FIVE BOROUGH HARBOR RAMBLE

FIVE BOROUGH HARBOR RAMBLE

September 8th

We’re excited to be closing in on the first Five Borough Harbor Ramble on September 8, inaugurating what will be an annual paddling and rowing tour of New York City! Our goal is to support the NYC Parks and Recreation’s coming NYC Water Trail (http://www.waterwire.net/News/fullstory.cfm?ContID=1988).

The paddle will be in the Bronx from 830 am to 9am, best viewed and filmed from the end of Park Avenue in the Bronx on the Harlem River where Friends of Brook Park is working to create an official waterfront resource.

"We bike the greenways of Manhattan, and paddle to the waterfront parks of Brooklyn and Queens, because we can't here. This Trail will promote equity in shoreline access to communities such as the Mott Haven and Port Morris that currently enjoy no official waterfront resources." said Harry J. Bubbins, Director of Friends of Brook Park.

The NYC Water Trail will be a rapidly growing network of launching and landing points in the NYC metro area, including places not inside the city Parks system.

The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, the LIC Community Boathouse (an affiliate of the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club) Friends of Brook park, and many others are sponsoring this adventure and bold statement of public water access and stewardship of the harbor.

FLOAT PLAN (times are approximate and padded – we will work within favorable tidal currents but allow for some flexibility according to the group’s needs):


730 AM: LAUNCH from the Peter Jay Sharp Boathouse of the New York Restoration Project ( http://www.nyrp.org ). (Manhattan/East Harlem, Swindlers Cove, Harlem River)

9 AM: VISIT the Friends of Brook Park ( http://www.friendsofbrookpark.org ) launch (Bronx/Mott Haven, near Third Ave Bridge, Harlem River)

10 AM: VISIT the walk-up paddle program location of the LIC Community Boathouse, a NYC Parks sliver of beach administered by Socrates Sculpture Park ( http://www.socratessculpturepark.org ) (Queens/Astoria, Hallets Cove/Socrates Sculpture Park, East River)

NOON: VISIT the Red Hook Boaters ( http://www.redhookboaters.org/ ) and PortSide NY ( http://www.portsidenewyork.org/ ) at Valentino Park (Brooklyn/Red Hook, Valentino Park, Buttermilk Channel).

OPEN WATER CROSSING OF UPPER BAY OF NEW YORK HARBOR.

3PM: LAND at the end of Bard Avenue, to visit the North Shore Waterfront Conservancy of Staten Island ( http://www.northshorewaterfrontconservancy.org/ ) and the Snug Harbor Cultural Center ( http://www.snug-harbor.org/ ). (Staten Island/Port Richmond and New Brighton, Blueways and Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Kill Van Kull).

The earliest part of the trip, in the Harlem River, will entail some paddling against a light current, which is especially feasible when hugging to the shoreline. We’ll pass Hell Gate as the ebb begins strengthening. The course will take us close alongside Randall and Wards Islands and then to Mill Rock. Fr! om there it’s a hard paddle for Hallets Cove. Please be mindful that a rather significant eddy forms at Hallets Point on the ebb, so we don’t want to hug that shoreline too closely. The southward current of the East River along the Queens and Brooklyn waterfronts will whisk us to Red Hook in no time. We’ll need to avoid security zones around bridge support and power plants. Still, we’ll have plenty of chances for photos and greeting people at Dumbo Cove.

At Red Hook we’ll take an hour of rest. That will give people a chance to enjoy the PortSide celebration of the neighborhood, and to rest for the challenge of the open water crossing from Brooklyn to the Kill Van Kull. We’ll need to have a tight group: our calculations will be critical because current will be ferrying us south as we cross, larger vessels (international container ships, tankers, fuel barges, ferries, etc.) will need to know where we are as a coherent unit, not a scattered field. Fortunately, we’ll be crossing around Low Water, so traffic will be less congested.