Day 2, Year 11: Passage to Little River, SC—Down the East River in NYC
Date: Saturday, October 24, 2015
Weather: Mostly Cloudy and Cool, Wind Switching from N to S
Latitude: 40 32.554 N
Longitude: 074 07.715 W
Location: Anchored in Great Kills Harbor, Staten Island, NY
Miles Traveled: 183 Nautical Miles
We are snugly anchored in Great Kills Harbor on Staten Island tonight. I wondered about the name and found the following history on Wikipedia: “Europeans — including Dutch, French and English settlers — arrived in the area during the mid-17th century. The name Great Kills was adopted in 1865 when the area was a fishing community. The Dutch word ‘kills’ roughly translates to ‘creeks,’ some of which remain . . .” I was relieved to find that ‘kills’ doesn’t refer to killing something or someone! We arrived here after having a great overnight sail in the western end of the Long Island Sound and then making an early morning passage through Hell Gate and down the East River through New York City. The views were fantastic and even though we had 4 knots of current with us, the ride was smooth. We exited the East River into the Hudson and sailed by Ellis Island and on to Liberty Island to get a close look at the Statue of Liberty. Then it was on down the Hudson to Staten Island. We had to wait outside Great Kills Harbor on Staten Island for a couple of hours for the tide to rise, so Mark and I took a nap and James read in the cockpit. After we got anchored for the night in the harbor, our late afternoon became a bit frustrating as we took the dinghy to shore to find a place to tie up the dinghy tomorrow morning while we make a quick foray into New York City on the Staten Island Ferry. There are two yacht clubs and at least three marinas here, but we could not gain permission to leave the dinghy anywhere. Some great folks at the Great Kills Yacht Club tried to call the Commodore to get permission for us to tie up the dinghy there, but he didn’t answer the phone. They gave us his name and phone number and we called and left a message. Later this evening he called back and gave us permission to dock the dinghy and gave us the code for the locked gates. Thank you, thank you to the Great Kills Yacht Club. We’ll only have a short time to get into the city and get back in time for a mid-afternoon departure, but we’re going for it. We figure you can’t be this close to the city without seeing a bit of it. And you just can’t be on Staten Island without riding on the ferry. The south winds should abate late tomorrow afternoon, so we need to be back here and on our way to Norfolk no later than 3 or 4 o’clock. We’ll probably arrive at the mouth of the Chesapeake about 48 hours after we leave here and then we will need to get to an anchorage for the night. Tuesday will be a long day, but if we make it, we will avoid the ugly, windy weather coming on Wednesday.
I’m attaching unedited and unnamed photos from the trip down the East River today. At some point I’ll get them named, but in the meantime you can have fun trying to identify some of the landmarks.
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| 151024 Day 2 Passage to SC–Hell Gate to Statue of Libery |
