Recycled Adventures: Urban Kayaking, New York City

Posted on August 17, 2011 by | 4 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Now that Johna and I are back from our New England kayaking trip (photos here, writeup still to come), it’s back to my regular old paddling routine in New York Harbor.

Here’s an account of one of my standard trips, written up a long time ago for the September/October 2003 issue of ANorAK, the Journal of the Association of North Atlantic Kayakers (a journal now defunct).  Rereading this account, I see that things haven’t changed much over the past decade. There’s mention of sewage, for instance…

In essence, the trip is a 50-nautical-mile circumnavigation of Manhattan with a side excursion into Long Island Sound, looping around City and Hart Islands. I developed this trip for those days when the timing of the tidal currents is such that the East River starts flooding in the early morning, just as I am launching from Pier 40 in lower Manhattan. Following the flood current up the East River soon gets me to Hell Gate, where I am faced with the choice of paddling against the current then coming down the Harlem River, or continuing with the current through Hell Gate into the Upper East River and out into Long Island Sound.  Being lazy, of course I choose the second option, returning to Hell Gate to resume the Manhattan circumnavigation only when the current has turned so that it will push me up the Harlem River. (As a bonus, I get to paddle through Hell Gate both ways at the peak of the current, sometimes boiling along at five or six knots, which can be interesting…)

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Amelia Island Sunrise

Posted on August 14, 2011 by | 5 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Sunrise on the beach at Amelia Island, Florida…

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Tortoises Dance Their Mating Dance (Slowly)

Posted on August 11, 2011 by | Leave a comment

By Vladimir Brezina

Tortoises are not the most agile or graceful of creatures.  Their movements have a certain grim ponderousness about them–but they get the job done, otherwise tortoises would not be here.

Recently, at Amelia Island, Florida, I saw in the sand dunes a pair of tortoises–gopher tortoises, I presume–dancing their slow mating dance.

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Name That Lighthouse!

Posted on August 10, 2011 by | 11 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

I love lighthouses!  There are quite a few in New York Harbor and the surrounding waterways.  And over the years that I’ve spent kayaking in the area, I’ve collected photos of many of them.  See if you can identify the lighthouses in the following photos!  All are within the borders of New York City or just beyond.

Correct answers will receive contributions toward the purchase of your very own lighthouse!  Many lighthouses around the country are now available from the government at very reasonable terms.  In New York Harbor itself, West Bank Light and Old Orchard Shoal Light are unfortunately already gone, sold for $195,000 and $95,000 respectively—it will be interesting to see what the purchasers do with them. But Romer Shoal Light and Great Beds Light may still be available…

Update (August 12, 2011): Answers provided.

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Sea Kayaking Adventures in New England: A Few Photos to Start With

Posted on July 27, 2011 by | Leave a comment

By Vladimir Brezina and Johna Till Johnson

After returning from a week’s eventful paddling in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, Vlad is sorting through hundreds of photos and Johna is turning over the stories in her head. It will take some little while for the report to come together, but it will feature:

Long open-water crossings!

Exciting surf landings!

Unexpected encounters with low tides…

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The Sun and the Rain: Kayaking down the Hudson from Albany to New York City

Posted on July 14, 2011 by | 39 comments

By Johna Till Johnson
Photos by Vladimir Brezina

“Why is camping fun?”

I’ve been asked that many times through the years. Even active, tough, and healthy people, folks who glory in the feel of a strenuous workout, often wonder about it. Hard physical activity is a joy when it’s followed by a hot shower, a good meal (preferably cooked and delivered by someone else), and a clean, soft, safe  bed. But where’s the fun in ending a hard day’s workout by erecting a tent, attempting to cook dinner, bathing (if at all) in unheated water, and attempting to sleep on rocky ground? (Let’s not even talk about stinging and biting insects, itching poison oak and ivy, and the smallish-but-real risk of being attacked by a wild animal—or person.)

Why is camping fun?

