About to launch from New York – "Row For Peace"
May 20, 2015
After a period of preparations, I drove a rental truck with my rowboat in tow across the USA from Seattle to New York. My high school coach Al Rosner who helped shape my adolescence with sports, was with me during this adventure. We drove through Estes Park to meet Tom Hornbein, another childhood hero of mine who was on the American first ascent team of Everest in 1963. It was a joy to stop by to connect with old friends along the way.
We made it to New York in one piece and took the rowboat to the International Bulb warehouse in Montvale that owner Jan Doornbosch kindly offered. My Australian partner Kendon Glass arrived on May 5, I presented at the Explorers Club Headquarters on May 6 and have been busy since. A week later we moved the rowboat to Home Tile warehouse in South Hackensack that Başar Yüksel owns. Both of these connections were thanks to Dr. Ali Seçkin from Nyack.
It was then time to put the boat in the water on Sunday. We had a low tide that day and the trailer found the end of the concrete ramp, so we waited for the tide to rise again before we could launch the boat. The public ramp was in the Liberty State Park on the New Jersey side, allowing us to row past the Statue of Liberty, then Ellis Island to the North Cove Marina in the heart of Manhattan. The marina management decided to not charge us for mooring which was a treat.
Kendon and I have been busy sorting and configuring all the new gizmos we gathered. Tablets, wireless connections, Go-Pro’s, wireless backup drives, satellite modem hotspot, texting, social media and tracking, all are done differently than I was used to. It will be a learning experience for sure! Thankfully Kendon has taken on the IT end of things and I can focus on the boat.
We will be launching from the North Cove Marina in Manhattan then touch mainland in New Jersey before continuing down the Hudson River with ebb tide. The launch is at 12:00 noon on Saturday, May 23rd.
We are grateful for all the local help. Special thanks go to our project coordinator Barış Öztürk of AKUT-USA, and to Gökçe Sezgin who has become a strong team member. She and Dr. Yuksel Sezgin also went out of their way to host us for over a week and even provided a car for Kendon and I to get around. Grateful is a word that falls short of my feelings... I feel in debt, and the best way to pay back is to succeed in our mission with Kendon Glass, and eventually with our other teammate Mark Gasson.
For more details on the journey, please follow the dedicated website for this row from New York to Gallipoli, which will be http://www.RowForPeace.com.
Do follow our journey with its unique symbolism. Please promote our new website with our causes and please consider sharing our CrowdRise fundraising page.
Erden.