Leaving Montauk early in the AM on the outgoing tide

Rough seas and foul weather delay start of my journey.

Stormy Weather . . .

Well, this is exciting. I was going to leave Montauk tomorrow morning. The plan was to take a very small boat into a very big ocean. The problem is the weather. The rain is not a big deal. Of course, lightning is no fun. The real issue is the wind. In the ocean "a Southwest wind 14 to 20 mph" is a real problem when you are attempting to paddle West along the Southern coast of  Long Island for 40 miles. Catch my drift. I'm crazy not stupid. 

This is the NOAA weather forecast for Wednesday

• 09/05/12Scattered showers and thunderstorms before 10am, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm between 10am and 4pm, then scattered showers and thunderstorms after 4pm. Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, cloudy, with a high near 77. Breezy, with a southwest wind 14 to 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
• 09/0512 NightA chance of showers and thunderstorms before 2am, then a slight chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 69. Southwest wind 8 to 13 mph becoming light west after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
So, I could leave on Thursday . . . 

• 
  09/06/12A slight chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly sunny, with a high near 80. North wind around 6 mph becoming southwest in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 20%.
• 09/06/12NightPartly cloudy, with a low around 69.

Yeah, that looks better. North wind at 6 would be quite nice.
Now, for my other problem. . .
Leslie!
This on Leslie from http://www.weather.com

The season's 12th named storm, "Leslie" may become a hurricane in the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean.  Let's address the two main questions with Leslie's future as best as we can.

Projected Path

1.  Bermuda Threat?

Leslie passed north of the Leeward Islands over the weekend and is now moving very slowly between those islands and Bermuda.

To elaborate, steering currents in the upper levels of the atmosphere have relaxed to the point that Leslie may stall or creep only very slowly toward the north in the direction of Bermuda the next several days.

Leslie will also be experiencing varying degrees of wind shear over the next few days, which could limit its ability to intensify in the short term.

Wind shear is forecast to relax during the second half of the week and Leslie may be a hurricane by the time it approaches Bermuda this weekend. How much impact Leslie has on Bermuda will depend on the exact track and intensity of the system this coming weekend.

Leslie's East Coast Future?

2.  East Coast/Canadian Maritime Threat?

It's still too soon to completely write-off the possibility of Leslie directly impacting the Northeast U.S. coast.  

To diagnose whether a tropical cyclone poses a U.S. threat, we look to the aforementioned upper-level wind flow, or "steering pattern."

Generally speaking, for a tropical cyclone north of the Caribbean Sea, you need strong upper-level high pressure expansive in a west-to-east manner across the Atlantic that would force the cyclone toward the west, instead of curling out into open waters toward the northwest, then north. 

In this case, instead of an upper-level ridge, the polar jet stream will cut across the northern tier of states, extending into the North Atlantic Ocean late in the week.

If this flow regime pans out as currently forecast...this would seal off the Northeast U.S. coast from Leslie, turning the cyclone toward the northeast or east and away from the Eastern Seaboard.

Regardless...due to Leslie's initial stalled state and slow movement, it will generate high surf and rip currents along parts of the East Coast throughout the week ahead.

(MORE: Rip current safety) 

Check back with The Weather Channel and weather.com for the latest on Leslie.

It don't look good . . .

First Video Blog

The Official Paddle Schedule

Each of the below links goes to a Google map for that day's proposed route.
For detailed departure times, estimated arrival times and tide/current data, CLICK HERE 
Day 1 Map -  09/05/12 Montauk to Shinnecock Inlet 40.1 Miles
Day 2 Map -  09/06/12 Shinnecock Inlet to Smith Point Park 25.5 Miles
Day 3 Map -  09/07/12 Smith Point Park to Captree / Jones Beach 31.21 Miles
Day 4 Map -  09/08/12 Captree / Jones Beach to Rockaway Inlet 30.03 Miles
Day 5 Map -  09/09/12 Roackaway Inlet to Sands Point 35.21 Miles
Day 6 Map -  09/10/12 Sands Point to Port Jefferson 36.27 Miles
Day 7 Map -  09/11/12 Port Jefferson to Mattituck 28.01 Miles
Day 8 Map -  09/12/12 Mattituck to Orient 22.29 Miles
Day 9 Map -  09/13/12 Orient to Lake Montauk 16.40 Miles
Day 10 Map - 09/14/12 Lake Montauk to Montauk Point 4.14 Miles

