Senior Citizen Completes Solo Circumnavigation of City Island

On my first day of Medicare eligibility I rowed around City Island.  Why?  Because I could.  Engaged in every man's favorite activity: watching other men work while I did what I pleased.  Below are my 8 ft Walker Bay skiff and some of the workmen and working boats I saw.

My boat - NR2A

all quiet at the fuel dock

Island Current - Daily 8
AM, Nightly 6:30 PM

Hudson Beaver

City Island Bridge

Howard H -  wood work boat still working in NY harbor

Big Bird in his skiff

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Issuma: low bridge, everybody down - northbound on the Erie Canal

Issuma threaded its way - the wrong way - northbound in October - on the Erie Canal.  When we were kids we learned the Erie Canal song - Low Bridge - Everybody Down.  HERE it is. 


Tugster and Bowsprite were there

 And why not hear Suzanne Vega pay tribute to that good old mule Sal.

Like a white winged dove - Stevie Nicks - 1983

Edge of Seventeen

Jon Gelman Photography: Maine Lobster Fishing Port

Jon Gelman Photography: Maine Lobster Fishing Port: "Captured on a D700, 1/5 sec., ISO 200, f/18, 195 mm, HDR."

Buzzards Bay 14 for sale

Not mine.  But one just like my North River 2  - built at the Boat School, Eastport Maine.  Details HERE

Issuma: bound for Toronto, her winter port

Richard Hudson and Issuma are northbound to Toronto for the winter- on the inside.  The route is, I assume, the shortest: Hudson River -Erie Canal - Oswego Canal - Lake Ontario.  Tugster and Bowsprite did a leg of it - up to Catskill, where Rosemary Ruth will winter and, hopefully, find a buyer.

Issuma and Rosemary Ruth rafted up in Catskill

Richard and Gabriela - loyal crew

Next summer Richard hopes to head east - and north.  Maybe Greenland - if all works out.


This spring he started out in the Rio Plata - Uruguay and Argentina, and made his way north - single handed the great bulk of the way to New York.  From there it was northbound, up the Labrador coast and over to Baffin Island.  All photos by Will Van Dorp

The Hudson River

What's the hardest thing about learning Chinese?

Tones or characters?  I give up.

John F. Kennedy - the Staten Island Ferry

thanks to Bowsprite

John F. Kennedy

Commission Date: 1965
Builder: Levingston Shipbuilding, TX
Length: 277′ (84.4m)
Width: 69′ (21m)
Draft: 19’1″ (5.8m)
Gross Tonnage: 2109
service speed: 16 knots (30 km/h)
crew: 13
Passengers: 3500 / (40 vehicles, pre 9/11)
Propulsion: Diesel Electric 600 volts DC
Engines: GM-EMD-567C16 (x4)
Horsepower: 6500 (4.8 MW)

The Big Oyster: WNYC interviews Mark Kurlansky

New York City was the Big Oyster - the oyster capital of the world.  Oyster stands used to dot New York like push cart food vendors do today.  And the selfish were local products too.  Here is Mark Kulansky the brilliant author of The Big Oyster, Cod, and Salt to talk about it all on WNYC.

Columbus Day - new moon - high tide on the Back River