July 25th 2016
Yorktown Heights, NY
Nope, I didn’t go backwards, the kayak is still in Riverdale, NY and I am in Yorktown.
Today was a day off the water. I had been watching a large system bearing down on this region for a couple of days and they were predicting some serious storms to arrive around 2pm. In the section of the river I’m now in, getting out for a storm could be an issue so I can’t take that chance. Instead, I took the day off to help Arlene with some tasks and then she drove me to Stamford, CT to exchange some kayak gear. It was just after 11am when I received a call from the Yorktown News. They wanted an interview so I arranged to meet with the reporter at 4pm back in Yorktown. More on that later or Click Here to skip the technical stuff.
About my equipment.
I’ve been asked to discuss the gear and the preparation that went into this expedition. I’ll start with the preparation. When I first got into kayaking back in 2012, I was hooked immediately. I wanted to know everything there was about this sport and delved into it learning everything I could. Though I was kayaking a sit on top or SOT for short, I used all the information about Sit In Kayaks or SInK since little was published about the SOT’s.
It was through this research that I learned proper paddling techniques, how to be prepared for the worst on the water and how to set up a kayak for touring. Though at that time I was considering weekend trips and nothing like this. I was a novice, but I kept researching and would paddle five to seven miles a day or evening on Lake St. Catherine. I’d take my kayak to the Finger Lakes, the big rivers and the Atlantic Ocean. Before long, people started to look to me for advice though I never became an ACA (American Canoe Association) Instructor, I had some ACA Instructors use me as their Safety Team when out in group paddles due to my ability to carry a lot of rescue gear and paddle a kayak that was capable of rescuing others. I could also keep up with most other kayakers though it would take a lot of effort on my part. My point is, I’m not a recreational kayaker. I took this sport seriously and learned everything I could. I’m still learning in fact.
That part is important, not because I think I’m a better kayaker, there are far better kayakers than I and those that have earned an ACA Certification are most certainly much more qualified than I, but I mention this because twice during my month out here on the water I have watched recreational kayakers look at me and think nothing of venturing out. The last time was at Riverdale where a cute older couple wanted to find someplace to inflate their inflatable kayaks and hot the river. This was on a day where the wind was fierce and the current strong. Seeing me paddle in these conditions sometimes gives people the wrong impression. Like the sailor that same day who thought kayaks belonged by the shoreline. Perhaps kayaks have the unique ability to paddle the shoreline, but the truth is, the shoreline is often a dangerous place to paddle due to underwater hazards and breaking waves. I truly believe anyone can do what it is I am doing, but only after learning the proper skill and preparation. I wear a top of the line Stohlquist Rescue Vest or PFD and a Safety Belt that keeps me tethered to the kayak at all times until I decided to release myself. This means that in the worst-case scenario, I will stay afloat and won’t be pulled away from the kayak by current or wind allowing me to re-enter at will. Becoming separated from your kayak is the biggest mistake a kayaker can make and one that happens often.
OK, now about equipment. I’m not an avid camper. I actually don’t enjoy camping, but it’s a requirement for this. I loved camping in my 1978 VW Bus. It was just the right amount of minimalisms without too much discomfort. I had a bed; two in fact, sing, stove and frig. I even had a bucket, which I’ll leave up to your imagination as to how a bucket is important when camping. I had camped off my motorcycle for year until campgrounds would not let me camp with Lexie. That is when we started Stealth Camping. Stealth Camping is camping outside of campgrounds and parks. Camping along a road, behind a building or such. With stealth camping you are trying to be invisible when camping.
When I decided to do this kayak trip I knew I’d have to lighten my gear, as every ounce would add up. I sold my 8 lb tent, heavy and large sleeping bag and my large stove. I downsized to very lightweight, compact gear. By the way, the lighter and smaller something is, the more expensive it is too.
I purchase two tents. A Hennessy Hammock Tent and a Sierra Designs Lightning 2, person Free Standing Tent with attached rain fly. A Sea to Summit Comfort Light mattress pad and a Big Agnes Classic Series sleeping bag with a Sea to Summit Aeros Pillow completed the camping accommodations.
