Crew Log for October 11th – October 13th, 2022
Trip Summary:
Port Washington, NY to Atlantic Highlands, NJ
Trip Distance of 34.2 NM, Total Distance To-Date of 1,160.3 NM
Departed at 0930 hours and arrived at 1600 hours
We had the perfect conditions for heading down the East River. Sunny, light winds and a perfectly timed tide that would have us at Hell’s Gate at 1130 hours. We had been anticipating this leg of the trip since we started planning this trip. We have never been to New York, let alone sail through one of the most iconic harbors in the world. Given you can see the city skyline for miles away coming down Long Island Sound, our excitement increased as we inched our way closer.
Our route would take us from our quiet anchorage in Port Washington, down the East River, into New York Harbor, one of the largest and busiest harbors in the world, through The Narrows and across to Atlantic Highlands, just below Sandy Hook.
The East River is not actually a river at all. It is actually a tidal estuary connecting Long Island Sound in the north, to New York Harbor in the south. It is characterized by strong tidal currents which are amplified by the narrowing of the river and the changing water depths. The most famous section of the river, at least from a sailor’s perspective, is Hell’s Gate, where the river narrows at Roosevelt Island. Currents here can exceed 3 knots. Time it right, it is sleigh ride, time it wrong...well best not to time it wrong.
We would have the company of sv Magali and sv That’s It, the 2 Quebec boats we first saw in Rogue’s Roost, were also planning to make the trip today and were joined by sv Le Bergamote, who was solo sailing. We had first run into Le Bergamote in Gloucester, which seems like a long time ago now. Le Bergamote had just done a 30 hour overnight sail down Long Island Sound and was waiting at the entrance to the East River for the other 2 boats from Quebec. I don’t know how people find the strength (or nerves) to do that. In addition to the sailboats, there were several large trawlers making the trip with us this morning.
We radioed Safe Harbor Capri and told them we wanted to top off our water and fuel before we left. They said they were having “staff issues” and the fuel dock won’t open until 0900, which would still give us plenty of time to make our planned departure time of 0930. We made our way over to the service dock. As we waited, we noted that the last fuel bill recorded on the pump was US$815. I expect if we had a similar fuel payload, the staffing issues might not have been as bad, but no one ever did show up. We did top off the water tanks and felt we likely had enough fuel to get us to Atlantic Highlands. We certainly didn’t want to run out in New York Harbor or on the East River.
As we made our way down the river I smiled thinking about the similarity of the Canada Geese flying in formation overhead and the 3 sailboats behind us in a perfect vee-formation. There was also a steady stream of planes landing and taking off from JFK International, and at times it seemed like they would clip the top of our mast. It was amazing to see one plane land and look back a short distance to see another on its final approach.
I was also struck with the contrast of what appeared to be single family homes on the upper side of the East River, with the massive skyline of New York City looming in the background. Our route took us right by Rikers Island prison, which is a massive complex and the “prison boat” on the opposite side of the river.
The trip was going amazing smoothly as we followed the route that Navionics plotted for us. Luckily, and to this day, I am not sure why, I questioned the route plotted on Navionics. As we approached Hell’s Gate, Navionics had us going down the left side of Roosevelt Island. As I zoomed into the detail, I noted that the height of the Roosevelt bridge was 40 feet, but our air draught is 50 feet. This was a problem. I also noted that if the UN was in session, boats were not permitted to take the right hand route.
I quickly phoned a friend. Captain Jay, on mv NoMastE, who along with his wife Lesli, had just completed the trip a couple of days before. He confirmed that, we were indeed too high to get under the Roosevelt bridge, but that the UN wasn’t in session and so we could take the right hand route. Once again I was reminded that, while the technology is wonderful, it has its limitations. Given we were leading a procession of 3 other boats, all with masts over 40 feet, I was glad we got it right.
We very quickly found ourselves passing by some amazingly iconic buildings. While we have never experienced the city from land, the view of the New York skyline from our boat was amazing.
As we motored past the UN Building, the relative calm of guiding past the city was replaced with the organized chaos of commuter ferries, commercial shipping, supply ships, helicopters and even 3 guys on jet skies. We even got a horn blast from the Staten Island ferry as we made our way past Manhattan.
Our awe of New York City was quickly replaced with excitement of seeing the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We motored straight across the harbor to the Statue and tried, with modest success to snap a quick selfie. There is, as you might imagine, a lot of traffic around the Statue. In addition to several pleasure boats, there are numerous tour boats who zoom past in every direction. It is a bit of a challenge to stay still long enough to get the perfect shot, but Judy did a great job of capturing some amazing images. We briefly thought about anchoring behind the Statue for lunch, but the constant wake from the tour boats would have made it very uncomfortable.
We headed out The Narrows, under the Verrazano – Narrows Bridge, towards Atlantic Highlands, where we would wait for a weather window to make the 100+ nautical mile trip down the New Jersey Coast. The sounds of New York City quickly faded, but the skyline loomed in the background.
Atlantic Highlands is a popular marshalling area for boats heading down the coast. We planned to be here for a couple of days. It has a nice safe anchorage that is behind the breakwall, although you are subjected to swells from the commuter ferry several times a day.
Our first full day was consumed with some additional boat repairs which we thankfully discovered (although I will spare you the details) and a visit to the local laundromat. If you have ever seen the Seinfeld episode with the “Soup Nazi”, we are sure the character was based on the owner of the Atlantic Highlands laundromat. We haven’t rated laundromats yet, but I have no doubt this one will be amongst the worst we will ever visit. Boat repairs done and with clean clothes, we joined the crews of Magali, That’s It and Blue Whale on That’s It (Catalina 47) for Happy Hour after we ran a few errands and filled our diesel jugs.
The weather forecast for the following day was looking great, so we took an early morning walk along the waterfront before the rain started. It is always nice to see so many people out using these trails and recreation areas. We noted throughout the day, several other boats coming into the anchorage to escape the weather and to take advantage of calm conditions for the next 2 days to make the trip down the coast.
We stopped by to say hello to the crew of sv Ruby Putnam who arrived with us a couple of days ago. The boat was a 16 T cement ketch with some interesting modifications, including being repowered with an engine from a Volkswagen Jetta. The crew, Kevin and Shannon, a young couple from Ontario, were making their 3rd trip to the Bahamas.
Despite the terrible weather that afternoon, the forecast the next day looked good. We would be able to sail a large portion of the way and there under clear skies, a full moon and light winds forecasted for the overnight. Our plan was to leave at 0900, which should put us in Cape May shortly after first light, if all went well.
But, more about that, next time.
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