By Vladimir Brezina
Ailsa’s travel-themed photo challenge this week is Big.
I seem to recall that there was already a “Big” photo challenge last year… and my response was the obvious one :-)
So here’s another type of big object that we regularly encounter kayaking in New York Harbor—
For more on this subject see At the Bottom of the Food Chain.
Posted in Kayaking, New York City, Photography
Tagged Barges, Big, Kayaking, New York Harbor, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2013, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
This week’s Photo Challenge is Foreshadow.
Signs from the heavens. Looks like Coney Island is doomed
as is Manhattan
but Brooklyn will be spared.
But no, or at least not this time. All this foreshadows merely a spectacular thunderstorm
that passes, with the city still there.
Posted in Kayaking, Nature, New York City, Photography
Tagged Foreshadow, Kayaking, New York Harbor, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2013, Storm, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
This week’s Photo Challenge is Fresh.
Kayaking, we soon become familiar with a distinct hierarchy of freshness. In descending order, there is—
Fresh off the tree!
(story is here)
Fresh and cold from the store!
(more photos are here)
Fruit that stays surprisingly fresh on a long trip…
(more photos are here)
and something that was fresh once in the depths of the dry bag.
(story is here)
Posted in Kayaking, Photography
Tagged Fresh, Kayaking, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2013, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
This week’s Photo Challenge is The Golden Hour.
When I saw this week’s theme, I thought, how timely! For today (and tomorrow) is the second round of this year’s Manhattanhenge, the culmination of a very special golden hour in Manhattan. (Here are the photos from the first round of Manhattanhenge in May, and from 2011.) And I was going to urge all New Yorkers reading this post to go and see it. And even-out-of towners—you’ve still got a few hours to get on that plane so as to be in Manhattan by 8: 23 PM EDT ;-)
Unfortunately, a solid overcast, with occasional showers and thunderstorms, is forecast for both today and tomorrow. Indeed, as I write this, the rain is already beginning.
It will be a wash.
So, instead, here is another golden hour that I remember fondly.
It was last summer, during our kayak circumnavigation of Long Island. We were camped at the easternmost point of Long Island, at Montauk, in a grove of trees that faced the rising sun. The light that flooded our camp that morning was truly golden. And equally golden was the extra hour of sleep that we allowed ourselves that morning after our exertions of the day before…
By Vladimir Brezina
This week’s Photo Challenge is Nostalgic.
Kayaking through New York City’s waterways and becoming aware of the maritime traditions of the harbor, it’s hard not to become nostalgic about its bygone days, reflected in the numerous wrecks of ships, some of them over a hundred years old, that lie here and there in the harbor.
A case in point is the Binghamton, a 1905 steam ferryboat—the last of many—that has reached her last resting place, as it now clearly is, on the New Jersey side of the Hudson at Edgewater.
The Binghamton operated as a cross-Hudson ferry, making a mile-long trip back and forth between Hoboken and Manhattan, continuously from 1905 to 1967, when the last ferries were forced out of business (until their recent renaissance) by competition from the Hudson tunnels and the George Washington Bridge.
Binghamton was then converted into a floating restaurant. The restaurant closed in 2007, and since then Binghamton has awaited a new use.
From Wikipedia:
The Binghamton is significant as possibly the last surviving steam ferry still afloat built to serve New York Harbor, the birthplace of commercial steam navigation, the birthplace of the double-ended steam ferry, and an area whose development was profoundly shaped by the introduction of vessels of this kind.
Indeed, The US Department of the Interior added Binghamton to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Bill Lee has written a loving, detailed essay on her history, and Tugster has posted a series of photos (here, here, and here) that give a good idea of her interior as it was until quite recently.
Bill Lee’s essay ends when Binghamton‘s future still looked promising. Unfortunately, in 2011 Hurricane Irene greatly accelerated her progressive deterioration, and last year Hurricane Sandy finished the job. Binghamton no longer floats, but is resting on the bottom.
Every time we paddle past, we see greater decay. Now an entire side of the boat is down, giving us dramatic views into the inlaid wood and stained glass of the interior—all ruined now. Water sloshes back and forth through the interior spaces with each passing wave.
