Day Ten

From Peter Ver Ploeg:

Pete Hinman's uncle Peter joined us in Greenwich for the trip down the East River into New York City. The commercial boating and ferry traffic is heavy here and the currents are very tricky (there's a reason they call it "Hell's Gate"). It was reassuring to have another Peter aboard and, someone who'd been through it before, as we rode the ebb tide down on our water tour of New York. At one point early in the East River, we turned 180 degrees just to see if we could motor up current if we had to. We couldn't. There was no turning back and, so, flying along at over 11 knots, we blew by La Guardia airport, Rikers Island, Hell's Gate, The Narrows, from uptown to midtown, to downtown and on around the tip of Manhattan Island over to the Liberty Landing on the New Jersey shore of the Hudson.



The scariest part of the whole day was easily rounding Manhattan. The ferry traffic really picks up. Big ferries, ferries that can't see you and wouldn't turn if they could, depart from here to go charging off to Staten Island, creating waves as high as anything we'd encountered in the Rhode Island Sound. These waves, however, are advancing from all directions with no apparent rhyme or reason or predictability.

We were expecting the boat traffic, what we weren't expecting were the huge ice flows washing down the Hudson and congregating in the eddies off the Manhattan Point. These ice flows, while mere slush to the ferries, posed a real threat to our little boat. Chunks the size of kitchen tables and three or four inches thick sloshed around in limbo between the two converging rivers, forming a barrier that must be crossed in order to reach the safe harbor of Liberty Landing in Hoboken.



With a crowd of tourists photographing us from Battery Point, we nosed our way through ever so slowly, the boat shuddering sickeningly with each solid collision, rolling violently in the ferry wake, until we were through and clear and racing across to the marina. We got a slip at the dock for two nights, brought out the football for some catch with the New York skyline and the Statue of liberty for a backdrop, then I grabbed a shower at the marina house, donned my pea coat and sailor cap and hopped a water taxi in to the city for a night on the town. Its good to be in the Big Apple.

Tomorrow, our friend Chris arrives. Friday morning we make for Sandy Hook and then, Atlantic City and the big, boring, exposed New Jersey coastline.