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Day 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | Sept 7-17 | Sept 18-19 | The Launch | Outings |
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100th Street to 79th Street to the Bronx, Sunday, October 17 |
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What an adventure. The plan for the day was to go south with the current, then north when it changed over about 12:00. Then up to the Bronx where my friend Kerwin's friend Julia was having a party at her house in Spuyten Duyvil, right where the Hudson and Harlem Rivers meet. Kerwin and I carried my boat from my house to 100th Street (he had his on his back - inflatable) where we put in from the rocky shore. We had a bit of a following. People are really curious about kayaks in New York City. We went with the current down to the 79th Street Boat Basin, then noticed the current was changing and decided to cross over to the New Jersey side and go north. |
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| I felt like a turtle crossing a busy street. The Hudson is awfully wide and has enormous boats and barges traveling down it at all times. At first I felt a little panicky as I saw boats (more like freighters!) in the distance heading straight for me but soon figured out how fast they were going versus how fast I was going and knew our paths wouldn't cross. The waves also, weren't as big as I thought out in the middle. It was only after big boats passed that the waves became large. And if I faced directly into them, my boat felt steady and went right over the waves. I've been nervous about the Hudson for a while. It also doesn't help that I MADE my boat. She's behaved perfectly so far, but I made it for God's sake. It's only to be expected that I may have done something wrong that I will only discover when my cockpit is full of water and I'm spitting out Hudson germs. |
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| It's really lovely along the Palisades. The leaves are starting to turn and there were lots of people hiking and biking along the river. |
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| Got up to the Bronx and headed toward the Harlem River. The current became noticeably stronger and stranger because the rivers meet and because the Harlem River is narrow. Passed under a railroad bridge and explored the area. Saw Columbia's boathouse and a park. The Circle Line boats passing through created enormous waves that were fun to surf. I'm getting more used to dealing with waves. I'd better, considering next Saturday I'm circumnavigating the Statue of Liberty! The waves down there are apparently really big. |
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| Julia said there was a beach by the train station and that we should cross the tracks, cross the parking lot and make a left on Palisade Avenue. Sounds easy. You can see her house circled above and the station. We got to the tracks and discovered a 700 VOLT RAIL!!!! I was nervous enough thinking of crossing a high voltage rail without a kayak, but while carrying a 50 pound boat!! All the Danger signs and No Trespassing signs didn't help. |
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We ended up crossing over the 1.5 foot high rail about three times. I envisioned my wet shoelace coming undone and brushing the rail as I crossed. I wonder what I would look like charred. |
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Got the boats up on the platform safely and carried them to the party. I'd never kayaked to a party before. |
