Look out New York. Here We Come

Nyack, NY
N 41 05.444 W 073 54.816

Last night, at 03:00 around 15 miles south of Sandy Hook, NJ, I saw a number of fishing boats anchored about 5 miles off shore. I figured there must be an inlet nearby. I looked toward shore, and sure enough there was another fishing boat coming out. I was 3 miles off shore so I didn't worry much.

I took a bearing on the boat -- 270 degrees. I checked it again later -- 270 degrees -- uh oh. Again in 5 minutes -- 270 degrees -- uh oh. I had the right of way unquestionably. I turned on the spreader lights to make sure that I was highly visible. Still 270 degrees. I was determined not to yield unnecessarily. At last the bugger passed me less than one boat length in front of my bow.

I looked ashore again, and saw another boat coming out. Same story -- he was coming straight at me, even though I was not in the same place as when the first boat came out. I figured it out. These jerk fishermen were having fun playing chicken with the sailboat. This time I determined not to play and I stopped dead in the water to let him pass. Bugger.

We arrived at Sandy Hook around 09:00 right on schedule to pick up the flood tide. I gave Libby three choices, anchor, stay at the 79th street boat basin for the night, or continue up the Hudson. We heard from a couple of people that was a fun stop. She said that she felt burned out on cities after Washington, and Baltimore, so she chose to go on up the Hudson.

The tides in NYC harbor are hard to understand. We fought the ebb tide approaching the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. We made 4 knots at 2000 RPM. Passing under the bridge we picked up a flood tide and the speed jumped to 5.5 knots. That was faster than the trucks on the bridge above us. They seemed to go only about 3 mph.

A mile later and we were back to 4 knots. As we passed the East River, we had 0.3 knots ebb tide against us, but only 1/4 mile away in front of the UN building it was 3. knots flood tide. How could that be? Up by Hell's gate, the current was 9.2 knots at the same time.

We started to pick up the flood tide again as we passed Manhattan. By the time we went under the George Washington Bridge, we were doing 6.7 knots. That was 6.7 knots faster than the truck traffic on the bridge above -- it was completely stopped.

As the afternoon passed on a south wind picked up and blew stronger and stronger. If we hadn't decided to stop at Nyack, we would have been able to ride the tide and current another 50 miles before sunset. As it was, we did 184 miles in 31 hours. I confess though, that 22 of those 31 hours we were motoring. The wind was nil most of the time.

We've heard that Nyack is a very fun place to visit so we'll have a look tomorrow. We're staying at a yacht club mooring in Nyack. Just sough of us is the Tappan Zee bridge and across the river at the crest of the hill behind Tarrytown is (I think) the Rockerfeller Mansion. Just up the river are the Vanderbilt mansion, Roosevelt's Hyde Park, and many more sights. This is the start of the most beautiful scenery on the east coast. We say that, no because we are New Yorkers at heart, but because it so obviously true. The Hudson Valley and the Mohawk Valley and the Champlain Valley are all wonderfully beautiful.