kayaking

All posts tagged kayaking

Weekly Photo Challenge: Vivid

Posted by 2geeks3knots on June 7, 2015

Posted in: Around the Sound, Kayaking, Weekly Photo Challenge. Tagged: kayaking, Rye Municipal Marina, Stellar S18S. 6 Comments

Recreational kayaks at Rye Municipal Marina are a row of lollipops against a vivid blue sky. We paddled there with Gary and Ivy on Memorial Day weekend (5/24), when The World’s Orangest Hat (Gary’s, from the Yonkers dollar store) got into the same shot with The World’s Most Visible Paddle (Alex’s, covered in reflective tape from reflectivelyyours.com, tagline: Be Seen Better… a case of truth in advertising):

Gary’s new Stellar S18S surf ski is a vivid yellow. But that’s now why he (and others) are scooping them up…

At less than 30 lbs., the kayakski (not a real term, just our take) is literally easy to scoop up. (Below, Gary dares the rest of us to try this at home.)

See more vivid photos here 🙂

Contact!

Posted by 2geeks3knots on April 8, 2015

Posted in: Gear & Gizmos, Kayaking. Tagged: contact tow, kayaking, sea kayaking. 5 Comments

Let’s talk about two key pieces of gear: 1) the contact tow and 2) the scopolamine patch. The former is a rather short towline (3x the distance between your boat’s decklines) with a clip on each end. The latter is a small Band-Aid-like thing that, stuck behind the ear, keeps Jean from throwing up! (She gets seasick in lumpy water when not paddling vigorously…Her motto: To bob is to gurk. We’ll cross-stitch it on a pillow someday.) On Sunday, we were batting 500…

Luke shows Step #1: Looping a North Water contact tow between front decklines

Step #2: Crossing the contact tow for versatility.

All is revealed in this video of Gordon Brown’s contact tow technique:

On Sunday morning, we launched into perfectly calm waters. But 11 NMs and one circumnav of City Island later, conditions got pretty bouncy (or as some people say, “gurky”…). Close to HHYC, scopolamine-patchless Jean turned green. Thanks to Luke’s contact towing and Alex’s tow of both parties in the wind, we happily covered the last few yards to shore. What are friends for? 🙂

TBD Thursday: Lake Champlain

Posted by 2geeks3knots on March 19, 2015

Posted in: Adventures, Kayaking, TBD Thursday. Tagged: kayaking, Lake Champlain, sea kayaking. 1 Comment

Someday soon, we’re going to polish up our French/Algonquin dialects and explore Lake Champlain, the sixth largest body of fresh water in the U.S. (the Great Lakes are Numbers 1 through 5.) Champlain is 120 miles long, contains 70+ impossible-to-pronounce islands, and lies in a valley with Vermont’s Green Mountains to the east and New York’s Adirondacks to the west.

A big thank you to Michael and Julie—our paddling friends in Albany and today’s guest bloggers—for the suggestion. TBD = To Be Done!

Toward the end of 2013 paddle season, weary of beautiful Lake George’s almost unrelenting upscale tenement architecture and rude powerboat operators, we looked for better water to the north and found it.

We were not strangers to Lake Champlain, (we were introduced to Valcour Island by the Lake Champlain Sea Kayak Institute in 2011), but we’d explored very little of its expanse until September 2013. The best part starts about two hours from Albany, an easy drive up the Northway once Saratoga County is left behind. Highlights were a launch from Port Douglas and 450 million-year-old fossils in Bulwagga Bay (an endless refrain of “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles”).

Last year, we stayed for a week just after Labor Day, planning to explore the Otter Creek marshes, circumnavigate Carleton Prize (a small rock with an extraordinary history), lead a club paddle at Valcour Island, and penetrate the Inland Sea via The Gut from Point Au Roche. Unusually obliging weather allowed us to accomplish everything, barely getting a taste of what this lake has to offer.

This lake is bigger than the rest of my paddling life!
Cheers,
Michael

TBD Thursday: Human Aquarium

Posted by 2geeks3knots on March 12, 2015

Posted in: Kayaking, TBD Thursday. Tagged: kayaking, pool session, Sea Kayak Connecticut, sea kayaking. Leave a comment

Parking lot after a wintertime indoor pool session. We’re like a motorcycle gang, only geeky.

This week, our “TBD” (To Be Done!) task is to buy one of those GoPro action video cameras that all the kids have. Our friend, Luke—aka the multi-talented blogger kayakhipster—has two GoPros, which he mounted ingeniously above- and below-water at the Greenwich YWCA swimming pool a couple of Sunday mornings ago, to document a kayak “pool session.”

