Heading home on the Jmz
The Pool Barge!
Catching a ride on the Doyen
Great Neck with Bonnie
Seal scull?
Blackberry Island
David Horvitz in Mamaronek
Pirate mini golf in Bay.ville Long island
No match for the wind
Lighthouse island
Headed back in the direction of new york with Deb Larson
Headed back in the direction of new york with Deb Larson
Truck portage to the north shore.
Hoping for better weather tomorrow
My dad gives us his lecture on international piracy
Exploring Fire Island with my dad.
Heading back out to Fire Island with Lan Tuazon, Carla Edwards, and my dad.
Watching the Stalker back home for the night
Stormy seas at Bay Shore
Waiting for jeff on the porch of an abandoned house
Heading for the Robert Moses Causeway with Tim and Sarah
Sarah and Tim get ready to go
Caroline Woolard, Colin McMullan, Christopher Robbins and i on Patio Island near Babylon.
Cooking calzones on an island near Babylon
My hand at spades
Abandoned table and chairs on a scenic overlook.
Caroline is making dough that we will grill on the fire tonight
6am
Camped out near Long Beach with Caroline
Long Beach!
Brin and Kris at Jordan’s Lobster.
Saved from the rain last night. Hotel by the bay
Gay sailing!
JFK
Decision Point
Moses Gates is totally tweeting this
Moses Gates gets ready to explore Canarsie Pol
Waking up at Constance Hockaday’s Boatel
Here is my room at the boatel
Connie fishing for glowing jelly fish
The Jill Hodges bridge
Adrian Kinloch in Jamaica Bay
Jesse Hammerman and Melissa Brown
Jesse Hammerman and Melissa Brown
Getting closer to the bridge
Jesse Hammerman and Melissa Brown
Jesse Hammerman and Melissa Brown
Daphne Fitzpatric
Escape from Manhattan
Fred Hayes
Manhattan Bridge
The bags are packed
The boat is loaded
Taking a swim break at the falls
Hanna Leo
Visiting the Half Moon
RJ Supa, david Fierman, Victoria Keddie on Middle Ground Flats
Rj and friends
Maria T
Giselle Potter and family meet us out on the high seas.
Kara Kazanoff at the Athens light house
Cathleen Chaffee, Tania Cross, and Birgit Rathsmann exploring Hudson.
Jack Hanley and Micheal Bauer
Robin Vachal in Athens
Jeff Williams
6 am
Camped out
Ready to go
The Athen’s Hudson light house.
Landing at the beach in Hudson.
We leave the island.
It’s like the Paola Pivi piece- says Diana.
Found on the beach.
After lunch we sit in the sun and listen to birds. There actually seem to be less of them than in New York. Maybe they like the city.
Before we round the island and make for Hudson ya decide to stop for a snack.
We push off from Middle Ground Flats.
This makes you afraid to stand in the same place for too long- says Diana -like the trees will just swallow you up.
Diana said- if the state wanted the land back so bad you’de think they would have cleaned it up.
This notice is attached to one of the houses. It looks like things changed out here in 08. When we start to look around we realize the houses were not temporary at all.
All along the banks we have been seeing little temporary houses, so we pull up to explore.
Yesterday we passed the historic house of Thomas Cole. We could just make out it’s turrets above the trees and we imagined ourselves to be a spec in one of his paintings of the Hudson River.
The wind and tide are going south, so Diana and I will try and make it back to Hudson.
We take a few things we need for the day, and leave Sohrab and Michal with the rest.
Planning out the next step.
We leave the boat while go in get coffee.
When we look around today, It is kind of a miracle that they found us.
Some of the confusion of last night is explained when we figure out that we were not on an island at all. And we told Diana’s friends to meet us in the wrong place.
All aboard!
The is no wind and the water is like glass.
I thought i heard something scurrying around last night.
Good night!
Much better than last night’s dinner!
Making a fire.
We load all the friends into the boat and head back to the island.
We paddled across and met diana’s friends Sohrab and Micheal.
Still waiting.
Diana’s friends are somewhere on land trying to find us. But it is hard to figure out just where. We wait on the southern tip of the island.
Diana’s friends have called from shore. Now we are setting out to find them in the dark.
