Fire Island NY advice / information

[searaycruisn]

We are thinking about doing a trip to Fire Island this summer. We will be coming down from Old Saybrook, CT (through the Peconic Bays, and the Chinecock Canal).

1. Once we come through the canal, would we travel inside or outside of the barrier island?

2. Where is the best place to stay if we want to be near a town with restaurants, bars etc., but also able to take the dingy to the beach?

3. We are not necessarily looking for a marina. We are very comfortable achoring for extended periods.

4. We will have kids with us ranging in age from 6 to 15. We would like to be in a family friendly area. We are not adverse to gay friendly areas, as long as they are in the context of family...

5. Are there any particular weekends that are better or worse in the summer in terms of any large activities or anything like that?

6. What is a comperable destination that you would compare Fire Island to? Watch Hill, RI? Block Island, RI? Greenport, NY? I would like to know more about the place...

 

[Red Stripe]

Hey Cruisin'...

Fire Island is a great place to visit - there is such variety within the communities and, if you have been there you know, it has some of the most beautiful beaches in the Northeast. I have done a lot of boating in the area between Southampton and the eastern part of Fire Island. Here are some basic thoughts to get you started...

Get the Dozier's Waterway Guide Northern edition - the '08 should be out by now. It covers your entire trip to Fire Island and really, anywhere else you may cruise in the region. Once you have gone through the Shinnecock Canal you can decide if you're going to go offshore or stay inside. The trip inside is much slower (mostly no-wake to Westhampton) but much more interesting - it is mostly a narrow canal with a great tour of waterfront homes. If you plan to stay inside, plan your trips around the tides. At low tide it is very easy to run aground if you stray outside the channel. The channel can be very narrow (20') in spots with 1' sandbars on either side. This shouldn't scare you off, but it is essential that you follow your chart/gps and don't stray. There are also portions where the buoys are quite a distance from each other, so plot in advance and bring your binocs. The other big advantage to staying inside is to avoid passage through Moriches inlet back in from the Atlantic. This can be a very dangerous inlet even for the seasoned captain. I have also traveled through it in completely calm waters.

If you avoid the big holiday weekends you shouldn't fair badly as far as boating congestion goes. Some FI communities do have certain events that bring the crowds outside of the holidays - someone with more local knowledge could speak to that better. There are a lot of Long Islanders on thehulltruth website and boater ed - consider copying your post over there. You'll probably get a ton of opinions.

Happy planning!

 

[Robski97]

Eric. Email me at first@nyc.rr.com


Rob

 

[TimC]

If you pass through Southold bay wave to my parents they live right on the bay!

 

[blewflew]

Running inside doesn't take much longer than running the ocean and has much nicer scenery. As stated, study your charts and stay in the channels. Most of the channels are very well marked. A great place to stay is West Hampton Beach Marina (my favorite spot). 5 Min walk to town and a quick taxi ride to the beach. Watch Hill-Fire Island also very nice, but can have lots of mosquitos. Flynn's on Ocean Bay Park is nice, but on the weekends the restaurant is a club and can get noisy and a little crazy. Davis Park marina and Sailors Haven Marina on F.I. also nice. Atlantique marina is very family friendly...lots of kids. Don't try and run the Moriches Inlet...look at your chart, its not really considered a navigable inlet. Try and run the Moriches bay at high tide...IMO that's where you'll find the skinniest water. Weekends on Fire Island are always busy, but if you get to a marina on Thurs or early Fri, you will have no problem. Watch Hill takes reservations the morning of the day you will arrive and Flynns takes advance reservations. As far as anchoring out, IMO there isn't very many good spots to overnight on the hook along Fire Isand. Anything remotely protected is usually adjacent to a marina, so I just opt to stay in the marina. There are some great anchorages along the State channel west of Fire Island. If your interested in going that far west, let me know. Every community on Fire Island is a little different, so its hard to compare them, but Fire Island is such a beautiful place, I don't think you'll be dissapointed in any of them. oh, check the LICC board on ******** dot com for a wealth of info.

 

[searaycruisn]

Blew...

I was not able to locate West Hampton Beach Marina, nor Atlantique on my chart. Can you be a little more specific about their locations? Also, any information you can share about the facilities at the marinas (floating docks? Restaurant? Picnic area?) etc. would be a great help.

Any idea how long it would take to run from Chinecock Canal to say Watch Hill if running inside?

If we were to run outside, where would we enter the Great South Bay, Moriches Inlet? Fire Island Inlet?

 

[blewflew]

West Hampton Beach municipal marina is at the eastern end of the moriches bay, at the western end of the Quontogue canal. google west hampton beach marina. Atlantique is owned by the town of Islip and is just west of Ocean beach (the largest community if Fire Island). I would not take a chance running the Moriches inlet...as I said previously, its not considered a navigable inlet. If you run the ocean, your next safe inlet is the Fire Island inlet, but you will have passed most of the good Fire Island stops as well as West Hampton Beach and will have to head east again to get to Fire Island. Don't be afraid to run inside...the buoys are so well marked that usually you can see the next bouy as you passing one. Last year I went from Lindenhurst to Sag Harbor inside, which I haven't done in 20 years, and it was no problem. When your ready to go, I'll give you tips on any potential problem areas, which really aren't if you follow your chart and GPS. Great help on LICC part in boater Ed dot com (hope this doesn't get *** out this time)

