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
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
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
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