New York City Kayaking Adventure - Watch Out For The Tug, Barge, Pleasure Craft & Huge Wakes

You Tube Video of Kaying New York Harbor

As a follow up to last week's post on Roosevelt Island waterfront access to the East River, blogger Paddle and Knit describes a recent New York City kayaking adventure which included the waters around Roosevelt Island. From Paddle and Knit:

... We were running a little late, so we decided to catch the stranger tide on the West Channel of the East River at Roosevelt Island. Well, there was a tug & barge heading west and a big pleasure craft decided to race past it, not realizing there were three little kayaks just past the barge it would pin to the seawall. It saw us at the last moment, just barely made it past the barge, swerved in front the barge to give us room between the barge and the Manhattan seawall. So we caught it's huge wake, multiplied by the tug and barge wake and tripled by another tug following directly behind the first tug. Wow, we surfed up some pretty tall waves and our kayaks caught air and slammed down into more confused waves...

You gotta watch out for those barges on water or on land as recounted in this 2009 post describing a barge that broke away from it's tug and nearly hit the Octagon building

Image of East River Barge Heading Towards Roosevelt Island From Populuxe Books

and then the East Side seawall of Manhattan

Image of East River Barge Heading Towards Manhattan From Populuxe Books

before it was safely secured.

Here's a list of East River currents from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.