Around Long Island By Canoe 
An Eight-Day Cruise Made By Two “Knickerbockers” 
We landed at Good Ground, near a fishing 
shack. One of us decided he would rather blow 
to breakfast than to cook up, so we went up to 
Canoe Place Inn and had a civilized feed of ham 
and eggs, canteloupe, coffee, etc., to such an ex¬ 
tent that our pocketbook sustained a compound 
fracture. After breakfast we walked up to Good 
Ground, a mile from the shore, and sent home a 
message that “the erring ones were safe and 
sound.” At the general store we purchased 
enough food to finish the trip. Before we were 
off again, after repairing the broken mast step, 
it was about eleven o’clock, and we had lost prac¬ 
tically four hours. After paddling through the 
Canal we hit into Shinnecock bay and held to 
paddling with the wind at our backs. The wind 
had veered around sou'west and was blowing so 
strong that sailing was impossible, since we could 
not reef our sails. Our boats, reefed down to 
twenty-five square feet, would have eaten up the 
ground, but after trying two or three times to 
make headway with full sail, we decided we were 
cut out for a day’s paddle. It was smooth as 
glass in Shinnecock on account of the very shal¬ 
low water with an abundance of eel grass. About 
ten o’clock we landed at Quogue, where Shinne¬ 
cock narrows down to a canal giving entrance to 
Moriches Bay. 
All morning we could hear the surf thundering 
on the beach on the oceanside. From its noise, 
we knew it must be piling up on the beach in 
great shape. When we arrived there we found 
the surf booming in on the beach in great large 
combers from ten to fifteen feet high. We had 
hoped to have a salt water dip, but the life guards 
said we had no chance at all in such water, on 
account of the terrific undertow. About 2:30 
we started to paddle into Moriches Bay. This 
bay, like all the south shore bays of Long Island, 
is edged with eel grass along its southern shore, 
but on the northern shore the shaded lawns of 
beautiful estates come down almost on a level 
to the water’s edge. We paddled the rest of the 
afternoon, “hitting” down through the middle of 
the bay. At about 6:30 we headed for the north 
shore, landing on an estate near the village of 
Moriches about dusk. No tent that night, for a 
good strong cool breeze from the ocean sent all 
the mosquitos inland, and we enjoyed our first 
night of freedom from the insects. 
Wednesday morning we were up at daybreak 
as usual, and as a fresh breeze was blowing out 
of the east we decided to postpone breakfast until 
later in the day, and get a good start on “Old 
Sol.” We set out with a brisk wind, and sailed 
through the end of Moriches Bay, landing at 
Smith’s Point in Great South bay about eight 
o’clock where we ate some lunch from a duffle 
By Paul M. McBride 
( Continued from Last Issue.) 
bag, and then set out for the north shore of 
Great South bay, heading straight for Bellport. 
About forty-five minutes sailing took us past 
Bellport and to Blue Point, where we landed. 
Here we had a breakfast, and Bluepoint proved 
such a charming place that we hated to go. Our 
time on the beach was mostly spent explaining 
to numerous summer residents where we had 
come from and whither we were bound. We 
spent a couple of hours at Bluepoint and then 
decided to “shove” on, having all Great South 
bay before us, as we wanted to clean that up be¬ 
fore nightfall. 
The wind had veered around to sou’west and 
had commenced to assume the proportions of a 
blow; there was all the whip and snap we wanted 
in it, and we had difficulty in launching our boats 
from the beach. We got away, however, without 
shipping much water, and then commenced a 
fight with steering blade and rudder to keep our 
boats straight. Our sheet lines were lashed, and 
as it was we had all we could do to keep our 
boats running. We were continually running oft", 
the force of the wind veering us around until our 
bows pointed into the wind. In this fashion we 
sailed down past Bay Port and to Nicholls Point. 
The wind was blowing so strong and the sea run¬ 
ning so high that managing our boats was a 
tough proposition, and we wasted so much time 
and shipped so much water that we decided to 
lower sail and get the water out of our boats. 
We paddled about three miles past Nicholl’s 
Point and landed on a nice beach. Here we had 
lunch and laid out our things to dry. About 
three o’clock we started out again, and deter¬ 
mined to leave every mile possible behind us by 
night fall. Our sail the rest of the afternoon was 
just one fine long mile-eater. We had our boats 
so loaded that they were abreast all the time, and 
in addition to the sail, we also had a “gab fest.” 
Fire Island light was soon lost to view and just 
as the shadows of night were falling we landed 
at the Amityville dock. After landing and un¬ 
loading the boats we had supper. After supper 
we met an old fisherman whom we questioned 
about getting out through Jones Inlet to go 
around Long Beach, as, until landing at Amity¬ 
ville, we did not know it was possible to get in 
back of Long Beach without going out on the 
ocean. He told us that the ocean was running 
very high, owing to the succession of heavy 
sou’western blows, and that it was foolhardy for 
us to risk it when we could get by Long Beach 
in back. We were glad to get this news, and 
were then ready for bed. It was chilly that night, 
and when we turned in we hugged the blankets 
for all the warmth that was in them. 
The next morning it was cold, our bags were 
304 
covered with dew, and dressing was done with 
despatch. Our breakfast that morning was a 
record breaker and we consumed all the bacon 
and eggs in the larder and washed it down with 
many cups of coffee. About six o’clock we were 
off, with a light breeze at our backs to take us 
through Hempstead Bay. We got only about 
three miles down the bay when the wind died 
down considerably. We dropped sail and com¬ 
menced to paddle over eel grass and by the multi¬ 
tudinous little islands opposite Freeport, received 
some wrong directions and paddled our way up 
a narrow winding channel in the direction of 
Freeport. We had gone about a mile when we 
saw our mistake and swung around. This time 
we got the right channel, a few more miles down 
the channel we found that getting back of Long 
Beach would be like solving a Chinese puzzle. 
We finally got some directions which we could 
follow, and then we set out to find the channel 
which would take us under the railroad bridge 
and past Long Beach. We reached the railroad 
bridge after getting off our course only once, and 
then it was clear sailing past Long Beach. About 
eleven o’clock we landed on the ocean beach at 
the entrance of the inlet opposite Far Rockaway. 
Here we had lunch and spent several hours 
watching the surf. We intended to wait until 
morning and put out on the ocean to get around 
Rockaway Point and past Coney Island, and we 
would not start such a trip without a full day in 
front of us. We had been informed that there 
was no way of getting into Jamaica Bay, and in 
that way back of Rockaway, so we waited for 
the morrow to get an early start. About four- 
thirty we decided to cross the inlet and camp on 
the mainland shore. Upon reaching the outer 
side of the inlet a crowd of young fellows told 
us we could paddle down the ocean beach past 
Far Rockaway and land near the Edgemere Club, 
where we could carry into Norton’s Creek. 
To get down to Edgemere we had to go 
through a surf that boiled over a sand bar. As 
soon as we cleared the inlet we went smashing 
into this surf over the sand bar, which ran criss¬ 
cross. By hard paddling we went through in fine 
shape, and then we got to smooth water where 
the combers were just beginning to form. At 
the place we were supposed to land off Edgemere 
we could see the surf rolling in in great combers, 
and we wondered how long we would last in that 
water. Just as we were about to point our boats 
to shore for the run-in, one of us got caught 
broadside in a large wave which was commenc¬ 
ing to curl. To the other boat a sure capsize 
seemed inevitable, as the wave completely hid 
even the mast from view. However, by being 
able to swing around just enough for the prow 