 

[blewflew]

As far as facilities:
West Hampton marina: 5 min walk to large, quaint town...great restaurants, shops, markets, bars. Taxi ride or 30 min walk to beach. water/elect at dock. My favorite spot and Frank the dockmaster is just great.
Watch Hill: Nat'l seashore, great marina, snackbar, barbeque area small gift shop, 5 min walk to beach. 50 amp elect/water. takes res. in morn. of arrival, no extra charge for the mosquitos.
Davis Park: snack bar, small market, water/elect, 1 restaurant (overpriced), 5 min walk to beach.
Fire Island Pines: upscale community with gay and straight population, great resaurants, supermarket, bars, elect/water. note: my wife's 2nd favorite place (after West Hampton), but we don't take our 13 year old there.
Cherry Grove: upscale with restaurants, bars, etc, but much more flamboyantly gay and lesbian than the Pines.
Ocean Bay Park: Flynn's marina/restaurant/bar/nite club, elect./water. 2 other restaurants/bars, market, pizza place, liquor store...mostly 20 somethings rent summer shares there. quiet during the week, but party atmosphere on weekends. 5 min walk to beach.
Ocean Beach: largest F.I. town, restaurants, stores, markets, boutiques, no elect. maybe water. The town dock usually doesn't let you stay overnight, a couple of restaurants have docks, the docks are close to the channel and you'll bounce around alot from passing boats and ferries.5 min walk to beach.
Atlantique: Islip Town marina, water/elect..small snack bar and that's it, 5 min walk to beach. Lots of families.
Kismet: 2 restaurants: "The Inn" and "The Out", market, liquor store, no elect, but has water. 5 min. walk to beach.
If you google these communities or Fire Island, you'll get photos and more info. This all I can think of at the moment, but there's probably a few spots I forgot about.

 

[searaycruisn]

Thanks Blewflew....

This is great information. I need to Pow-Wow with the other pirates, and make some decisions!

 

[billandamy]

The best place on f.i. is Cherry Grove :grin:

Spent many a summer day there with friends. I miss the college days of debauchery and mischief sometimes.

 

[searaycruisn]

Blewflew,

I did a little research on the internet, and based on that, and on your recommendations, I think we want to stay somewhere close to Ocean Beach. I figure that since this is our first time to fire island, and the adults like a town / restaurants / bars nearby, that this are seems to make the most sense.

Sounds like Atlantique is the way to go for us.

If we do not stay at a slip in the marina, is there anywhere to anchor near the marina? Also, can you walk to the beach and to Ocean Beach from the marina?

 

[blewflew]

Ocean Beach is the largest town in Fire Island and will give you many restaurants (most overpriced), shops, bars, ice cream parlors, food markets,etc. There is docking at OB, but only water there...no electric and they usually don't let you stay overnight there. There are a couple of restaurants with their own docks and you probably can make arrangements to stay overnight, but no water or electric at these. Also, all the docks at OB get rocked by passing boats and ferries, so not the best spot anyway. Atlantique is a great marina with water and electric, but quite a far walk to OB. You can take a water taxi to OB for about $5-$6/person. Another idea is to stay at Flynn's on Ocean Bay Park who has water/electric and is a 20 minute walk to OB. You can walk to the beach from Atlantique,Ocean Bay Park or OB in 5 minutes. I see a lot of boats anchor on the west side of the Atlantique marina, but most are smaller than your 380. Also, many boats anchor on the west side of Flynn's marina. There aren't really many good protected anchorages along Fire Island. IMO, to anchor out 1 day or overnight would be ok, but after that, it will be a PITA getting on and off the boat and you will be close to the channel which makes for a bumpy night. If it were me and with the kids, I would pay for the slip at Atlantique. The beach is a 5 min walk and its very family oriented there. You can spend the day at the beach in Atlantique and then water taxi it over to OB for dinner or snacks. Another idea I'm considering for myself is to get folding bicycles to store on my boat. People bicycle all over Fire Island as there are no cars other than emergency vehicles allowed there. A bike would enhance your mobility greatly. Let me know if you have any other questions and sorry for the delayed reply as I haven't been online in a bit.

 

[searaycruisn]

Blew Flew,

Thanks for all the great information. I need to start to get the calendar out and go from there. I will definitely get back to you as I get closer to the date if more questions come up.

Thanks again.

 

[never satisfied]

fire island is a great place for kids we have three teenages 15-20. we used to go to watch hill [fire island ] when the were little very family oreinted place with genral store and resturant/bar now we go to atlantiuge thats were all the people with teenages go. you can anchor out or dock in a full service town marina you have to be a islip resedent on weekends to use the marine. the town of ocean beach is just east of there a 1/2 walk on the beach. there are resurants bars shoping ect. they also have a marina. watchill is a stae park you can also anchor out or use the marina vey nice place! have fun

 

[searaycruisn]

It is hard to believe, but we are leaving for Fire Island in about two weeks! I am thinking that we will be anchoring just west of Atlantique, outside of the marina.

Does the marina at Atlantique have a dingy dock? Or would be be just taking our dingies up on to the beach from the anchorage? Is it a long walk to the beach from the bay side? Should I bring the cooler with the wheels on it?