As it turns out, if you like to sleep on your back, the hammock tent is awesome and my favorite to set up. I did figure out how to set it up with the sleeping bag to keep me warmer though. As for my Sierra Designs Lightning 2, well that was a miss. A Big Miss! I purchased this tent because of the attached rain fly, figuring it would be easy to set up in the rain, but what I failed to see was that the entire top is in fact, not a rain fly. Two thirds of the top is a single wall tent. Only the front third is a rain fly and the sides of the rain fly do not roll up. This tent is hot, very hot! It is also wet. Wet when it rains and wet when it’s hot and humid. I’ll be unloading this tent after reaching the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in Manhattan where I will be taking a short break to resupply food and change out gear like this tent. Hopefully Sierra Designs will exchange this tent for something a bit better designed for camping, as this tent isn’t.
I purchased a Jet Boil for cooking or rather, heating food and boiling water. It is very compact and boils water in about a minute. I am a huge Jet Boil fan now. I had sold all my other pots and pans except for my fork, knife and spoon, which nested nicely together. I had almost sold it, but decided not to at the last minute. I had already purchased a titanium fork, knife and spook for weight savings, but the fact that they don’t – well, spoon or nest is a big drawback and I’ll be returning those too. My only other cooking or dishware is a Sea to Summit XPot which I plan to use more once I’m cooking the dehydrated food more and an old metal cup I’d been camping with since I first started camping.
As for daily clothing, I only carry two pants, 4 shirts, and three pair of underwear. I have a pair of Water socks for my feet and some sailing gloves. All of this clothing is for sun protection and are quick drying fabrics. The pants convert to shorts so I can hang out in them when not kayaking. I also have a pair of base layer long underwear and shirt as well as a pull over for when the weather gets colder. For rain protection, I have a Shell jacket and a pair of lightweight waterproof overalls designed for fishing. I’m also carrying a pair of lightweight hiking boots, dive boots, flip flops and strap on hiking sandals.
Keeping yourself covered from head to toe is important when you are in the sun on the water all day. The lightweight fabrics allow me to remain relatively cool, protect me from the sun with an SPF rating of 50 and dry quickly when wet which helps not only when I get wet from water splashing up, but also when I jump in the water. The fast drying clothing serves a purpose via evaporative cooling. On my head I have either a Tilley Air Hat or a baseball cap with an attached sunshade fabric covering my neck. I also use 100 SPF Sunscreen in addition to all this.
I kayak with a VHF Radio, iPhone, Lightning Detector and a SPOT Personal Locator which is how you see where I am on the blog. The SPOT also serves to aid in my rescue should one be necessary. With a single button, I can summon either emergency help or non-emergency help. In either case, my exact position is reported to the proper people so there is no Search required in a Search and Rescue. I use my iPhone sparingly. I use it mostly to watch the weather identify pull out locations via the Kayak Launch Points app and estimate speed and distance to far off points via Navionics which measures distance on water, speed and tide conditions. It also allows me to get the address of marinas and such should I need to rendezvous with people like I have been with Arlene these past few days. The used 2012 Macbook Air I got in Burlington replaced a heavy and large Laptop and allows me to blog easily while taking up minimum space and weight.
The rest of the gear is either backup supplies like batteries, battery packs and such or rescue gear like flares, mirror, whistle, throw bag and extra line or food. All in all, I’m carrying 157 lbs of gear aboard the 87 lb kayak.
The food I’m currently using is just heat and serve pre-packed food. Mostly stews, tuna fish, chicken, oatmeal, coffee, tang, raisins, peanut butter bars and beef jerky. I also carry powdered creamer, which I use in the coffee or mix with some water to create milk for cereal on occasion. I carry 3 water bottles and an 8 liter water bladder aboard. My biggest problem with food is not being able to eat enough. I’m carrying 30 days of food aboard, but the calories I am getting can’t keep up with the calories I am burning.