A pool session is where one goes to practice rescues and rolling when the waters you normally paddle are #^@#& freezing (or just plain frozen). It’s nice and relaxing—like this video Luke shot with his pair of GoPros, then edited to a mellow track from his band, aver the mono. (Told you he was talented!)

Watching it is like gazing at fish in an aquarium… Jean (white kayak) = angelfish. Felix (green yak and whitewater boat) = the happy guppy. Luke (red kayak) = tigerfish doing storm rolls! John (yellow kayak) = lanky seahorse. Jorge’s the little plastic diver, and Dave’s one of those round snails that are always attaching themselves to things… You’ll see. Click to play 🙂

Weekly Photo Challenge: Orange

Posted by 2geeks3knots on March 8, 2015

Posted in: Kayaking, Weekly Photo Challenge. Tagged: Horseshoe Harbor, Horseshoe Harbor Yacht Club, kayaking, kayaking in New York, Penobscot Bay, sea kayaking. 10 Comments

We couldn’t be more thrilled about this week’s photo challenge: orange. There’s no word that rhymes with it. No color quite like it, either. It’s happy. Practical. Visible. And at times, serene. Orange is at the top of our list—on the water and off.

Alex circumnavigating Manhattan

The World’s Orangest Hat! Alex at Sands Point, NY

Almost home. Larchmont Harbor

Alex frees an orange-clawed crab from a scrap of net we found. Edisto, South Carolina

Jean’s new drysuit. Penobscot Bay, Maine

Sunrise at Horseshoe Harbor

Rainy day on Long Island Sound near New Rochelle, NY

Ancient rock and crab. Huckleberry Island, Long Island Sound

Sunrise over the Atlantic. Cumberland Island, Georgia

Bea paddling between the raindrops. Long Island Sound

Rick and Andrew (R to L), Manhattan circumnavigation

Campfire glow. Penobscot Bay, Maine

Geeky selfie with Storm Whistle. Edisto, South Carolina

Sunset over the Folly River, South Carolina

Gulf of Mexico, Florida (Sweetwater Kayak Symposium)

The crack of dawn on Long Island Sound, March 2014

Sunrise over the Atlantic. Cumberland Island, Georgia

Alex suits up

Orange boats stand out in New York Harbor

Jellyfish. Cumberland Island, Georgia

3/8/2015 Early morning light hints at Spring thaw

Stamford Lighthouse. Stamford, Connecticut

Rust and bricks on Hart Island, NYC’s potters field

Lichens. Penobscot Bay, Maine

A curious gull. Lake Otesaga. Cooperstown, NY

Taking a break at Peter Sharpe Boathouse, NYC

Penobscot Bay, Maine

Water dog retrieving her tennis ball at Horseshoe Harbor

TBD Thursday: Speed Launching

Posted by 2geeks3knots on March 5, 2015

Posted in: Kayaking, TBD Thursday. Tagged: kayaking, sea kayaking. 4 Comments

This week’s TBD (“To Be Done!”) is a maneuver Jean actually tried last summer, under the watchful eye of coach David of Sea Kayak Connecticut. (Un)fortunately, there’s no video of that event…and Dave is wonderfully discreet! So it’s a good thing the folks at Body Boat Blade have created this charming video about how to launch your kayak ASAP. Totally TBD 🙂

TBD Thursday: Dry Stuff

Posted by 2geeks3knots on February 26, 2015

Posted in: Gear & Gizmos, Kayaking, TBD Thursday. Tagged: kayaking, sea kayaking. 3 Comments

You might find this topic less than exciting, but that’s the point: avoiding the excitement of getting your iPhone all wet! Friends recently had a lengthy back-and-forth email discussion about their smartphone “dry” bags (lots of fails), but we think we may have found the holy grail: the Clutch Smartphone Case from Watershed. We plan to buy and try…to be done.
Here’s the product description:
This brand new, versatile case protects all your important stuff from water, moisture, dust, sand and greasy fingers. A clear, usable window encases your smartphone, while an adjacent window allows you to have your ID handy. Pockets for cash and cards allow for quick access when fully open, yet secure once the Clutch is snapped closed. The main zippered compartment protects any documents or other small items you want to keep dry and on hand. The fully waterproof, submersible closure is made in Germany, and is hidden and protected when you fold and snap the Clutch closed.

bluebag.1

Window for your smartphone still enables you to use it
Main compartment fits standard sized documents 8.5 in X 11 in
German designed TiZip technology provides submersion up to 16ft or 5m
Colors: Orange, Blue, Coyote, Black, & Clear

It comes in orange too? Now you’re talking. BTW, if this case proves to be anywhere near as good as the company’s duffels and kayak drybags, our intrepid friends Johna and Vlad (aka, Wind Against Current) will be thrilled. See how their horizontally-closing Watershed bags held up during the 300-mile Everglades Challenge 2014.

