Tag Archives: Manhattan

Manhattan Island Marathon Swim 2011: The Lone Starlettes Take Manhattan

Posted on August 20, 2011 by | 6 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

When people say incredulously “OMG, you kayak in THAT water? And you just went all the way around Manhattan??”, I often reply, “People SWIM in that water… all the way around Manhattan!!”

(Clearly, I might have to rethink this reply, although not the sentiment, after this summer’s sewage disaster…)

Each year, NYC Swim puts thousands of swimmers into that water for a series of short and longer swims in New York City’s waterways. Their premier event each summer 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.

The Lone Starlettes scoping out the Battery from the land side beforehand: (left to right) Pam LeBlanc, Katy Dooley, Leslie Blanke, Gretchen Sanders

In this year’s MIMS, on June 18, 2011, I was the kayaker for a relay team, the Lone Starlettes (no prizes for guessing which state they are from    ): Katy Dooley, Gretchen Sanders, Pam LeBlanc, and Leslie Blanke. Here’s how it went…

Continue reading →

6 Comments

Posted in Kayaking, New York City, Sports

Tagged , , , , , , ,

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…)

Continue reading →

4 Comments

Posted in Kayaking, New York City

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Liz Fry’s “Triple Crown”: Three Records in Round-Trip Manhattan-Sandy Hook Swim

Posted on June 23, 2011 by | 6 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

In October 2010, Liz Fry swam in NYC Swim‘s Ederle Swim, a 17.5-mile tide-assisted swim through New York Harbor from Manhattan to Sandy Hook, New Jersey.  Yet when she reached Sandy Hook, she wasn’t all that tired. As all the swimmers were getting onto their accompanying motor boats to return to Manhattan, Liz thought to herself, “Isn’t the tide soon going to turn back toward Manhattan again? Why don’t I just swim back?” And so in 2011 she did.

On June 14, 2011, Liz became the first person ever to complete a Two-Way Ederle Swim, the 35-mile swim from Manhattan to Sandy Hook and back again, in 11 hours, 5 minutes, and 7 seconds.   And on top of that, she set new records for each direction. She made it from Manhattan to Sandy Hook in just 4 hours, 59 minutes, 6 seconds, beating her 2010 time and, by 7 minutes, the previous record of Tammy van Wisse of Australia. And she made it back in just 6 hours, 6 minutes, 1 second—also a record, and not a bad time for someone who had already completed a 17.5-mile swim!

I was one of the two kayakers who accompanied Liz as she completed this  feat. Here’s the swim from a kayaker’s perspective:

Continue reading →

6 Comments

Posted in Kayaking, New York City, Sports

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Manhattanhenge, Memorial Day 2011

Posted on May 31, 2011 by | 22 comments

By Vladimir Brezina

The prehistoric stone circle at Stonehenge contains stones that are perfectly aligned with the rising sun at the summer solstice.  So, too, in Manhattan.  On two days in the year, for a brief moment before it sinks below the horizon, the setting sun shines straight down the cross-streets of Manhattan’s rectangular street grid.  This is Manhattanhenge, a phenomenon eagerly awaited, as it turns out, by many. (There are also two days in the year when the rising sun appears at the other end of the cross-streets, but nobody wants to wait for sunrise in the depths of winter…)

Yesterday, May 30, was the first of the two special days of 2011.  Never having seen Manhattanhenge before, I went to investigate.

Continue reading →

22 Comments

Posted in New York City

Tagged , , , ,