Ahoy ye Brooklyn salts!
Greenpoint paddlers braved swift East River currents this month in the North Brooklyn Boat Club’s second-ever flotilla.
The fledgling group, which borrowed kayaks from the Long Island City Boathouse, hopes to raise enough money to build a similar facility on Greenpoint’s shores and generate enough public support to fill it up.
The city has so far stymied seafaring plans to add a boat basin inside a Manhattan Avenue industrial building at the edge of Newtown Creek, arguing that the waterway’s pollution poses health risks.
But interest in recreational kayaking has risen like the tide.
Councilman Steve Levin (D–Greenpoint), who has actively campaigned to bring a boathouse to Greenpoint, joined the club for an evening river paddle to Newtown Creek two weeks ago.
And the group plans to hold more outings in the next two months, including a “pedal paddle” where participants can ride over the Pulaski Bridge to Long Island City and jump in a kayak right into the East River.
Soon the group hopes to buy their own kayaks and paddles and launch their own expeditions into the calm waters of Bushwick Inlet Park or Newtown Creek.
For info, visit www.northbrooklynboatclub.org.
