The Big Apple….leads to Hell’s Gate

Bright and early Tuesday morning at 0430, we raise our bodies out of bed, to start the morning venture from Port Washington, Long Island Sound to New York City. We were told by many to time our tides for the river channels into New York. The currents were strong but in our favour once again.

As we arrived at Rikers Island (the prison island) there was a huge prison barge tied up across the channel. It must have stood six stories, 500 feet long by 100 wide. The top level was the barred fenced exercise courtyard about half the length of a football field. Can’t even begin to think how many prisoners would work on this barge.

Hell’s Gate wasn’t anything we anticipated. Strong currents but nothing we couldn’t handle. The winds were blowing 20 knots at the time and I don’t believe I would have wanted anything stronger.

Another concern was the weekday commuters on the ferries during the morning rush. A few people had told us horror stories about the NY Waterway Ferries fighting the currents and just flying out of their berths at full speed ahead. It wasn’t long before we witnessed the stories ourselves. We were smack in the middle of the 0730 and 0800 rush. The ferries would sooner go through you than around. The worst area was at the joining of the East River and Hudson River known as “The Battery”. Fighting current, ferries and wave wakes.

Over all we traveled under eight bridges and the Big Apple was overwhelming. From ducking airplanes (La Guardia Field), Aerial Sky Cars (Cable Car), trains, heavy bridge commuter traffic and commercial ships and barges, made for one very noisy passage.

Next stop...we are going to skip Atlantic City if the weather is against us and continue around Cape May into Deleware.