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Building Bridges Rowers Participate in the Great Hudson River Paddle
For the third year students from Building Bridges Building Boats joined adult kayakers on The Great Hudson River Paddle sponsored by the Hudson River Valley Greenway. This year there were two 26-foot row boats, Storm King, and Ropa. The Storm King crew included Danielle Bassignani, Chloe Goldberg, David Hardy, Forrest Hardy, Spencer Hardy, Stefan Jimenez, and Graham Rice. Storm King departed from Albany and was on the river 7 days for a total of 93 miles*. The asterisk belongs to Graham Rice who had to withdraw at Saugerties because of an injury sustained during a volleyball game with members of BBBB, the GHRP land crew and the United States Coastguard.
Ropa, a boat borrowed from Floating the Apple of New York City, was crewed by Conor Austin, Stefan Carlson, Skylar Francis, Lukas Lahey, Skylar Francis, Meg Rassmussen, and David Sternau. The entire Ropa crew made it to Cold Spring logging 50 miles over 4 days.
During the course of the trip there were two days of mostly sailing, and 5 days of rowing which included one day of rain fog and nasty headwinds. Each day the River Rats were awakened a 5:30 and traveled 4 to 6 hours before setting up camp and settling down for a card game, snack or both. Two nights were accompanied by enough rain to flood the toughest of tents. The most sensible kayakers and River Rats spent one night on the floor of the Poughkeepsie rowing center.
One of the highlights of the trip was a rescue assist. The River Rats spotted white smoke issuing from the stern of a powerboat a few miles above Kingston. A call was placed via marine radio to the powerboat but received no response. Some time later a crew member from the powerboat was seen on deck wearing a life jacket and waving a red flag. At this point the GHRP guides, already in Kingston, were contacted and a message was relayed to the authorities. River Rats watched as a police boat came into view at top speed, blue light flashing. The police boat could be seen tied to the powerboat until the River Rats turned the corner to approach Kingston Harbor. An hour and half later the thirty-foot powerboat was towed into Kingston.
As is the GHRP custom, the journey culminated with the Battle of Cold Spring. Each year a motley group from Hudson Valley Outfitters is dispatched from the village armed to the PFD with squirt guns, water pistols and bailers of all kind. As usual they were met by the GHRP participants off Sandy Beach where there ensued a pitched battle. As usual, the Rats won.
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