A trip to Hell's Gate and Beyond

Hell's Gate awaits

After sailing/motoring from Northport to Port Washington on Saturday, we woke way too early on Sunday to tackle the infamous Hell's Gate. This is a spot on the East River in NYC that has impressive current credentials. You'll see currents up to 5 knots or so, and if you're a small sail boat that only goes 5 knots, you're either going nowhere fast or somewhere faster than you've ever been before. 

We wanted to hit it slightly after the current started ebbing, so that meant we had a date with Hell's Gate for 7AM - and we were 2 hours away in Port Washington. You do the math, but it meant me waking up at a very unnatural hour. Of course it was dark (no moon) outside which meant braille-based sailing - which I really hate and isn't easy on the boat either. Some of you non-nautical types might wonder why I didn't just turn on my headlights. Well, it doesn't work that way. You can't go powering around on the water with lights blazing as there are others out there you'll blind and are then likely to run into the nearest rock. Instead, you go semi-blind, pucker up and trust in your favorite deity while you try to figure out where on earth the buoy navigation lights are against the backdrop of all the lights common in a town/city. It was a little nerve-wracking for the first hour, then dawn intruded and saved my ass.

Beth at the helm while I look for large rocks in the dark 

East River mysteries

Cruising down the East River on a brilliant (but cold) morning with the city coming alive is definitely one of those experiences that penetrates deep. Seeing a place from the water is such a different perspective. You certainly see odd things that you wouldn't expect - like an old, abandoned ferry landing on a small island in the East River. Why such a large ferry landing for an island that appears just as abandoned and where nature appears to have eliminated any trace of mankind? There must be a story there.

So, after passing Riker's Island (a prison), and a prison barge that houses guests that won't fit on the island, then the UN building and a host of skyscrapers, you come upon the financial district with the new One Tower gleaming in the sun. Lady Liberty is off in the distance peeking underneath the famed Brooklyn Bridge. It's many postcards rolled into one.

We followed the ebb through the city, slipping our way through it at 8-9 knots. We were then flushed into the harbor, which had little traffic due to it being early on Sunday. Since we were now through the city and it was only 8AM, we decided to get down the New Jersey coast as far as we could while keeping daylight for anchoring somewhere.

Did I mention it was cold out there?

NYC awaits us at dawn

Bridge of the Unknown (I don't know its name)

UN Building - or as Republicans call it, "a waste of space"

Manhattan Bridge (my favorite)

Financial center

Anybody want a Brooklyn Bridge?

Why you never trust the weatherman

Various weather and sailing information is available on-line, and I use a weather forecasting tool based on what the weatherman interprets. Anyway, this model predicted we'd have northerly winds which would be perfect for going down the coast. Indeed, we had favorable winds for at least half-way down before they uncharitably turned against us with a vengeance. With 3 hours to go, we ran into headwinds on our nose of 20-25kts. They steadily built as did the seas - until we were pitching up and down and slamming through the waves. We watched our speeds drop to 4-5kts from 7-8kts. Now, the slower we go, the longer it takes to get somewhere. Sometimes, this is an issue - like when you're trying to make sure you catch the flood tide into the small inlet that we were targeting - Barnegat. If you google Barnegat Inlet you will see pictures of sunken boats for a reason - it can be dangerous in the wrong conditions. Since we have never been to it, we don't have a good idea of the right or the wrong conditions, but we were expecting light winds - not 25kts - so now we have one more thing to worry about.

Mr. Coast Guard, do I have a problem?

I called them because I thought they might provide advice. Yes and no, due to legal reasons, they actually can't give advice! After the guy I talked to called in his superior officer, I got someone to tell me that as long as there was a flood tide, there shouldn't be any issues. The only problem was that at our rate of speed, we were going to miss the flood and have to deal with the ebb. That wouldn't work for us.

We dropped the sails (it was a dead-on anyway) and then I began to actively steer the boat at full throttle at an angle to the waves. Now, the waves were only 2', so it wasn't the size that troubled us, it was how much they could slow the boat down if we didn't minimize their impact.  By zigzagging, we kept our speeds high while minimizing the slamming of the boat - which isn't fun for the boat or the crew.

We bashed our way to the inlet and then were pushed through at 9kts as the peak of the flood hurried us into calm waters and a vacant anchorage nearby. It was now 5PM - 12 hours from casting off from Port Washington and an epic journey half-way down the NJ coast.

Tomorrow is another 12 hour day as we will try for Cape May - if the wind comes from the North like it is supposed to!