NaBloPoMo 2021.7 The Probability of a Successful Escape to New Jersey in a Kayak

After dinner a few weeks ago, we decided to walk home on the path by the Hudson River. It was a beautiful evening so we strolled out to the end of one of the piers. Three kayakers were about twenty feet away in the water. They had headlamps clamped to their foreheads and seemed to be headed out into open water.

Three kayakers having an
evening paddle in the Hudson River with
New Jersey in the background.

Awww, so cute. A little twilight paddling around. They will certainly turn around soon! It's almost dark. Ships, sizable ships, are cruising up and down in the channel going at whatever knots per hour is fast enough to run right over three little kayakers you can barely see with their tiny little headlamps.

Ummm, they are almost in the channel
and still haven't turned around.

I don't think they are turning around.
By the way, it's way darker than it looks in these photos.

It's a mile-ish to Jersey from Manhattan.
They must be close right?

It was nail biter all the way. 

From our vantage point, the kayakers almost got mowed over by at least one tugboat and one Circle Line cruise party boat. It was like watching a game of Frogger. Played at night and not under lights.

Tom and I stood on the pier and made up various scenarios that would inspire our three intrepid paddlers to cast off from the shores of Greenwich Village enroute to New Jersey at 7pm on your average Thursday. 

Was the bus not running? Where do they live, New Jersey or New York? If they live in New York, what are they going to do with their kayaks in Jersey? Chain them up to a railing like bikes? And how are they going to get back? Do they do this every day or do they occasionally take their kayak on the PATH train? 

Also, are they wearing crocs or waders and will they just like haul their boats out of the river on to the Jersey City esplanade? I'm not sure if you can even get up on the esplanade from the waterline. For that matter, how'd they actually get in the water in New York City? It's not like there's a sandy beach on either side of the Hudson. It's like pylons and algae and turned over shopping carts and hypodermic needles.

I texted my brother the play-by-play. He' knows a lot about water and New Jersey shorelines, so maybe he could provide insight. What were the three kayakers going to do upon arrival in the great state of New Jersey? What were the chances they'd actually even make it across? 

My brother wrote back, "In my opinion, I don't think they really thought this the whole way through."