Finally. A sandy beach and even a grill and fire ring.
We set back out to find a spot.
We are not sure what to do. The bank is steep and thick with brambles. Not a good camp site.
We get back in the boat to look for a better place to camp.
Diana’s friends are going to meet up with us on the island. They have been following the pictures on line and now they are coming with hot dogs and beer.
We pull up onto a swamp bank to look at the map.
Stockport Middle Ground. We think it is an island made of what they dredged to make the shipping channel.
We push off and say goodby to the pretty town of Hudson.
At the train station i find a magazine with an amazing image: New York City covered in a waterfall. It reminds me of something Melissa Brown would make.
We hang out in the train station waiting for my phone to charge.
A wonderful coincidence happens when we get into town. We see Gareth, my friend McKendree’s husband. He and his friends are on a long bike ride. We compare travel notes and then his friend points out some good camping places.
This must be where they store or fix the river bouys.
I wonder what kind of town Hudson is.
We hide the boat on the shore. I hope it will be ok.
We find a little beach just before town.
Coming into Hudson.
We start seeing duck blinds all along the shore.
Goodby Roger’s Island! Happy Easter Roger.
We stop and take a rest on Rogers Island. How well named – i think. My uncle Roger has been on my mind this whole trip. He is the one who taught me to paddle a canoe and camp.
The wind pushes us over to the western bank. And to me it seems like a strange new country.
We are going to try to set off again with a revised sail.
The first boat that we have seen all day. In fact, the first other human.
The wind is gusting from one side of the river then the other. We decide to eat lunch and see what happens.
The remains of a broken up house. It looks like this whole island was under water at some point this winter.
The former inhabitants of the island left this little raft. It leads me to wonder where they are.
We struggle against the wind to get to a little island.
Diana practices with the sail on dry land. It will be her job to take it down in a hurry if something goes wrong.
We have found a few options. And we start to lay out the sail.
Too long
We pull up at the landing to try and find a better mast.
The waves are big though. And it is worrisom with so much stuff weighing down the boat.
Even though the tide is against us we have a nice wind going in our direction.
We pack up the boat and get ready.
Breakfast.
We slept by the train tracks last night. No matter how i tried to mentally prepare myself, the train coming by in the night always woke me up in a panic.
Good morning!
Good night!
We walk back to the boat in the pitch dark. It turns out we walked in a big circle. Consulting a map at the gas station, we found a better way back.
Dinner
Mmmm
Suddenly we see the lights of civilization.
Now we are walking along a highway looking for food. It is not exactly camping.
We walk along in the pitch black. We can’t seem to find the town.
Seems like we made it to Germantown.
We decide to walk north a bit and try to find Germantown.
We stash all the stuff under the boat.
Where are we?
It is almost dark.
I have to think about what to do next.
We pull over. It is getting pretty cold out on the water.
The tide has turned against us. We are still going in the right direction, but we are paddling much harder.
The sun is setting.
The wind is dying. The tide is turning around.
I can never remember how far a nautical mile is.
We try and figure out how ear we have come. But my map only has nautical miles.
We are passing by a huge factory. And you can hear machinery humming for miles.
The sail is working great. And we are making much better time than i thought we would.
Huge houses line the banks.
We know we only have a few more hours to ride with the tide. When it turns around we will not be able to paddle against the current.
A train heading to New York.
Diana checks to make sure everything is working on line.
We make a sail to take advantage of the tail wind.
Diana paddles in the back for a bit.
And a plastic chair.
We seem to be going up river with large amounts of debris.
Diana wanted to see some fake ruins she had heard about out here.
We pull up the boat to look around.
Under the train bridge.
As we leave the protected bay by Annendale the wind picks up.
It could not be a better day to take a boat trip.
And her friend Sohrab sees us off. He will call us tonight to make sure we are ok.
Diana finds a pretty spot right by her school to launch the boat.
I met Diana at Bard with her friends.
My brother gave me a Pirate Pez dispenser. Sent from my mom for Easter. Take it with you for good luck- he said.
Leaving New York. It is hard to believe that in a few hours i could be floating along in the Hudson River.
Check here starting in the afternoon on April 2nd to see live images from our trip.
DSC00194 , uploaded by marielorenz.
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