The first was a sailboat. It was tacking up the narrows towards Bear Mountain Bridge and I was gradually catching up with it. I did right by the bridge, but then the people in the boat started shouting something to me on a megaphone. I couldn't catch what they were saying except when they we're calling out the guy with the red shirt and the khaki board. (My board is yellow, but my shirt was definitely red.) I waved my hand, then my paddle (which technically is a distress call) then turned around.
About 3/4 a mile down the river they caught up to me and blasted an air horn from the other side of the river. I stopped and waited for them to tack across the river and tell me whatever was burning, but they never did. A few minutes later a huge freighter came down the river, followed by a barge getting towed by a tugboat. So much for the sailboat tacking across the river. They never really did.
All I could figure out was that they were warning me about the commercial traffic. As if I never encountered a freighter before.
During this time a motorboat crossed the river out of the shipping channel to my side of the river. It stopped and seemed to be waiting for me. They probably didn't know what I was and thought they'd stop to help. As I got closer, they pulled away.
As I passed Fish Island, I heard another boat closing in from behind. It was a police boat. They slowed down and talked to me. They asked if I was okay and aware that I was paddling against the current (which I wasn't — technically I was paddling against the tide). I said I was peachy and after a minute or so they were convinced that I was okay, especially after I told them I was returning from the Bear Mountain Bridge.
Kirsten said to me that I should have mentioned to the policemen about the sailboat calling out to me, and they actually weren't too far away, less than a mile, as we spoke. I didn't think of it.
I pulled into Peekskill as some narsty clouds pulled in. It looked pretty.
| Name: | Track 020 | |
| Date: | May 3, 2014 1:56 pm | |
| Map: (valid until Oct 30, 2014) | View on Map | |
| Distance: | 7.33 miles | |
| Elapsed Time: | 2:12:04 | |
| Avg Speed: | 3.3 mph | |
| Max Speed: | 5.1 mph | |
| Avg Pace: | 18' 01" per mile | |
| Min Altitude: | 0 ft | |
| Max Altitude: | 0 ft | |
| Start Time: | 2014-05-03T17:56:02Z | |
| Start Location: | ||
| Latitude: | 41º 17' 06" N | |
| Longitude: | 73º 55' 56" W | |
| End Location: | ||
| Latitude: | 41º 17' 06" N | |
| Longitude: | 73º 55' 55" W | |
Ian, come down to Manhattan and you will grow immune or snap, one or the other. I'm a frequent solo paddler down here, both in my three various Folbot folding kayaks and now an inflatable SUP. My homeport has been the 59th Street boat ramp in Riverside Park South/Hudson River Park. Since 9-11 here, all the various law enforcement agencies and the Coast Guard have all put numerous brand new zodiac and small patrol boats on the water --- yet there is very little need for enforcement or rescue. My opinion is that there are too many of them for the amount of traffic we have and they are bored and trying to entertain themselves. Sometimes I feel like it borders on harassment though. The NYPD folks are chummy with NY Waterway and NY Water Taxi captains, who think they own the river and like to complain about kayakers sometimes (I can hear them on the marine radio I carry). The Coast Guard personnel are generally quite polite and I think have their hearts in the right place. A few of the many times I've been hailed by the NYPD boats, they are often, gruff and/or surly and very much give off the opinion that we have no business there. BS. I grew up in Florida where it was our right to be on the water whenever and where ever we wanted. What would truly be wonderful was if there was some restrictions placed on jet skiers and then some enforcement of them. They are often operating in an unsafe manner, get too close to the piers and seem to know nothing about the rules of marine navigation. It is a wonder more of them are not killed through their stupidity. If you want to be bothered far more come on down the river amigo! Thanks for sharing (and giving me an opportunity to vent myself).
ReplyDeleteDavis, thanks for that. Sorry I didn't answer earlier but I'm in the throes of final exams and my brain is very fried.
ReplyDeleteThe one good thing I can say about where I paddle is that there's no problem with police saying I have no business on the water. It can be busy, but the commercial traffic is just up and down the river, and it stays in the well-marked channel.
I lived in Ormond Beach for a few years and my mother still lives in Jacksonville. Where do you hail from?
Tallahassee. I grew up in all sorts of watercraft though mostly a canoe (that I've paddled on all the major rivers in that region and many of the creeks --- and even creeks that don't really deserve the name) or various power boats. My final years spent there as an adult included spearfishing just about every weekend in the Gulf of Mexico offshore from St. Marks or Dog Island farther west. BUT I spent several years in Orange Park, a suburb of Jacksonville, as a little kid. We lived on a canal that led into the St. Johns and that is where I first got very familiar with alligators ;-)
ReplyDelete