Monday, June 5th Cold Spring Harbor to Liberty Landing, across from Manhattan.
Mondays are Captain Andy’s day off, so he agreed to ride with us for the day!
Side point: I’m learning so much about this “boating world” every singe day. While sailing, I know how important it is to know the speed & direction of the wind. While moving a large power boat along the East Coast, I’m learning that the winds, tides, and currents combine to make or break your travel plans.
So Sunday evening, once we returned from the city, Rick sat down with his charts, tide table, and wind app to predict the best time to leave the harbor.
The biggest concern/obstacle for our trip into Liberty Landing was a place called Hell Gate – the section of water where the Long Island Sound, the Harlem River and East River collide -- 3 different large waters, each with it's own way of flowing. This combination makes for rough waves, weird/instant currents, eddies, inconsistent depths .... just not easy water to get through -- hence the name. In addition, lore has it that "Hell Gate" is a corruption of the Dutch "Hellegat", meaning "bright passage".
The best time to reach that intersection is when the tide is flowing out/down the East River. Then Rick worked backwards, estimating how long it would take us to reach Hell Gate, and co-ordinate THAT with leaving Cold Spring Harbor NOT low tide, as the waters around the channel are shallow.
So, we left @ 8:40 AM, battled light rain, and strong & conflicting currents,
but arrived to a cloudy NYC .....
..... safe and sound, into Liberty Landing just a little bit after noon.
Rick and Captain Andy got us safely docked, which was very difficult.
This marina was filled with such a large assortment of boats --- huge pleasure ships, solar ocean-going rowboat, etc. – and it was very scary for me watching Zingara maneuver among these vessels/docks!
We took a ferry across the river, had a wonderful lunch (another $18 hamburger!), the said good-bye to Captain Andy – he took and water taxi, then a subway/train to get back to Cold Spring Harbor.
Our “neighbor” Sam, invited us for Happy Hour drinks on his sailboat, and as he was all alone, we invited him to share dinner (simple – sautéed chicken with pasta and marinara sauce) and then called it a night. A fabulous ending to a tense/anxious but successful day!
Side point: I’m learning so much about this “boating world” every singe day. While sailing, I know how important it is to know the speed & direction of the wind. While moving a large power boat along the East Coast, I’m learning that the winds, tides, and currents combine to make or break your travel plans.
So Sunday evening, once we returned from the city, Rick sat down with his charts, tide table, and wind app to predict the best time to leave the harbor.
The biggest concern/obstacle for our trip into Liberty Landing was a place called Hell Gate – the section of water where the Long Island Sound, the Harlem River and East River collide -- 3 different large waters, each with it's own way of flowing. This combination makes for rough waves, weird/instant currents, eddies, inconsistent depths .... just not easy water to get through -- hence the name. In addition, lore has it that "Hell Gate" is a corruption of the Dutch "Hellegat", meaning "bright passage".
The best time to reach that intersection is when the tide is flowing out/down the East River. Then Rick worked backwards, estimating how long it would take us to reach Hell Gate, and co-ordinate THAT with leaving Cold Spring Harbor NOT low tide, as the waters around the channel are shallow.
So, we left @ 8:40 AM, battled light rain, and strong & conflicting currents,
 |
| Remember, Zingara is the blue dot |
 |
| Remember, Zingara is the blue dot |
We took a ferry across the river, had a wonderful lunch (another $18 hamburger!), the said good-bye to Captain Andy – he took and water taxi, then a subway/train to get back to Cold Spring Harbor.
Our “neighbor” Sam, invited us for Happy Hour drinks on his sailboat, and as he was all alone, we invited him to share dinner (simple – sautéed chicken with pasta and marinara sauce) and then called it a night. A fabulous ending to a tense/anxious but successful day!
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