevelt Island
A Queens classic
A graceful apparition
Under the Queensboro Bridge
… with the sun at our backs
Toward the power plant
Colorful industrial
“Long Island”, the barge, is always there
Three stacks
Under the Roosevelt Island Bridge
We raft up for tea in the shelter of our favorite barge off Randalls Island
… then we continue under the Triborough (now RFK) Bridge
… up the Harlem River
The renovated Willis Avenue Bridge
Late afternoon sunshine
Golden rays
… follow us under
Macombs Dam Bridge
Geese make their unhappiness heard as we pass
The three mid-Harlem bridges
A few last rays light up the high points
University Heights Bridge
Lavender and blue dusk
Almost our of the Harlem! We pass under the Henry Hudson Bridge
… to the Amtrak bridge
… and under it out into the Hudson
The afterglow of the sunset is still in the sky
We approach the George Washington Bridge
… with the lights of Midtown Manhattan coming into view
A necklace of lights
Vladimir Brezina (RIP) 
Johna Till Johnson
Wind Against Current 