In light of tonight’s full moon, the “Cold Moon” and the last full moon of 2024, we’re excited to introduce our newest contributor, Pamela Rafalow Grossman, and to hear an amazing story about last September’s Super Moon, which she experienced with the North Brooklyn Community Boathouse group (a community she’ll be sharing with us more in the coming months)! Enjoy!
Almost exactly three months ago—at 8:45 PM on September 17th—about 40 boaters, ranging in skill from novice to expert, set off in kayaks and canoes onto Brooklyn’s Newtown Creek. The occasion was that night’s supermoon, which the group looked forward to celebrating from the water.
Organizing this adventure were trip leaders from the North Brooklyn Community Boathouse group (NBCB), which formed (originally as the North Brooklyn Boat Club) in 2010. The group is “dedicated to enabling safe, responsible, human-powered boating” and, through education, to creating “stewards of the history, ecology, and sustainability of the waterways of the Newtown Creek and the adjacent East River.” Its activities bear out these goals. Throughout the group’s history, it has provided free environmental education and kayak/canoe outings to the public, as well as a variety of boat trips for its members.
Launching boats on the Newtown Creek might seem counterintuitive: The waterway is, after all, a Superfund site. (Unfortunately, it’s one of two separate Superfund sites currently in the Greenpoint, Brooklyn, neighborhood.) Long ago, the creek was home to plentiful marine life. But in the 19th century, various industries took over its shores; and until the second half of the 20th Century, there was little regulation in how they disposed of their waste. The creek bore the brunt of this neglect and abuse. Today it contains an underground oil spill of approximately 17 to 30 million gallons, caused by Standard Oil and its subsidiaries. It also developed copper contamination, and its creek beds have been strewn with everything from car frames to random trash.

Photo by Pamela Rafalow Grossman
The North Brooklyn Community Boathouse takes a “Make the road by walking” approach—treating the creek as a valued and viable waterway while, little by little, it becomes one again. Spearheading many of these efforts is the Newtown Creek Alliance, which was organized in 2002 with the goal of restoring “community health, water quality, habitat, access, and vibrant commerce along Newtown Creek.”
I’ve been a member of NBCB for about 6 years. I’ve enjoyed improving my boating skills over time while getting to know group members, learning about the water, and experiencing my city from a completely different perspective. (A bridge in the distance is beautiful—but paddling under that bridge, and seeing its structure up close, is a whole new kind of amazing.)
Normally, our trips are geared toward either kayaks or canoes. The first supermoon paddle, in 2023, was canoe-based—and the brainchild of canoe trip leader Brian Quinn, who organized the ride with fellow trip leader Matt Dundas. “Once I posted it to the calendar, it quickly filled up the 10 available seats, and the waitlist grew to 20,” Quinn remembers. “I reached out to recruit more trip leaders, so I could open up more seats and even take out our Voyageur canoes—25-foot canoes that can carry up to 12 paddlers.”
“I never have to twist any arms to get support from our community,” Quinn continues. “When I put out the request for help, it comes pouring in.”
This year’s supermoon excursion included both kayaks and canoes. Trip leader Thiago de Mello Bueno, the main coordinator of the event this time, made the link. He’d gone on last year’s supermoon outing: “We had a different kind of trip—later than normal, more boats than normal, and the moon and tides tugging at us a bit more strongly than normal. It was incredible, bringing the community together in a larger way than before.” So this time around, he decided to try extending participation even further. “A week before the trip, I asked the graduating class of the Kayak Trip Leader training that Matt and Javier [Castaño, another longtime kayak trip leader] had held earlier in the season if they wanted to join in,” he explains. “With little delay, the notion of a joint, cross-disciplinary trip was made real.”
Dewey Thompson, a founding member of NBCB and a kayak trip leader, recalls the enthusiasm. “As a trip leader, you’re always looking for different, interesting, and possibly stunning experiences we can have on a trip,” he says. “Seeing the rise of the supermoon over the city and river sounded like one of those possibly spectacular things only we can offer. I think the coordination of the [canoe and kayak] groups was a highlight for a lot of us.” Quinn adds a practical note I had not thought of: “Having a large group of boats makes us more visible to larger watercraft at night.”

Photo by Thiago de Mello Bueno
The day of our supermoon paddle had been cloudy, and the early evening was a bit overcast. “Days before, some nasty weather reared its head nearby,” recalls de Mello Bueno. “But members of the group assuaged my fears, and we decided to go ahead.” In the hours leading up to our launch, the skies cleared; soon the Harvest supermoon appeared on the horizon. “It was a pretty calm, warm night,” Thompson remembers, “perfect for a paddle.”
Prep effort, understandably, was considerable. Trip leader and group co-president Patterson Beckwith joined de Mello Bueno at the boats hours before the ride. “Patterson met with me early day-of,” de Mello Bueno says. “He and a crew of long-time group members helped clean the boats and prepare our fleet for launch. Darren [Lippman] agreed to pilot the safety boat for us. With eight canoes, some 16-plus kayaks, and about 40 people on the water, we wanted to have a power boat within radio contact and at the ready.” The ride was, in every way, a group effort. “Somehow, by the skin of our teeth, we were ready to launch as folks arrived,” de Mello Bueno says. “Without the work on land of [leaders and/or group members] Patterson, Brian, Matt, Brad, Caroline, Erin, Catherine, and others, things would have not gone so smoothly.”

Photo by Thiago de Mello Bueno
I remember being swamped in my day job that day—but letting my department head know that if it was not raining at 7:30, I would be signing off at that time. 7:30 came, the skies were clear, and I excitedly broke free, heading out for my bus ride to the creek. There were about 10 people gathered when I arrived; then 20; then more.
The most novice canoers were placed in the large Voyageur boats. “They are stable and fast with everyone’s combined paddling,” Quinn says. I’ve paddled both kayaks and canoes with the group; on this night I was in a canoe, with one other boater. A minute or two down the creek, the kayakers joined us from the spot where they were launching. We all headed onto the river to take in the supermoon, which coincided with a partial lunar eclipse—a pairing that won’t occur again until October 8, 2033.
I often get the sense, on our rides, that we’re pulling off some kind of magical stunt. Surely the powers that be are about to descend, chastising us for doing something too different from everyday life, too unexpected, and too much fun. Our night rides, especially, raise this feeling in me. As Thompson puts it, “Night paddles are always exciting. Seeing the lights of the city from the water somehow heightens the sense of how we get to explore the city off the street grid. It feels kind of clandestine.”

Photo by Thiago de Mello Bueno
But with proper leadership and training, awareness of the tides, radios to communicate with other boats, and of course all the needed safety gear, it turns out we’re allowed to take these trips. By skill and by law, we can do this.
We reached Mill Rock, our night’s destination. The camaraderie was strong—most of our rides are less than half the size of this one. The planning had paid off. The weather had held. The sky remained clear. And 40-some boaters floated in kayaks and canoes on the East River, gazing at the moon, snapping pictures of the landscape and of each other. It felt unreal, but it was actually, gloriously, happening. Eventually, timed to the tides, we rode back to our starting point, with everyone pitching in to clean and put away the boats and equipment.
December’s full moon is about to arrive, and winter has its beauties, too. Still, I’m always happy when spring returns and I can get back to the water. (Some group members are certified as winter paddlers; I am not. I’ve improved my skills, but not by that much.) What sights will NBCB boaters take in next year? What challenges will we overcome? What new wildlife will call the creek home? I love seeing egrets starting to nest there, and I’m so eager to see further signs of healthy nature.
It’s safe to say that the Supermoon Paddle is poised to become a group tradition. I can still feel the joy of it, as can de Mello Bueno. “It seemed,” he recalls, “like when we headed back from Mill Rock, our spirits and hearts were filled.”

Photo by Pamela Rafalow Grossman
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