FOREST AND STREAM 
305 
to bite into the wave, this boat succeeded in rising 
until nothing but the tip of the wave washed 
over the boat, completely covering everything 
and leaving the boat about half full of water. 
Then we swung around and let the surf carry us 
in, merely keeping our boats straight. A wave 
sent one of the boats flying to starboard, and the 
wash sent the double blade spinning into the 
water. We thought it was all over, but a coun¬ 
tering wave brought the boat around straight and 
enabled us to recover the paddle, and in a second 
we were left high—but not dry—-on the beach. 
The other boat landed without mishap. 
It was not long before we had quite an audi¬ 
ence, and in dragging our boats up and unload¬ 
ing them, we received many helpful suggestions 
from the innocent bystanders. We landed on a 
fine long private beach in front of the Rinaldo 
Hotel at Edgemere, and we decided to spend the 
night by the ocean and in the morning make out- 
carry into Jamaica Bay. While one of us got 
things together and got the stove going for sup¬ 
per, the other went to find the quickest route to 
our portage. He found we would have a carry 
of something like three-quarters of a mile, and 
it took away his appetite for supper. Upon his 
return it was dark and supper was ready and so 
were we. We both bundled up in mackinaw and 
sweater, for the air had a “whip” in it, and our 
heaviest clothing felt good. We crawled into our 
sleeping bags for a good night’s sleep, and many 
of the guests on the veranda of the hotel were 
dumfounded to think we proposed spending the 
night sleeping in such contrivances. * * 
Friday morning the carry in prospect made us 
lazy, and it was about seven o’clock before we 
were through breakfast. It was quite calm, and 
the prospects looked bright for taking a chance 
and making the trip around Rockaway point on 
the outside, but not knowing what might happen 
about noon in the wind line, we decided to play 
safe and go around Rockaway point through the 
inlet, and started our carry into Jamaica bay. It 
took four trips, and when everything was in the 
boats once more we were tired, but ready for 
more work. We started off through Jamaica bay 
with the wind blowing sou’west, and we had to 
tack against a stormy tide to get down to the 
railroad bridge. We had to lower our spars to 
get under, and then we decided to paddle awhile, 
so we worked past Rockaway until we came to 
Neponsit, about noon. 
The clouds were rolling up black and threaten¬ 
ing from the sou’west, the wind had increased 
until it was blowing a gale at sea, and we could 
hear the surf roaring on the beach. We landed 
on a sandy strip on the inlet, as we anticipated a 
downpour of rain. After lunch we both slept 
for a couple of hours and when we awakened the 
wind was spraying us with sand. It had not com¬ 
menced to rain, but we decided to put up the tent 
and get everything ship-shape for a wet night. 
We staked the tent down all around and put 
rocks on each stake, then got the boats up and 
stowed everything inside the tent. We walked 
over to the ocean, which was about one-third of 
a mile away, going most of the way backward on 
account of the sand. We found the ocean a boil¬ 
ing mass of water, and we thanked our stars we 
had not attempted to leave Edgemere that morn¬ 
ing on the ocean side. We returned to camp, 
cooked up supper, and after everything had been 
cleaned up, we both were introduced to our 
razors after an absence of several days. By this 
time it was raining and the wind was “shooting” 
it up against the back of our tent with so much 
violence that it came through. We noticed that 
about half of our tent was literally swarming 
with bugs, and we spent a pleasant ten minutes 
chasing them out. Once rid of those unwelcome 
visitors we curled up in our bags and went to 
sleep. 
Saturday morning dawned dark and forbidding, 
but the rain had stopped and the wind was west- 
sou’west, which meant we would have it in our 
faces until we got around Norton’s point into 
Gravesend bay. We did not eat breakfast, but 
got off as soon as possible, and paddled against a 
strong fresh wind almost directly out of the west. 
The tide was starting to back up, and in passing 
Barren island and in getting over to the channel 
which leads into Sheepshead bay, we had the 
hardest, most disheartening work of the trip. It 
was a case of “pull your head off” for every foot 
you made. We landed at a boathouse near Plum 
Island at nine o’clock, after a three and a half 
hour pull. Here we had lunch, and at 9:30 we 
started out again. By this time the strong west 
wind had blown away the last vistage of a storm 
cloud, and the sun came out. After crossing 
Sheepshead Bay Channel and getting out on the 
ocean opposite the Oriental Hotel, the tide was 
in our favor, though we still had to put every 
ounce of beef in our blades to make headway 
against the wind. The ocean was rolling in eight 
feet waves, long, but crested, with white caps. 
We shoved past Brighton and Coney Island, and 
it being Sunday morning the passing of many out¬ 
bound transatlantic boats gave what you might 
call an added vigor to the water. 
Nearing Norton’s Point, off Seagate, which 
gave us the turn into Gravesend Bay, we were 
confronted with the worst water of our trip. We 
were heading straight for the shoal water to 
port, with the alternative of passing through a 
school of young waterspouts to starboard. We 
paddled in near shore to a swimming float and 
asked a chap the best way to go through. He 
told us to hug as close to shore as possible. The 
breakwater at Norton’s Point faced the wind and 
the surf was dashing up against it, breaking in 
great white clouds of spray above, then dropping 
back and meeting the incoming waves. The ocean 
in front of the breakwater was a mass of spouts. 
We said to ourselves that if we ever got through 
that water there would be nothing in the water 
line this side of Kingdom Come through which 
our boats could not go. 
We smashed into this water with feet braced, 
every nerve tense and our paddles gripped like 
grim death. We kept about fifty feet from the 
our boats would shoot into the air like chips, and 
then drop suddenly. We had this for what 
seemed a half hour, but which really was prob¬ 
ably not more than five minutes. Half the time 
we didn’t know whether we were in the water or 
out, upside-down or on even keel. After passing 
through this and reaching the comparative calm 
of Gravesend Bay, we jumped around in the boat 
and yelled and halloed as the tension relaxed. We 
had had our baptism of fire in the ocean, you 
might say. We landed on a sandy beach in 
Gravesend Bay, shortly after noon, and at four 
o’clock we decided to push ahead and make our 
Club house at 167th street and Hudson river be¬ 
fore dark if possible. 
We had a stiff breeze to shove us up the upper 
breakwater and as two waves formed into one,, 
bay, but we had not counted on the strength of 
the ebb tide against us. We paddled through the 
Narrows past Fort Hamilton, and then hoisted 
sail. The upper bay was kicking up very rough, 
for the wind was against the tide, and the wash 
of steamers, excursion boats, tugs, and every 
manner of craft caused us to ship water con¬ 
stantly, and made sailing with our lee boards 
down impossible. We sailed up the bay in fine 
shape against the tide, and although we had to- 
dodge several boats the going was comparatively 
safe. 
At the Battery we were pocketed by four ferry¬ 
boats making for the New York side of the river 
and four ferryboats bound for the Jersey side. 
To starboard we had two Coney Island boats 
jockeying around to get into their Battery pier. 
A steam lighter, a tug and scow were bearing 
down on us dead ahead, and a big ocean going 
tug was coming up on us from behind. Right 
here we figured we were going to make good-bait 
for the fishes, as the ferryboats to windward 
took away our wind and left our boats to swirl, 
with sails flapping in their wake, the suction from 
their screws pulling us all around. One tug was 
so close to one of the boats that an outstretched 
hand would almost have touched it. How we 
ever got through this swirl of river traffic is a 
mystery to us, for we know no boat was going 
to take a chance of hitting another to avoid hit¬ 
ting us, and we knew we would be the chosen 
ones and would be elected if such a contingency 
arose. 