It’s hardly a rhetorical question when you’re standing drenched to the skin, watching raindrops bore holes into the curry you’re desperately trying to heat over a flickering camping stove. Your muscles ache, but you can’t sit because the picnic table and ground are sodden. Darkness is all around you, lit only by the stove and the weak ripple of LEDs from the camp lamp through the rain. Behind you, the tent is battered by rain: Rivulets are pooling on the top and running down the sides, and you’re pretty sure the inside is damp as well. And the plummeting raindrops are cooling the curry as fast as you’re trying to heat it.

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NYC’s Toxic Waterways, Trip Three: The Bronx River Attempt

Posted on July 10, 2011 by | 14 comments

By Vladimir Brezina and Johna Till Johnson

Lately we’ve developed a fascination with the legendary toxic waterways of New York City. Previously, we’ve traversed the Gowanus Canal and Newtown Creek, both Superfund sites. On July 2, we decided to explore the mysterious Bronx River.

Unlike the other two, the Bronx River isn’t truly toxic. In fact, by all accounts, the river is surprisingly bucolic as it winds under a leafy canopy, a narrow green ribbon through the concrete and asphalt of the Bronx.

But it’s not particularly paddler-friendly. Photos from Bob Huszar’s pioneering trip show numerous weirs, dams, and waterfalls. Paddlers pose with car carcasses half-submerged in the river, and rafts of floating trash collect behind a skim boom. (This last feature was one we should have paid more heed to!)

Since then, the river has apparently been substantially smoothed and civilized. The Bronx River Alliance has worked hard to institutionalize kayaking and canoeing on the river, running regular trips and producing a very useful map and paddling guide to the “Bronx River Blueway”. But the guide still shows three portages, some “challenging”, and warns that the water “can be very shallow at times. Paddlers may need to disembark and pull boats for short distances.”

Most paddlers come down the river in old beaten-up plastic river kayaks or canoes. We were headed up the river in our tender sea kayaks—his a soft-skinned folding kayak, hers pampered carbon-kevlar. How far up the river would be make it through the obstacles? Not so far, as it turned out.

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Kayak Sailing with Balogh Sail Designs

Posted on June 30, 2011 by | 15 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Anyone paddling a kayak very soon discovers the power of wind. Even a modest breeze pushes the kayak briskly along. A headwind cuts progress right down. And, once the difficulties of controlling the kayak in wind and waves are mastered, a good tailwind makes the miles fly by.

Since expedition kayaking is all about using the available natural forces to complete the journey in the most economical manner, why not use the power of the wind most effectively, by putting up a sail? Even purists who consider this cheating will sit up straighter in a tailwind, or hold up a jacket, or even open an umbrella.  Why then not a real sail?

Kayak sailing has caught on! There is now out there a huge variety of kayak sail rigs, both home-made and commercially produced, ranging from simple sails that are not much more than umbrellas to serious rigs. Most of the simpler sails are downwind sails, offering little or no cross-wind, let alone upwind, performance. True upwind performance, comparable to that of a small sailboat, takes a true aerodynamically efficient upwind sail, and usually outriggers or stabilizers of some kind that allow a much larger sail to be mounted and used aggressively without fear of capsize. Some of the most powerful and elegant such rigs are made by Balogh Sail Designs.

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Recycled Adventures: Night Kayak Sailing on the Hudson River

Posted on June 28, 2011 by | 2 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

Also in conjunction with my kayak-sailing post, here’s a slideshow of a kayak sail—or rather, paddle-sail—in August 2007. During the hot, humid New York summer, I much prefer to paddle, and sail, at night. I left Pier 40 on the West Side of Manhattan before sunset, sailed up the Hudson River to the Tappan Zee, then returned to Manhattan before dawn. A waterproof camera, mounted on an aka of my outrigger sail rig, automatically took a photo every five minutes.  These are selected images from the series.

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Recycled Adventures: A Kayak Sail along the New England Coast

Posted on June 27, 2011 by | 3 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

In conjunction with a post on kayak sailing, here’s the story of my very first kayak sailing trip, way back when in September 2002… I and Mark Starr sailed in a double kayak from Stonington, Connecticut, clear across Rhode Island, through Vineyard Sound and Nantucket Sound, to Chatham, Massachusetts, a distance of about 100 nautical miles.

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