200-Pound Weight Loss Leads to Epic Adventure (Copied from Everydayhealth.com)

A former 400-pound pre-diabetic man marks a decade since he lost half his body weight by attempting to kayak the circumference of Long Island, New York.

By Stephanie Sy, Senior Editor and Correspondent www.everydayhealth.com

Russ L'HommeDieu, a 45-year-old physical therapist and wellness coach, was so heavy twelve years ago that he couldn't be weighed at his doctor's office. "The scale only went up to 350 pounds," he recalls. Weighing more than 400 pounds, Russ was pre-diabetic with elevated glucose levels that suggested if he didn't change his lifestyle fast, he would become one of the 26 million Americans with diabetes. 

The day he received the pre-diabetes diagnosis, Russ started making changes in his diet, but it was another day ten years ago that set off the extraordinary weight loss and life change that he's never looked back from.

"My son wanted a kayak for his birthday," Russ says. "I said, 'no, because you're not going into the bay alone, and I'm not getting into one of those things.' I saw the disappointment on his face, and I started to think how many other things am I keeping him from." 

So, Russ got an extra large kayak for himself and started paddling.

In two years, Russ lost about two-hundred pounds, but more significantly, he managed to maintain the dramatic weight loss for the last decade by sticking with healthy eating habits and, of course, continuing to kayak every day.

To celebrate the milestone, Russ is planning to kayak the 275-mile circumference of Long Island, N.Y., on September 8. The journey will take ten days and you can follow his progress on www.longislandpaddle.com.
See the Video Here: http://bcove.me/25llhrpr
See original story at 
http://www.everydayhealth.com/diabetes/200-pound-weight-loss-leads-to-epic-adventure.aspx

A Life In Training

It's a dreary Saturday morning. The wind is blowing and the rain is coming down in buckets. Where am I? In a kayak, of course. In a kayak and loving it. I am one of those strange ducks that actually enjoys being outside in this kind of weather . . . for a while. Loving it was how the paddle started. Then, after about an hour and a half, I wanted to be home. Unfortunately, kayaking in the middle of the bay does not lend itself well to simply packing it in and going home. According to my GPS, I wasn't due to be back on shore for another 30 minutes so I decided to make the best of it and think about what I was going to blog about this week.
My thoughts drifted to the paddle I was holding. My paddle is a high performance wing paddle and I bought it from a kayak racer in Rhode Island. When I got to his house to buy the paddle, I asked to use the bathroom. Rhode Island is a long drive and I do drink a lot of water. While I was washing up, I noticed that he had written: “When you are NOT training, someone else is!” on his mirror. True as that was, I knew that I need to train in order to beat the 270 mile circumference of this island and the island does not need to train to beat me.
Then I began to think about what the term "training" really meant. According to "the Free Dictionary," training is the process of bringing a person to an agreed standard. It is a process. It involves commitment and consistency. It requires that you do something, anything. I believe that training can be physical, mental and spiritual. I believe the purpose of training is to beat the person you were yesterday. And I believe the process of continuous improvement is noble and beautiful.
Then it came to me. My blog post would be a celebration of all that I have overcome through training!
I beat my obesity by training!
I beat Diabetes by training!
I beat poor self esteem by training!
I beat joint pain by training!
I beat being unable run by training!
I beat being old before my time by training!
I beat being too tired to play with my kids by training!
I beat being ashamed by training!
I beat my limiting beliefs by training!
I beat this storm by training!
I beat negativity by training!
I beat the judgments of others by training!
I beat food addictions by training! 
. . . and the list goes on. What have you beat by training? What would you like to beat?