Long Island City Community Boathouse

Last night Monica (left), Robert (taking picture), Chris (right) and Veso (center) moved the dock into position at the Long Island City Community Boathouse launch site. The dock, which was graciously donated to the boathouse by the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance, has been temporarily stored near the entrance to Anable Basin. The addition of this dock will make both arrivals and departures safer, easier, and more effiicient. Great work everyone!

Due to recent heavy rain and concern about very poor water quality, June 21st paddling is CANCELLED .

Please celebrate Summer Solstice Day on shore and Happy Fathers Day to all.

Thanks to great volunteer turnout and improving weather, LICCB Sunday paddles at Hallets Cove  have  accomodated growing numbers of paddlers with each passing week.

If  the fair weather forecast holds up, this Sunday will out do the last, so volunteers, please keep coming out.  This weekend currents will work for the short paddle up from the boathouse  and back again after 5:00. If you’ve done this with us before, or paddled a Chill or trip with us, you’re welcome to meet at the boathouse (note our new location: 5th Street at 46 th Ave.) at 11:30 to help ferry the boats up to Hallets Cove.  Otherwise, please join us at Hallets Cove (31st Ave and Vernon Blvd.)  between 1 PM and 5 PM for another fun day of paddling with LIC Community Boathouse.

Remember that June 21 will be Summer Solstice Celebration at Socrates Park and LICCB will extend the free paddling until sunset on that day!!

Check our hotline after 10 AM Sunday for possible last minute weather cancelation.

With warmer weather LICCB is getting busy. Check out our calendar page often so you don’t miss any of the fun.  Some highlights here:

June 6, join LICCB and Green Shores NYC at Queensbridge Park for the 100th Birthday Party for the Queensboro Bridge. (no paddling but lots of fun). Visit our table to learn about the boathouse and how easily you can become an LICCB volunteer.

June 19 will be our first Friday Chill Paddle of the ‘09 season. See our Programs page for details and instructions to request a seat on a Chill Paddle.  http://www.licboathouse.org/index.php/programs/

June 20, join LIC Community Boathouse founder Erik Baard for the annual pilgrimage to Clearwater Festival 2009 - The Great Hudson River Revival.  This weekend long festival takes place at Croton Point Park, located on the east bank of the Hudson River off Route 9 in Croton-on Hudson, Westchester County, New York.  There will be plenty of paddling on the Hudson River and live entertainment on multiple stages and a whole lot more. See  the Calendar page for all the details.  http://www.licboathouse.org/index.php/calendar/

June 21, Hallets Cove Extended Summer Solstice Paddle goes from 1 PM until sunset on this longest day of the year.

July 18, City of Water Day hosted by Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance. Paddle with LICCB to Governors Island and celebrate with water lovers from all around our harbor.  This year, the hardy and well prepared paddlers among us will have the option to camp overnight on the island and paddle back next day, Sunday July 19th.  Non padders can partake in the City of Water festivities by traveling to the island by ferry but will not be able to overnight there.

This is only the beginning of a huge season of paddling fun with LIC Community Boathouse.  Subscribe to the LICCB Newsletter by typing your email address in the box on our home page to get special announcements. Check the web site often for more events and dates as they are posted.

Volunteer always welcome to help out at Hallets Cove on Sunday afternoons. 

Please note that Hallets Cove and Anable Basin are two different locations. If you show up at one when we’re at the other, we’ll miss you.

UPDATE 5/24/09, this event is ON.  We’ll be paddling at the cove (Vernon Blvd at 31st Ave) from 1 PM to 5 PM.   Wear your sloppy sneakers and paddle or just come out to observe. PADDLING SEASON 2009 IS OPEN IN LIC !!!

* If weather forcast changes, possible cancellation will be announced here and on our telephone hotline (718) 228-9214 by 10:00 Sunday morning.

 See our Programs page for more details. http://www.licboathouse.org/index.php/programs/

Dear Friends of LIC Community Boathouse,

WOW ! You turned out Thursday at The Foundry in strong numbers and with such enthusiasm that we just blew winter away. Paddler friends traveled from Westchester, Staten Island and Canarsie to shake off cabin fever, mingle, and bring on spring together with us in LIC . Jerry Blackstone’s flight from Lauderdale was just not in time and Paul Baker was working his way back from Sacramento but both bought tickets anyhow and enabled us to comp several worthy individuals. Guest of honor Dorothy Lewandowski, NYC Department of Parks’ Borough Commissioner for Queens brought the good news that improvement at our favorite NYC Water Trail site, Hallets Cove will begin soon..

Band Bongo Surf surf rocked the house pro bono, DJ Jeff complemented the band and emcee Travis Laughlin made it all go. The Du Val family generously provided the awesome venue again! LIC restaurants TukTuk, Five Star Punjabi and Manducatis Rustica donated their fine cuisines. Brooklyn Lager, Wine and Spirits Magazine and Blue Streak supplied the libations and Sage American Kitchen sent desserts. Auction items and prizes came from many supporters including Socrates Sculpture Park, Recycle a Bicycle, Green Shores NYC, Greater Astoria Historical Society and Jersey Paddler.

