Position: N 40 49.913 W 73 43.014
We leave Deltaville and are on the fast track to get north. Eight days and over 370 miles later we are sailing into New York Harbor. We have travelled up the Chesapeake Bay, through the C & D Canal, down the Delaware Bay and up New Jersey’s Atlantic coast. For years Julie has been looking forward to sailing Rachel through New York City from the south as we have heard it is quite dramatic.
Entering the Hudson River we pass under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, one of the world’s largest suspension bridges (it’s
actually 20 ft. longer than the Golden Gate in San Francisco). Off in the distance, 14 miles away, we see the Manhattan skyline peeking through the haze. As we progress through the busy harbour the Manhattan skyline becomes more and more clear, then the Statue of Liberty appears as a tiny speck in the distance.There are lots of high speed ferries and yellow and black water taxis zipping around the huge cargo ships and barges from all over the world. Although we watch the sights in awe, we also have to keep our wits about us to stay clear of all the traffic.
Staten Island is on our left and Brooklyn is on our right. The 2 knots of current against us makes for fairly slow progress, but it doesn’t matter - there is so much to see and enjoy. By the time we get close to the Battery, at the foot of Manhattan Island, we are starting to feel like a toy boat in this huge city’s bath tub. We pass right by the 300 ft tall Statue of Liberty with her gold flame glowing in the afternoon sun. Coincidentally, this is the first day she’s been open to the public since the 9/11 tragedy.
Ellis Island, through which millions of immigrants were processed into the United States, is just past Miss Liberty. The big orange Staten Island ferries zip by us every few m
inutes crossing from Staten Island to Manhattan. We start to pick up the city smells, dust, smog, trash, an occasional laundry and suddenly, just once, honeysuckle!!We turn into the much narrower East River which we will follow 14 miles to Long Island Sound. Now, as we are so close to Lower Manhattan and our deck is nearly at street level, we can look up the long streets shadowed between the huge skyscrapers. There is lots of noise. Not really the hustle and bustle you would hear if you were on the streets, nothing specific, just noise – traffic on the bridges, ferry horns, tug engines, air traffic, etc. After 6 days on the water, where the only sounds are the water whooshing by and our quiet conversations, this constant noise is exhausting.
We wish our friend Carter was with us. She lives in the city and would have been a great tour guide. We are sure we’re missing a lot of famous places but it doesn’t really matter – we’re having a ball.
Now on the East river we pass under The Brooklyn Bridge. Built in 1883 it’s the first of 8 high level bridges connecting Manhattan with Brooklyn and Queens. Further along we pass lots of high rise apartment buildings on the Manhattan side and more, not as tall, apartments, and commercial and
industrial buildings on the Brooklyn side. We’ve timed our passage to arrive at the infamous Hell Gate at slack tide. As you may gather from the name, this area is renowned for LOTS of current, up to 5 knots, weird eddies, standing waves, and whirlpools. It is where the East River and Harlem River meet and there’s not really any slack tide – it’s either flooding or ebbing. Our timing is perfect - we only pick up about 1.5 knots and speed the rest of the way. Between “The Brothers”, the northern island of which was used as a tuberculosis colony, past Rikers Island, the infamous New York prison island, LaGuardia airport, under 4 more bridges, out of the city and are suddenly spat out under the Throgs Neck Bridge into the serene and pastoral Long Island Sound.We continue on into Manhasset Bay and pick up a free mooring provided by the city of Port Washington where we settle in for the night.
All day we’ve been taking turns at the helm and when Julie wasn’t driving she was sitting up on the foredeck so she could get the entire panoramic view of this great city.
Wow, what a day.
Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel
