Thursday, November 15, 2018

Novemeber 8, 2018 Long Island, East River, New York Bay




Today we made the exciting trip through the East River in New York City.  It runs from Long Island Sound, along the east side of Manhattan, and into New York Bay at the southern tip of Manhattan.  We had to plan the transit with the tide/current.  There is one area where the Harlem River joins the East River called Hell Gate.  The current can be crazy there and hard to motor against if your timing is bad. 

We checked several sources on how to time this.  We wanted to be near Hell Gate at slack tide.  That is when the water is changing from and ebb to flood or vice versa and there is the least current.  And we wanted to travel with the current or against it when it is close to slack, not at it’s strongest.  Then we had to figure how long it would take us to get to Hell Gate from Port Washington to pick a time to leave.   We planned to leave at 7:00am and be at Hell Gate about 10:00 at slack tide.  We didn’t leave until 7:30, but were were there at 9:45 and had no problem. 

It was interesting to see so many landmarks from the water.  We only had one barge pass us on the river.  We saw several ferries, an NYPD boat and a NY Fire Department boat and a few pleasure boats.  The worst was all the ferry traffic at the southern end of Manhattan.  I had to stop being a tourist for a little while and help Dave watch boat traffic. 

We rounded the Battery, passed Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty and anchored for the night.  Several boaters had recommended anchoring next to the State of Liberty.  You rock and roll from the ferry traffic until evening, but the view was worth it for at least one night.  And they were right.

The trip down the river only took 4 hours today.  We decided to take the dinghy to Liberty Landing Marina for fuel.  We had to round Ellis Island and head up the Hudson River a little ways on the New Jersey side.  I kept having visions of Sully landing that aircraft on the Hudson River.  But our trip was uneventful, actually a really nice 50 degree day.

I stayed out in the cock pit for sunset pictures.  Then I went back out for pictures of the skyline in the dark.  Pretty cool to be this close and anchoring for free.  I had a hard time narrowing down photos. 

Throgs Neck Bridge and lighthouse


Skyline from the north east-long island sound
 
Bronx-Whitestone Bridge
 
LaGuardia airport planes taking off every 2 minutes
 
Rikers Island  Otis Bantum Correctional Center-one of the world’s largest correctional institutions and mental institutions.  We also saw a huge prison ship on the water.  It was about the size of a cruise ship, but little windows, no balconies.  And there was concertina wire around the deck area.  Several inmates waved at us to come back for them. 

1st traffic barge passed us
 Hell Gate railroad bridge
 
Robert F Kennedy Bridge

NYPD boat

Highway along the water.  They must close it if there is bad weather and water coming over the wall.

Queensboro Bridge

1st of many ferries

Roosevelt Island tram

Williamsburg Bridge

United Nations building

Mix of old and new architecture and window washer

Ferries, Chrysler building, window washer

Crazy building with another window washer

Fire Department of NY

East River Park Amphitheater

Manhattan Bridge with Brooklyn Bridge behind it

Building on Brooklyn side

Manhattan bridge detail

Brooklyn bridge detail

Helicopter landing at the Downtown Manhattan Heliport

Battery Park with One World Trade Center towering over skyline
Staten Island ferry-one of many
 
Ellis Island

Continuous ferries to the statue

Statue of Liberty from our boat as we passed

City from our anchorage

Statue of Liberty from our anchorage

Chart with our route from Long Island sound, through the East River to Upper New York Bay.  The black line is our track from the upper right to the lower left.

Lady Liberty packed her bags and headed south with us to warmer weather.

Barges at anchor in the Bay in front of Verrazzano Narrows bridge waiting to be moved in our out.

Sunset of skyline.  One World Trade Center is the tallest

Sunset - Empire State Building is the pink building in the center

Sunset Statue of Liberty

Pink empire state building in center with Ellis Island in foreground

 

No comments:

Post a Comment