Paddling Through New York City

On November 13th we were up at 5 AM so we could be on the water by 6 AM. The last of the outgoing tide swept us down the East River past the southern tip of Manhattan. The Statue of Liberty stood before us and we paddle across New York Harbor towards her. It was a cold, clear morning with little wind, a perfect day to visit the Statue of Liberty by water. The biggest challenge was the wakes left by the ferries and other large commercial traffic. The ferries are really fast and we could never really tell exactly where they were headed. Luckily they saw us and we could hear the boat captains chattering away about the canoe that was crossing the harbor. It felt good to know that they saw us and were alerting the other boats. Floating below the Statue of Liberty felt really good. After 80 days we had reached a major milestone in our 2,000 mile journey from the Boundary Waters to DC.

The last week has been a bit of a whirlwind. I am sorry that we have not posted any blog posts in a while. We also post regularly to Instagram and Facebook, those can be a great way to stay updated as well. We have been off the water for the last 4 days, busy doing presentations at a range of venues, from the Explorers Club in the heart of Manhattan to a small school in Vermont, and we even did a short, impromptu pitch at a Wilderness First Responder recertification course that Amy and I took this weekend. Today we have three more presentations before hitting the water tomorrow morning. The canoe is getting covered in signatures and it feels great to be sharing the Boundary Waters with so many people, but it is getting cold and our arrival in DC is just around the corner, so we are anxious to get back on the water.