By Vladimir Brezina
This week’s Photo Challenge is Unexpected.
On our kayak trips through New England, we expect to see birds, seals, even whales…
But one day last May, as I was paddling through the desolate Elizabeth Islands in Massachusetts, I rounded a rocky point and came face to face with this huge, shaggy, horned beast, lounging on the beach and looking at me with uncomfortable interest.
Unexpected, to say the least.
The story of that trip and more photos are here.
Posted in Kayaking, Nature, Photography
Tagged Elizabeth Islands, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2013, Sea Kayaking, Unexpected, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
Ailsa’s travel-themed photo challenge this week is Stone.
Kayaking along the glaciated shores of Long Island, Block Island, and Cape Cod, it’s hard to miss the many glacial erratic boulders that dot the shoreline. Some are cool green stones awash in the sea. Others, more exposed, are the favorite perches of cormorants and human fishermen…
(click on any photo to start slideshow)
By Vladimir Brezina
For kayakers, islands exert a special allure. There is the attraction of a circumnavigation, returning to the very same place from which you started from the opposite direction and completing the magic circle. But even more romantic is the idea of paddling out to that remote, preferably deserted, island that you can see on the horizon—or just on the chart!—which can be reached only by boat…
In New York Harbor, we have plenty of islands—even apart from the world-famous ones. But there’s no denying that they all offer a decidedly urban paddling experience. No matter what remote corner of the harbor you are in, the city is always there when you look up. And the city is exciting. But sometimes the country calls.
So in mid-May, we drove up to Westport, MA, on the south coast of Massachusetts just past the Rhode Island border. While Johna was enjoying a couple of days of surfing and rock-gardening (which I hope she will write up, as she did last year), I set out to paddle to my favorite deserted islands.
By Vladimir Brezina
Finally! We’ve turned the corner, and the days are getting longer. Of course, winter has really only just begun—but once the short dark days begin their retreat, winter is a great time for kayaking!
I am already thinking forward to those crisp blue days in late winter or early spring when you can see forever, and can paddle a long way before the day is done, and are alone on the water… (and you can also get seriously hypothermic).
Here is my account of one such day in 2002, written up for the March/April 2003 issue of ANorAK, the Journal of the Association of North Atlantic Kayakers. (I wrote up a series of three trips for Anorak in 2003, whereupon the journal died—hopefully not cause and effect. The others two trips are already posted here and here.)
Tagged Cape Cod, Elizabeth Islands, Kayaking, Martha's Vineyard, Whale, Winter, Woods Hole
... kayaked the waters around New York for more than 15 years in his red Feathercraft folding kayak. He was originally from (the former) Czechoslovakia and lived in the U.K. and California before settling down in New York. He was a neuroscientist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He died in 2016.
... is a kayaker and technology researcher at Nemertes Research. She's an erstwhile engineer, particle physicist, and science fiction writer. She was born in California and has lived in Italy, Norway, Hawaii, and a few other places. She currently resides in New York City.
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Wind Against Current 