We’re not endorsing anything here (remember, we haven’t even bought the thing yet!). Just wanted to show you how this gear made our TBD “to be done” list. The video (below) may inspire you to put it on yours, too.

Flashbacks

Posted by 2geeks3knots on February 25, 2015

Posted in: Kayaking, Weekly Photo Challenge. Tagged: kayaking, sea kayaking, Tybee Island. 2 Comments

Once again, the moment when we get to pretend like we actually know what we’re doing with our camera, rather than just pointing the thing and hoping for the best (whoops, secret’s out!). Not sure if these shots conform perfectly to the photographers’ rule of thirds, but they do let us wax nostalgic about warmer weather! For example, remember flowers…?

Ivy’s butterfly garden, July 2014

Ooooh, and summer salt marshes? And tropical vines that braid themselves?

Alex takes a break in Tybee, GA. June 2014

What Alex is sitting on, in the previous photo ☺

Remember goofy kayak races and serious cookouts?

Boot Hill Cup, City Island, NY. August 16, 2014

Oh, and remember shorts?

Johna retrieving beer from our impromptu cooler—the Hudson River. October 2013

Remember roadside stands…

Taconic Orchards, Hudson, NY. October 2013

…and cartopping your kayak, without freezing your fingers off?

Jean’s old kayak on our old car. Hudson, NY. October 2013

And hardest of all: remember enjoying the water without your #%^* drysuit…?!

Celebrating a big birthday on Cumberland Island, GA. March 2010

See more (and no doubt, better) pics in this week’s Photo Challenge: Rule of Thirds. And now, sigh…back to our regularly scheduled weather.

Davenport Park, New Rochelle, NY. February 22, 2015

Cabin Fever

Posted by 2geeks3knots on February 22, 2015

Posted in: Around the Sound, Kayaking. Tagged: kayak hipster, kayaking, Mamaroneck Harbor, National Margarita Day, sea kayaking. 5 Comments

Somebody told us that today (February 22) is National Margarita Day. Hope you like yours frozen.

We’d hoped to get out on the water today. Knowing it might be icy, we went to scout a place to launch…but ended up looking for someplace to paddle at all!

Searching for signs of liquid water on Long Island Sound

Kayak hipster (aka, Luke) was two towns up, doing the same thing. Even the birds couldn’t find open water, he reported.

Mamaroneck Harbor 2/21/15

Brrrr! Let’s step inside the kayak storage room and warm up a little….

Or not! Even taking our kayaks off the racks could be a slippery proposition.

A rare event: High tide turned to ice inside the kayak storage room

Sigh. There’s really only one thing to do today:

Roasted Blueberry Basil Margaritas

YIELD: One margarita, can easily be multiplied
TOTAL TIME: 10 MINUTES

Ingredients:
2 ounces Grand Marnier
1 1/2 ounces Tequila
2 ounces lime juice
2 1/2 ounces blueberry basil simple syrup
Sliced lime + fresh blueberries and basil leaves for garnish
Salt + sugar for the rim

Directions: Rim the ridge of your glass with a lime wedge and dip in a mix of margarita salt + sugar [about 3 tablespoons salt to 2 teaspoons sugar]. Fill the glass with ice. In a cocktail shaker, combine tequila, grand marnier, simple syrup and lime juice with ice, and shake for about 30 seconds. Pour over ice and squeeze in lime slices, then drop in blueberries and more fresh basil leaves.

For roasted blueberry basil simple syrup: Preheat oven 400 degrees F. Place 1 cup of blueberries on a nonstick baking sheet with a pinch of salt. Place in the oven and roast for 15-20 minutes, or until berries start to burst. While blueberries are roasting, combine equal parts sugar and water (such as 1/2 cup of each) in a small saucepan and add 6-8 fresh basil leaves, bring to a boil and let sugar dissolve, then turn off heat and let cool completely, about 20 minutes. Combine 1/2 cup simple syrup + roasted blueberries in a blender/food processor and blend until combined. Feel free to strain if you don’t want small blueberries chunks. Cheers! 🙂

TBD Thursday

Posted by 2geeks3knots on February 19, 2015

Posted in: Adventures, Destinations, Kayaking, TBD Thursday. Tagged: camping, kayaking, Maine, sea kayaking. 2 Comments

This week’s TBD (to be done, our new “to-do!” list): Go kayak-camping in Maine. Here are some photos from our previous trip to Penobscot Bay. Enjoy them, as we put this on our 2015 calendar in ink. 🙂