A reminder of the transience of beauty…
By Vladimir Brezina
Unlike Johna, I’ve been reluctant to write too much about myself on Wind Against Current. Who would want to read that stuff? And now I don’t have to write anything—NYC Swim has done it for me.
In each issue of their Cross Currents Newsletter, they profile a particular swimmer, or sometimes a volunteer, such as a kayaker, who has worked extensively with them. And so the latest issue of the newsletter features a piece entitled Volunteer of the Week: Vladimir Brezina…
It’s got something about what I do when I am not kayaking, or blogging. So, if you want to read such stuff, there it is! :-)
By Vladimir Brezina
This week’s Photo Challenge is The World Through Your Eyes.
Kayaking through New York Harbor, you never know what you’ll see…
By Vladimir Brezina
Each summer, NYC Swim organizes a series of shorter and longer swims in New York City’s waterways. The premier event is the Manhattan Island Marathon Swim (MIMS), a 28.5-mile race around Manhattan. Along with the English Channel and Catalina Channel swims, it is one of the three swims in the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming.
Each swimmer is accompanied by a kayaker (as well as a motor boat). So on Saturday a week ago, I kayaked around Manhattan with swimmer Katy Dooley. Katy already knew all about swimming around Manhattan, having swum in MIMS in 2011 as well as 2012—but in both cases as part of a relay. This was going to be her first solo round-Manhattan swim.
This year’s MIMS turned out to be interesting, to say the least. Due to a cascading series of problems, some traceable all the way back to last year’s Hurricane Sandy, others to the unseasonably cold water, and still others to the heavy rains in the previous couple of days, only 11 of the 39 solo swimmers completed the entire swim unassisted.
But Katy was one of them! She powered through, finishing 5th (and 2nd woman) in 7 hours, 44 minutes. And by completing her swim around Manhattan, she became only the 69th swimmer to join the elite club of Triple Crown open water swimmers. A major accomplishment on a very difficult day—and inspiring to watch from close up!
I’ll write more about the swim in a future post. (My writeups of MIMS 2011 and 2012 are here and here.) But in the meantime, here are some of the photographic highlights of MIMS 2013.
Posted in Kayaking, New York City, Sports
Tagged Kayaking, Long-Distance Swim, Manhattan, Manhattan Island Marathon Swim, MIMS, New York City, New York Harbor, NYC Swim, Photography
By Vladimir Brezina
This week’s Photo Challenge is The Sign Says.
Kayaking out on open water, we meet few signs. But as soon as we come in to land, signs abound. Some of them do their best to be unavoidable. Nevertheless, we sometimes manage to avoid them—
Some years ago, Erik Baard and I paddled down from Manhattan and landed on the beach near the northwestern tip of Sandy Hook. We had a leisurely lunch, took a stroll along the beach, lazed about, and after a couple of hours were ready to paddle back to Manhattan. But just before we launched, we thought that we might, just out of curiosity, find out what those two big signs that stood there, facing away from us, said…
And not far from that spot was another, complementary set of signs that helped complete the image of Sandy Hook, at least in those pre-Hurricane Sandy days…
.
.
.
(Our first interpretation of “The Sign Says” was here.)
Posted in Humor, Kayaking, New York City, Photography
Tagged Kayaking, Photography, postaweek, postaweek2013, Sandy Hook, The Sign Says, Weekly Photo Challenge
By Vladimir Brezina
As with my kayaks
My Feathercraft folding kayaks. Left to right: K-Light (1990s), K1 (2000s), Heron (2012). Increasing in overall length from 12′ 10″ (K-Light) to 17′ 7″ (Heron).
so with my cameras
My Pentax Optio waterproof cameras. Left to right: W90 (2010), WG-2 (2012), WG-3 (2013). Increasing in weight from 5.7 oz (W90, with battery and memory card) to 7.4 oz (WG-3).
I’ve noticed a progressive hypertrophy ;-)
Posted in Kayaking, Photography
Tagged Camera, Feathercraft, Kayaking, Pentax, Photography
... 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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