Amazing LICCB volunteers worked their magic to create the illusion that this was easy. David Halloran tirelessly tended bar and donated all his tips to the Boathouse. Wynne Parry managed press releases and helped Lynne Serpe greet you and take donations at the door. Jill Palermo and Marissa Lustig sold tees and mugs, Karen Overton managed the auction with help from fellow parkies Velma Segars and Helen Ho. Boathouse founder Erik Baard solicited many of the donations and most of the entertainment. Pia Doane and John McGarvey tended to food service and details. Gregory Gruber produced the big as life slide show. Monica Schroeder designed our new brochure and Steve Sanford created the East River map which adorns the back or our 2009 tee shirt. Robert Di Maio treated us to a preview of his new water centric film. Paul Mallery handled transportation duties and arranged the emergency pizza. Our Hallets Cove chief Tanya Elder was kind enough to synchronize her birthday with our fundraiser event so that we could have a cake big enough for bear our City of Water Day group photo.

Net proceeds will finance substantial improvements to our new Anable Basin launch site. Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance has donated a floating dock and our good friend and neighbor Veso Buncic has offered his company’s expertise and labor to install and implement it. We’ll soon launch more easily and safely than before.

Did I miss anyone? Of course I did and it was not deliberate. THANK YOU ALL so very much for your part in making last week’s fundraiser event a huge success. I apologize for the food shortage and confusion that effected some of our guests. We’re aware of and will learn from these glitches. We are all volunteer, not for profit and thanks to you, we are growing.

Some free events you should know about are Going Green in Queens greening, educational and networking event March 28th, free sea kayaking adventure film screening at Downtown Boathouse’s 56th Street boathouse April 7th, “It’s My Waterfront Park” Day March 16th, the 100th Anniversary of the Queensboro Bridge celebration at Queensbridge Park June 6th , Summer Solstice Celebration at Socrates Sculpture Park will include an extended public paddle in Hallets Cove on Sunday June 21st Checkwww.LICBoathouse.orgcalendar page often so you don’t miss any of the fun.

See you soon, on the water,
Ted Gruber
Chairman, Long Island City Community Boathouse

Welcome to the new LIC Community Boathouse website.

Thanks to volunteers, LIC businesses, and harbor friends like the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club, we provide free kayaking, canoeing, and educational programs on the East River.

Please take a look around the site and contact us to get involved!

If you’re not familiar with Green Shores NYC, formerly the Astoria-LIC Waterfront Parks Alliance, you should hop over to the homepage of this emerging advocacy group’s, midwifed by Partnerships for Parks: http://www.astoriawaterfront.org

On the page you’ll see a survey link. Please click it and complete it, letting city agencies, developers, and elected officials know what inclusive visions you want to see realized on the waterfront. This is your chance to shape our relationship with the East River tidal strait section of the Hudson River estuary.

Thanks for caring about our ecology and community!

Salty regards,

The Crew

So, the weather speaks of July fireworks to forests impatient to captivate us with their own dazzling displays of color. While Gaia sorts it all out, let’s stretch our paddling season just a wee bit more, shall we? Come on a small adventure aboard our public fleet of happy yellow boats!

And so, volunteer Ted Gruber invites us to join him on a paddle from Flushing Bay to Hallets Cove, our site for free paddling on Sundays.

Click image to enlarge.

Following are details from Ted:

Sunday October 7th trip(s)

1) plan to kayak from Flushing to Hallets in the morning from
launch site on Flushing Bay behind Shea Statium 10AM
stop at Barretto Point Park in Bronx at 11:30,
then down to Hallet’s Cove before 1PM

2) return from Hallets, shove off after 5PM, shorter route along Queens side,
past LaGuardia Airport, arriving at Worlds Fair Marina by 8PM

Both ways will be with current, so it should be an easy trip, though a long day.
There will be ample opportunity to rest up at Hallets while the East River reverses direction.

Weather is expected to be near 80 degrees.
Low temp the night before should be 67.
Don’t be put off by the possibility of “few showers”
No thunder or lightning is expected.

meet at boathouse 9AM sharp
return to boathouse 9PM

Let’s Go !

Please understand that this will entail some real effort — paddling round trip unless we can find enough one-way paddlers to switch off. And then we’ll provide four hours of cove paddling for all, a real treat for local kids and families especially.

Please write to trips@licboathouse.org is you’re interested in joining Ted and his salty-doggedly loyal first mate, Erik!

Our friend Christine Holowacz, community liaison of the Newtown Creek Monitoring Committee, passes along the good word below of a new nature walk at the sewage plant in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

She requests the presence of kayakers, who can pull up to the ecological restoration, on Saturday. The LIC Community Boathouse is the main provider of public access to the creek (nearly weekly during the summer) and an active member of the Newtown Creek Alliance.

And so…our touring season just got re-extended for a day. You can thank warm air and water, as well as civic virtue, for that.

If you’d like to be part of this mellow trip, please contact trips@licboathouse.org to register your interest. We’ll launch from the Anable Cove boathouse (end of 44th Drive in Hunters Point) at 2PM, so arrive at 130PM. One small caution: we’ll have extra time on our hands. The event ends at 4PM, but we’ll launch from Greenpoint with the flood tide at 7PM.

Perhaps we could find an event or dinner spot in Greenpoint?

We’ll be back to the boathouse at about 745PM.

NOW EVENT INFO BELOW:

Join the

NEW YORK CITY
DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
and the Newtown Creek Monitoring Committee

At the
Opening Celebration and Festivities for
“Newtown Creek Nature Walk”
Saturday
SEPTEMBER 29, 2007
11:00 AM – 4:00 PM

NEWTOWN CREEK WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT
PAIDGE AVENUE & PROVOST STREET
BROOKLYN, NY 11222

Shuttle buses are available from the intersection of Greenpoint and

Manhattan Avenues (Greenpoint Ave G Stop) from 11am to 3 pm.

Children Activities and Light Refreshments will be Served