Friday July 7
We woke to heavy rains so we took our time getting going. The rain slacked a bit so we headed to the fuel dock. We topped up the tanks and began our journey into Long Island sound. The Sound runs along side Long Island and it is about 100 miles. We need to cover 85 miles today and arrive at Hells Gate (the entrance to the East River around 4 pm to travel with the current.
There was a bit of fog and light rain but the conditions were not too bad. Then around 11 am the conditions got worse with heavy rain and fog. The forecast had changed and they were calling for thunder storms. We needed to find a safe harbour for shelter to wait out the storm. It was a long hour and a half and a very wet one too until we were safely hooked up to a mooring buoy in Northport harbour.
Lunch time and change our clothes.. Time to regroup. I figured NYC would be out of the question for today. But then an hour and a half later the storm had passed and the sun was peeking out. It was only 230 so we still had time to get to NYC.
We started off ago to head into to the Sound. With the fog lifted we could actually see now. The Sound is about 5 miles wide in this section so we were actually close to land but who would have known earlier in the storm.
We were on the approach to the East River around 330pm. We started to see the Manhattan skyscrapers pretty far out. We crossed Hells gate on time and I must say that I am not sure what all the hype is about. It was nothing. I guess everything pales in comparison to Reversing falls and 20 foot tides.
Noah kept a tally of the bridges we crossed under. There were in 12 in total. We were all pretty excited to be arriving in NYC by boat.
Traffic in the East River was pretty busy with tankers ferries and water taxis. Sterling did a great job maneuvering us through the traffic. We were heading for Liberty Landing marina on the New Jersey side. It's located just past the Statue of Liberty where the East River empties in to the New York harbour.
We were tied up in our slip by 515. Good job crew.
The marina is very nice. They also have great dockside staff and the location is perfect right on the edge of Liberty state park.
We enjoyed a BBQ supper on the boat and then we went for a walk along the sea wall around liberty state park.
We stopped at the Empty Sky 911 memorial and learned about immigrants arriving from Ellis Island. The night time view of the Manhattan skyline was amazing.
We are so excited to be here. Woohoo
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