Sean Dixon, Zach McCue, Lindsay McNamara, Emily Hackett, Tavia Danch, John (who left to go back to school) and joined off and on again by Heather Saffert, under the expert eye of their fearless leader, Cindy Zipf, make up the elite strike team that's been taking over the roads and beaches on our way to Montauk. While I've been paddling, Sean's been biking, and the crew has been blitzing people with info about the Clean Ocean Zone. If you haven't signed the on-line petition, please do so-there is of course a link at cleanoceanzone.org
This is a "lean, mean, green fighting machine" that's sole goal is to protect our ocean- "lock in the progress and lock out the pollution" as Cindy says. This gang gets it, and has become like a well oiled machine-they simply skate over the bumps, dig in when they need to, and get stuff done for our ocean. They've been walking miles of beaches and boardwalks to get support for the COZ. All of us who love and live for the ocean owe this young upcoming crew and their fearless leader a debt of gratitude for working so hard to protect our beaches and ocean not just for us but for our kids and their kids and so on.
While the team and Cindy have been rallying beach goers, Mary-Beth Thompson maintains the home-front back in Sandy Hook. Fortunately, she checked the on-line comments an reviews about the hotel she had made arrangements for us to stay after hearig how sketchy some of the places we stayed were and discovered they had a bed bug problem!! Thank goodness for on-line reviews! Needless to say, we will be in a different and bed-bug free accommodations tonight-woohoo!!
I've got to backtrack a little-back to the Broad Channel stop at Bay View Inn- truly they serve the BEST mojitos. Definitely will be dragging the family there on the way home. Robert Pisani does an outstanding job with that place and we appreciated immensely that he let us keep the boat at his docks for two nights. While we were lunching there before heading off to the SEApaddleNYC gala, Dan Mundy of Jamaica Bay Eco Watchers joined us. Boy does his organization have its hands full. Seems that the city would rather have signs warning people not to swim, boat, or fish along the bayside of the Rockaways rather than actually clean up the water. Wow. Is that water really gonna stay just in Jamaica Bay? I kinda don't think so...we should be asking the powers that be to clean up Jamaica Bay!!
Paddling on the inside from Oak Beach Community center to Bill and Joann's Moriches Marina, I enjoyed the south side of the bay-something different from the path I traveled back in '07 when Lance Mamiya, Kirk Larsen, when we took the more northern side. The dying eel grass caught in our rudders was just annoying then!
Bill and Joann and their son William-just a month older than my son are an amazing family-and thank goodness for me Bill was able to give me some good intel about Moriches Inlet-if it looks okay I'm going for it, if not, I'll hang on to the inside route. Won't know until I eyeball it. Woohoo!! And special thanks to John in the ketchup shirt for letting me borrow a big-a** bumper for my boat and for Tony for explaining some of the history of the area. Great folks, up and coming area-hey, being by the water one can never go wrong!
Forward ho, away we go!! Completely stuffed and fueled with the wonderful breakfast that a patron, Joe, who overheard us talking, bought us at Jimmy's Diner-a fantastic little breakfast and lunch spot and obviously another place I have to bring the family to. What an awesome generous surprise! For the ocean!!
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