[Paddlewise] being watchful

Two men in a motorized dinghy drowned on the Hudson yesterday at 5:45 pm
in the relatively shallow area just south of the 79th St. Boat Basin and
within a 100 feet or so of the Manhattan shore.  The accident reminds me
of danger points in local waters that we should all be watchful for.

The Harbor Safety Committee (an independent body initiated by the
Working Waterfront Group) has just created a sub-committee to pinpoint
crux points or hot spots where mariners in everything from kayaks to
large motorized cruisers must be extra cautious (more on this further
below).  The waters in which the fellows drowned is one of these caution
spots.

Here is a description of the area (which runs from the last large pier
at 59th St. up to the southern end of the 79th St. Boat Basin Marina:

--The waters are quite shallow, which means that waves and wakes hitting
the area tend to rise higher.  As an example of this, when three of us
were paddling up to help escort swimmers for the Boat Basin to Chelsea
Piers swim on August 1st, we were hit on our blind port rear quarter by
a huge wake just as we entered the area past 59th St.  One kayaker
tipped over and another just managed to do a delicate balancing act to
keep herself from capsizing.  The tendency for northbound paddlers, such
as we were, is to relax a bit on entering the calmer looking area after
paddling through the more hectic trafficked waters along the piers that
run from the NY Waterways ferry slips around West 36th Street to the
ocean liner piers in the West 50s.

--This area is filled with the relics of old pier posts from a once very
active, elaborate system of marine RR barge tranfer stations.  At low
tide, most of the posts reveal themselves.  At high tide, they lurk just
beneath the surface.  Generally at high tide, it is wise to be paddling
a bit further out in the river, outside the north/south line formed from
the tip of the 59th St. Pier to the outer edge of the 79th St. Marina.  
I doubt that a paddler would get a hole in his kayak if he hit one since
he isn't traveling very fast, but he might.  More likely he would
capsize.  

The newspaper description and radio account of the dinghy accident
indicated that the boat was filling with water faster than one of the
occupants could bail and it went down bow first.  This would suggest
that the dinghy may have hit a submerged pier post and holed as it hit
the post with the forward force of its outboard motor.  Regardless of
the cause, the area is one of caution for paddler and motorboater alike.

As mentioned above, there is a working group looking into marking on a
chart and in booklet form and on a website all caution spots in the
harbor from the view point of recreational mariners. (The commercial
people tend to know these because it is their business to but some would
be of importance for them too.)  Among places to be included are those
where waters can be tricky because of currents and subsurface obstacles
and areas in which boat traffic may be entering or exiting from shore
locations.  For example, the embayment at Pier 26, home of the Downtown
Boathouse, would indicate that kayakers may be coming out from the
launch site there.  Also to caution motorboaters from roaring into the
embayment as occasionally some do; they are at risk to kayakers and to
themselves...some submerged pier posts lurk there.  Old pier fields
would also be marked in the new Hudson River Park.

If you have any cautionary places that you have observed in the harbor,
please contact me directly as I am on that subcommittee and can get the
information feed into the database being compiled.

ralph diaz
-- 
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Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter
PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024
Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com
"Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag."
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