Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Cross Linking Blog of Long Island Trip
Bonnie, one of the paddler on last weekend Long Island Trip has a great picture of me as the sunrise on Day 1 of the trip.
LI Cnav2007_Day 2
We have breakfast at at dinner near the inn, and bought grocery (beefs for BBQ, potatoes and vegetable for salad) to carry to our destination for Day 2.
We launched at the same parking lot that we landed at the end of Day 1, behind Paddy McGee. Everyone was in good spirite. The sky is overcast when we laugh at 11AM. We were in no rush to launch earlier since tide would not be critical for this part of the paddle.
It was a leisurely paddle. There were little wind and the current is not fighting us. The only diffulties is keeping clear of the motor boats since the area we paddle are very narrow at time. On one occation we end up paddling in the middle of the channel without noticing it because the red market indicating where the motor boat channel it end up on shores so we have no safe right hand side of the channel anymore. And there were two busy inlets leading to the Atlantic Ocean that we have to cross. Jone Bay Inlet was busy, but at least we have good visibility when we cross it.
We paddled in a light drizzles as the afternoon progress. Stopping at the only sandy beach we can find for lunch - it stop raining when we take lunch. I putted on a wind breaker when I landed for lunch because I was wet and feeling chilly.
Fog was setting in when we finally approach our second inlet, Fire Island Inlet. We have about a half mile visibility by the time we approach the bridge before the inlet. I was so glad that my have my GPS with me, and I finally personalize it so that I can use it for sea navigation. We have a couple of closed encounter with motor boats coming out of the fog as we crossed but all of them a good distance aways so we were never in danger of being run over. We manage to get our bearing just right to place us right before our destination for the day. We were greeted by a lighhouse on the shores as we make our way out of the fog and sight land after 2 hours of paddle without seeing land. We paddle about 2 miles after crossing over to our rented apartments on Fire Island. It was dark when we landed in a small beach on the side of the apartment complex.
We launched at the same parking lot that we landed at the end of Day 1, behind Paddy McGee. Everyone was in good spirite. The sky is overcast when we laugh at 11AM. We were in no rush to launch earlier since tide would not be critical for this part of the paddle.
It was a leisurely paddle. There were little wind and the current is not fighting us. The only diffulties is keeping clear of the motor boats since the area we paddle are very narrow at time. On one occation we end up paddling in the middle of the channel without noticing it because the red market indicating where the motor boat channel it end up on shores so we have no safe right hand side of the channel anymore. And there were two busy inlets leading to the Atlantic Ocean that we have to cross. Jone Bay Inlet was busy, but at least we have good visibility when we cross it.
We paddled in a light drizzles as the afternoon progress. Stopping at the only sandy beach we can find for lunch - it stop raining when we take lunch. I putted on a wind breaker when I landed for lunch because I was wet and feeling chilly.
Fog was setting in when we finally approach our second inlet, Fire Island Inlet. We have about a half mile visibility by the time we approach the bridge before the inlet. I was so glad that my have my GPS with me, and I finally personalize it so that I can use it for sea navigation. We have a couple of closed encounter with motor boats coming out of the fog as we crossed but all of them a good distance aways so we were never in danger of being run over. We manage to get our bearing just right to place us right before our destination for the day. We were greeted by a lighhouse on the shores as we make our way out of the fog and sight land after 2 hours of paddle without seeing land. We paddle about 2 miles after crossing over to our rented apartments on Fire Island. It was dark when we landed in a small beach on the side of the apartment complex.
LI Cnav2007_Day 1
An overview of our 3 days, 70 odd miles trips in our first years leg circumnavigation of Long Island.
Our landing site at the end of Day 1 behind Paddy McGee.
End of day one. The drive from our landing site to Best Western Inn where we are staying for the night.
8 of us launched from Sebago Canoe Club in brooklyn at about 6AM on friday for the first part of our around Long Island Trip. I was the last on to sign up for this trip - 3 days before the trip. I was afraid I was not able to handle the ocean condition.
Luckily for me the ocean was flat. I have never see the ocean that flat. The only wave action I get was the surf land for lunch. We land on the beach on the Atlantic side of the Rockaway. I ride the wave in and lean into the wave as it break for a picture perfect landing. Since I was the first on to land, there is no one on land to take a picture but if there is it would be picture perfect. Launchig after lunch was a bit more difficult. It take a couple of fail attempted before i was able to get my boat position and launched instead of a wave come in and pushed my boat into beach again.
We paddled back into protect water and make a short landing at the tip of a Peninsula. The water there was crystal clear. We landed on a private summer resort that rent out/or sell shares in cabina. We saw rows and rows of them. But the cabanas all face into each other and not into our side of the shores. I can't imaged what the family who owned or rent these cabana would do there durring the summer.
We continued to our pickup point for the day two bridges down at a restaurant called Paddy McGee. This is our most difficult and dangerous landing of the whole trip. We have land the boat against rock and concrete debre. We all managed to land and get our boats onto the trailer without any mishap. Two of the paddler went with John and the trailer with our kayaks to the hotel where we are staying for the night, the rest of us waited for pickup by our other support car. We waited for at least 2 hours before our ride get there. I take the time to explore the area, and the rest of the group grabbed a couple of drinks from Paddy McGee's bar.
We get two rooms at the Best Western 5 miles away. Each room have two full beds, and there are 8 paddle, 3 supports crew for a total of 11 people. We manage 6 people in one room and 5 people in the other. With some people on the floor and 2 person to a bed. We were to tire to be bother by the sleeping arrangement. I was fast aleep as soon as I hitted the bed.
But before bed, we head to dinner at a local Italian restaurant one of the paddler know. It was a feastive dinner. The foods are good, better companies.
Our landing site at the end of Day 1 behind Paddy McGee.
End of day one. The drive from our landing site to Best Western Inn where we are staying for the night.
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