When I began this expedition 24 days ago, I weighed 218 lbs. Today I am down to 201.5. We calculated the loss and determined that if this keeps up, I will be down 90 lbs by the time I hit Key West. Since that cannot happen, I am hoping to hit a wall with the weight loss once the fat is all burned off. I seriously do not want to loose 90 lbs. Hell, I didn’t want to loose 16.5 lbs, but there isn’t much I can do to stop the loss. I will add that I had gotten a complete physical before taking off on this expedition.
OK, enough technical talk, onto the fun stuff.
So we arrived back in Yorktown just before 4pm and had planned on meeting the reporter at Starbucks in Yorktown. Upon walking in, I saw that my Nephew Michael was working there. I hadn’t seen him in a while and he treated me to a Frappuccino. We had to wait around for a table to open up and grabbed one as soon as it did awaiting the reporter’s arrival.
Gabrielle Bilik of the Yorktown News introduced herself and we began the interview. She was very thorough with her questions and boy could she write fast. She kept up with my answers without using anything more than a pen and paper. I should have warned her that I can talk a lot, but I didn’t. After about a half hour of talking with Gabby, she exclaimed that she couldn’t write anymore. Her hand was cramping up. Be forewarned, if you want to talk to me, I can talk all day. I love sharing my stories and adventures, especially when it involves Lexie.
Leaving Starbucks Arlene and I decided to head to dinner at Chili’s in Baldwin Place. I’d been watching this large storm move over the region all afternoon and driving to dinner, I could see a wall cloud pushing in our direction and a quick check on my RADAR showed the storm was big. Really Big. This is the reason I stayed off the water today. This type of storm produces some high winds, heavy rain and hail and it moves quickly. Getting caught out on the water in this with a little boat can be really bad and there was no reason to risk it today.
We arrived at Chili’s and had a nice dinner, but we barely made it back to the car before the storm front arrived. Now I’ve talked about this before. I don’t like to get wet unless its from swimming in the lake, ocean, pool or hot tub. I’ve spent years working in the rain and just don’t like it. The old joke is that I will melt in the rain. Well the rain started to come down hard and we needed some groceries for the morning. Arlene said she’d go in to get them, but that meant she’d have to walk across the parking lot in the downpour. Being the man I am, I could not let that happen. No, I didn’t go in. I jumped in the back seat of her car, had her climb into my seat and then I jumped into the drivers seat and drove her to the door.
She ran inside the supermarket and I pulled into the parking lot to await her return so I could pick her up. It was here that I noticed something. I watched women of all ages; from the young ones in their 20’s to Senior Citizens, get out of their cars and walk to the supermarket. Not run, not a fast walk, just walk in this torrential down pour. I was laughing at one inventive woman who used her child’s raincoat to cover just her hair. It was obvious she’s done this before and I admired her creativeness.
Where were the men? Some men were like me, waiting in the running cars to swing back around and pick up their wives or girlfriends, but there were other men. Many men. They were all hold up under the awning of the supermarket pressed up against the back wall with their shopping carts in front of them. They weren’t moving, not one muscle. I watched these men wait as woman after woman walked in and out of the supermarket. Pushing carriages full of groceries or carrying kids inside and I realized that I am not alone. Men don’t like to get wet from the rain while women just deal with it like its nothing.
Oh, there was one man who got very creative. He drove up onto the sidewalk using the handicap ramp and deposited his wife out under the overhang. While it was creative, I don’t think the folks on the sidewalk at the time appreciated that move.
Well Arlene came back out and I picked her up at the curb, opening the door for her from the inside and grabbing the bags out of her hands. I’m such a gentlemen, aren’t I? Arlene grabbed a picture of me driving for historical purposes. See, since I was 14, I’ve always owned a vehicle. Car, Motorcycle, Truck. Heck, I’ve owned many of each at some points, but today, no. Today I don’t own a vehicle, not even a bicycle and truth be told, I don’t plan on any in the future. Well, perhaps a bicycle, but I honestly don’t plan on owning a vehicle again. A Sailboat, yes. A Kayak, yes, but a car or truck, nope.
Well that was my day off the water. Tomorrow I begin again and should be entering Midtown Manhattan on the River.
Day 24 done
Here are a few pictures from today.
