Aim towards the left tower of the George Washington Bridge,” our trusty guide, Margaret Mann, shouts across the Hudson’s khaki-color waters from her own kayak. I push on the right foot pedal of my sea kayak to move the rudder and steer us a bit to the right so that the boat’s bow points to the bridge far off in the distance. In front of me, my husband, Daniel, paddles with perhaps more intensity than is required on a Sunday. A light breeze ripples the water’s surface, a perfect late summer weekend day as we make our way toward Japan.
Well, actually, we’re headed to Edgewater, NJ, and the Mitsuwa Marketplace, a huge grocery store and restaurant complex that purports to be the largest Japanese supermarket in the country. You can catch a shuttle bus to Mitsuwa from Port Authority, but what fun is that when you can paddle up the west side of Manhattan and cross a busy waterway?
“It’s a really cool miniadventure,” says Eric Stiller, the owner of Manhattan Kayak Company, the company that runs “sushi” kayak and stand-up paddleboard tours to Mitsuwa ($125, food not included) as well as paddle-and-dine excursions to the 79th Street Boat Basin and Red Hook (see sidebar). Handily, our sea kayak has three cargo compartments to haul back Japanese delights.
The journey begins at 10:30 a.m. at Manhattan Kayak’s Pier 66 base in Chelsea. From there, it’s a five-mile paddle to Edgewater.
“There’s an extra charge if the guide has to tow you back,” warns the woman behind the counter, as Daniel and I sign our waivers.
We’ve kayaked on various vacations — most recently for three days on a honeymoon in Turkey — but we’ve never been out on the mighty Hudson. “You’re in for a real adventure,” Mann says, sizing us up a bit skeptically.
She quizzes us about what to do in the event of capsizing and our preferred equipment. Through a combination of bluffing, actual knowledge and our confidence-inspiring activewear (an Under Armour compression top and Lance Armstrong-esque sunglasses for Daniel, neoprene scuba booties and a black Roxy swimshirt for me), we convince the team that we’re ready to embark on the journey.
Once we launch and get out on the water, everyone’s worries seem to dissipate.
“The best part is . . . being out in the open river with Manhattan right in front of you,” says Josh Jaycoff, 28, a stand-up paddleboarder on the tour. “It’s like [being in] the center of the center of the world.”
Manhattan Kayak has been taking kayakers on dining excursions for years, but this is the first season they’ve opened up the trips to stand-up paddleboarders. Jaycoff, who lives in Midtown and works in sales, is the first paddleboarder to do the sushi tour.
He only took up the sport three months ago, but he’s been a dedicated student throughout the summer, coming to Manhattan Kayak twice weekly and working to learn the correct form.
“This is a sport [where] in order to do distance, you do have to get your technique down,” says Stiller.
Daniel and I paddle confidently, though we certainly haven’t been perfecting our technique all summer. A speedboat or two races by, their wakes sending our boat rocking, but there’s relatively little traffic on the Hudson and our sturdy double kayak feels like the nautical equivalent of a big old Cadillac hugging the open road.
We pass the Intrepid, heading up the river, stopping every once in a while to regroup and gaze back at the massive city from our tiny vessels just above the water’s surface.
“It’s always a rush,” says Jaycoff. “It’s a unique perspective on the city.”
As we cross the middle of the river, Mann instructs us to stay in a tightly knit group for safety.
After about 90 minutes of paddling, Mann points to our landing spot — a “beach” that’s really a 25-foot strip of rocks, trash and a sprinkling of sand bordered by a scenic concrete wall.
We row in and hop out of the kayak with a splash. Once ashore, I swap scuba booties for sandals and climb over a small fence. Mitsuwa market is less than 100 feet away.
For any Japanese food lover, the marketplace would be a treasure trove of wonders, but they sparkle even more brightly after a long paddle.
I make a beeline for the Ito En tea store and get an iced green tea to wash away the salty — and suspect — taste of the Hudson in my mouth. My thirst quenched, I start making the rounds and tossing exotic bits of produce into my shopping basket: fresh wasabi root, yuzu and kabuso citrus fruits, and a thick stack of shiso leaves.
We walk through aisles upon aisles of wonders, from “Rare Cheesecake Pocky” candies to vibrant packages of nigiri sushi and obscure Japanese energy drinks. A food court beyond the grocery checkout houses a dozen restaurants, from a stand hawking fresh Japanese waffles called obanyaki to a ramen shop where the rich, spicy miso broth justifies the long line for the soup.
“It’s just like being in Japan, I felt like I was transported there,” says Jaycoff. “It was a nice reprieve from a lot of hard work.”
We regroup at a stone table outside of the market, sharing our dumpings and rice balls. Jaycoff opts for rather simple fare — chicken teriyaki, gyoza, a few pieces of sushi — lest he be too stuffed to paddle home.
“I didn’t want to put too much bad stuff, since I had to come back,” he says. “But I still managed to overfeed myself.”
It’s a good thing he didn’t go too crazy on the heavy foods. The conditions are a bit rougher on the way back. We have to contend with a strong crosswind, the current and boat wakes coming at us from both sides. Mann mentions that the massive cruise ship docked off Midtown sometimes pulls out around this time in the afternoon. I’m grateful that it doesn’t.
Still, with two of us paddling and the security of our big boat, the journey back isn’t that taxing for me and Daniel. It’s a more challenging trip for Josh, going solo on the paddleboard, but he handles it admirably.
“Since you’re standing up,” he says. “It’s not for the faint of heart.”
We all make it safely back to the Pier 66 dock, disembark and hose the Hudson off ourselves with fresh water. The river’s slight stench and murky color is, admittedly, the least pleasant thing about the paddle.
Stiller says it’s nothing to be worried about and that New Yorkers need to take advantage of the river’s recreational potential.
“It’s way bigger than Central Park” and “the things that people touch and are exposed to every day in the city are so much worse than the Hudson could even dream of being,” he says. “This river is such an incredible resource.”
After paddling 10 miles on the mighty river, I’d have to agree. Sure, the Hudson is brown and smells a bit funky in parts, but it can transport you to a glorious rainbow of sushi . . . and it sure beats taking the bus.
Book a dining tour at manhattankayak.com or by calling 212-924-1788; paddling experience required; tours run through October.
MORE FOOD TOURS FOR WATER LOVERS
Have a different appetite for paddling? Try one of the other food-based tours from Manhattan Kayak Company (trips.manhattankayak.com) that will have you exploring the waterways and filling your stomach:
79th Street tour: Head out for a 6-mile, three-hour round-trip kayaking tour, which starts and ends at Pier 66 (26th Street and 12th Avenue) and is perfect for advanced beginners.
The group first heads north with the tidal flow for about an hour for a stop at the 79th Street Boat Basin and a trip to a restaurant on the Upper West Side. There, the group shares stories over food and drinks while waiting for the currents to turn south again before heading back.
Cost: $75 (food and drinks not included)
Paddleboarding to Red Hook: If sitting in a kayak cramps your legs too much, stretch them out with this advanced tour to Red Hook. The five- to six-hour, 16-mile round-trip tour, which also embarks from Pier 66, goes into the upper region of New York Harbor on the way to Louis Valentino Jr. Park.
While in Red Hook, which is bouncing back after a wallop from Hurricane Sandy, the tour will stop for brunch/lunch at Hope & Anchor, a locals’ favorite bar and diner with a famous hangover-helper breakfast burrito, then head back to Pier 66, taking in the amazing views of the lower Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty along the way.
Cost: $140 (food and drinks not included). — Tim Donnelly