Dock Update: Yes we Can(dock)!

Candock floating a car. Yeah, it can handle our kayaks.  :)

Candock floating a car. Yeah, it can handle our kayaks. 🙂

Our plans for purchasing a used dock from the Yonkers Paddling and Rowing Club chanced on a sprinkling of Murphy’s Law: donations to our 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsor (Earth Day New York) were returned because of an address change. During that delay while they were being mailed again, the old dock was sold instead to the LIC Community Boathouse (a group founded earlier by Erik Baard, HarborLAB’s founder). May it be used safely and happily by adults recreating there.

HarborLAB will instead purchase a modern, modular Candock with a recent sponsorship from TF Cornerstone, which is developing part of the LIC waterfront. Thank you TF Cornerstone! We look forward to launching exciting educational tours, filled with residents and especially CUNY students, from our Hunters Point South district dock in May.

Volunteers who became among the first to grow HarborLAB previously assembled this kind of modular dock at Governors Island two years ago, in preparation for City of Water Day. It’s durable, easy to assemble, and safe. Our plan is to start small, at 8′ by 14’3″, with an additional stabilizing perimeter. This is adequate for our relatively small throughput of paddlers (typically groups of fewer than 20, with only three people on a dock at once) and we can add modules as HarborLAB grows!

A Candock module.

A Candock module.

TF Cornerstone Paddles!

_MG_0328 copy

Before we got underway, a THANK YOU to TF Cornerstone! Photo by Scott Sternbach.

  tfc2

HarborLAB is tremendously thankful to TF Cornerstone for its sponsorship of our fleet and programs. TF Cornerstone was our first large sponsor and we wouldn’t have a fleet without this support. THANK YOU, TF Cornerstone!

A

We’ve had the pleasure of taking its LIC waterfront residents on two special paddles — first a Summer Solstice sunset tour and then a fun Ice Cream Float — a paddle to view the skyline and then pop over to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory by kayak. We started and ended at neighborhood restaurants, Anable Basin Sailing Bar and Grill and Water’s Edge. The residents were great company, and we were delighted to discover that among them were innovative educators and environmental professionals! We look forward to more adventures launching right from the TF Cornerstone towers’ East River reflections!

_MG_0339 copy

_MG_0384 copy (1) (1)

_MG_0354 copy

P__4075

Paddling back after the solstice sunset. Photo by EJ Lee.

943419_10151664451190350_731906434_n

Paddling past the soon-to-be-active HarborLAB launch. Photo by EJ Lee.

1012322_10151768353634878_517072984_n

HarborLAB boats tied up to the Manhattan Avenue launch for an Ice Cream Float. Photo by Erik Baard.

1005732_10151768331969878_246277801_n

Part of the HarborLAB fleet arrayed. Thank you TF Cornerstone!

1004755_10151741161865350_788048336_n

Caroline Walker towing boats back to Hallets Cove, Astoria after the Ice Cream Float with TF Cornerstone residents. Thank you Caroline and TF Cornerstone!