I was thinking to myself; how different Manhattan looks from the water All around me traffic flew by, but their noise was barely audible. From here I could see green trees, children playing in parks and people on the river front park that runs almost the entire length of Manhattan’s West Side. This was a Manhattan I did not know and I loved it.
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.
It didn’t take but a minute to be drenched in sweat again, I had the tide on my side now so I was creating a slight breeze, but after fifteen minutes I had no choice…I jumped overboard.
Rounding the bend to the left I paddled up past Verplanck and then Montrose and my mind drifted back many years ago to a young man who for my parents Office Supply store in Mohegan Lake, NY. While he was a little older than I, he made it a point to tell me how he admired me. Why, I will never know, but he did. While his name now hides from my memory, he does not.
I paddled on past West Point, which was impressive from the water, but I was more impressed with the steps that were carved into solid rock. After passing West Point, I came up to an old train station that said Highland Falls on it.
Pulling out from the shore I was again reminded of how rich this area is with free public parks where people can get out and enjoy the water. Why more people are not taking advantage of these places is beyond me. These free parks should be full of people on such a hot summer day and yet, there were 6 people in all there.
Now I have a problem. I’m loosing the ebb tide and slack tide is beginning. This means I’m loosing my free ride and I’m exhausted. I’m also not even close to Bowdoin Park, its at least another mile from me and now the pull out is another couple miles from that.
The groups leader was shouting at him to paddle harder and trying to demonstrate the proper stroke, but the kayaker was in shallow water which mean it was also meant it was much rougher and he could not get the paddle down deep enough to get a good bite on the water.
I felt something come whipping by me and I thought one of the shrouds were falling off the deck and into the water. Then there was the eerie cracking sound that none of us understood until it was too late. This huge mast came out of its attachment point in the sole and she was coming down. Sue was standing right over the mast and began to hold it. Her reaction was instinctual and motherly. She had to save it. Mine was less motherly and I was shouting for her to get out of the way as this monster mast was slowly coming down and tearing a hole in the dog house (roof) of the boat as it did.
Life on the water is hot. Hot. HOT. Did I mention it’s been HOT? I am very concerned about Sun Stroke. There is no relief from the sun these past few days and there is little breeze so the air gets stagnant and hard to breath. Every time I tried to convince myself to jump in the water, I’d pass another dead fish. Catfish I think. Seriously, I stopped counting around 60 today and I’m just one little boat in a large river. That is way too many dead fish. Not sure if it’s the heat killing them or something worse, but I can’t bring myself to jump in there like I did in Lake Champlain. Sadly, that is how this will be until I hit the Keys.