Huntington LI to Tomes River NJ - Share Your Local Knowledge

Yes...I went through it in my 18CC.....a friend of mine from Stafford uses it all the time in a 31 formula.
 
Thanks for the nice tips guys. I've used Oyster Creek channel last year coming back from AC, it was very easy b/c the markers were there and I had plenty of depth. I'll defenatelly give CG a call to get some details before we do the trip.

Ron,
If I recall correctly and also by looking at the snapshot of the chart you have the OC looks much more favorable depthwise. I would think that DCC is used for smaller boats, but that's just my guess.
 
Alex
Have you made this trip yet?
RON
 
Hi Ron,
Due to some schedule changes the trip will take place on memorial day weekend.
 
Hi All,

We’ve made the journey our friend’s boat is at its new home, TR that is. I just wanted to share some highlights of the trip.

This is a first time I was cruising LI waters and LI Sound is very nice area with plenty of destinations and deep water. The marina we stayed at was right next to restaurant which played very cool music that we had enjoyed Friday night as we were settling everything for the trip.

The primary concern of this leg was going through Hells Gate. We’ve tried to pick the slack tide (which was at around 9:30am), but have learned that current will be in our direction. We had left the dock in Huntington LI at 6:30am and were looking to enter the Hells Gate area at the slack tide and beginning of ebb. It took a bit longer that we had anticipated, so we had entered the Hells Gate and caught a nice ride pushing the record speed of 11.4kts for this boat. There were few sites that our eyes had spotted. One of them was a jail. This was pretty large facility with waterfront views (it was not far from LaGuardia airport). It was interesting to see how criminals live for our tax dollars.

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The two bridges Throgs Neck and Whitestone had presented nice view hiding NYC behind them.

As we passed the Hells Gate and entered East River it wasn’t too long before we were welcomed by very nice views of the NYC. Here’s a picture of midtown.

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The NYC Waterway police was close by at all times.


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Moving south we had a nice view of Manhattan and Brooklyn bridges and famous Pear 17.

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In my opinion, downtown Manhattan had the nicest views with all the islands, Statue of Liberty, ships ferries and recreational boat traffic in the background.

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We made pretty good time getting to our marina (North Cove Marina near battery park). We wanted to be in Liberty Landing, but they were booked by the large group. So, we decided to take a nice sail to see our famous ships fleet that arrived midweek. What can I say, this was the day I’ve learned that sail boats can travel in reverse with sails up while attempting to go forward. This was very funny moment as we approached 23rd street area on the Hudson River side. The wind was not steady, we’re guessing due to the skyscrapers blocking it and the current was travelling southbound. So, at 23rd str. The boat slowly stops and starting making it’s way in reverse. Since my friend (the owner of the boat) knew the zigzagging tactics we adjusted the course and started zigzagging up the river. As you can imagine with all river traffic, very light wind and strong current against us the engine was turned on shortly after and the sails were laid to rest. Here the picture of the museum ship. The fleet was just 3 other ships that looked like they’re falling a part (rusty and dirty). But, the pier where they were docked looked packed and CG was chasing every single boat away.

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The North Cove Marina has balls to charge $6 p/ft and they provide pretty poor service. The docks are kind of look protected by the sea breaker wall, however the boating traffic makes the boats rock even in the slip. With having slip # assigned the marina folks had things messed up. They had a large yacht blocking our slip and the slip we got instead had no water or electrical services setup. So, we had to wait for like 2hrs to get it going. So, all you pay is for the view, which is actually pretty nice.

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http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s174/ofishman/LI To NJ Trip/LI_To_NJ172.jpg

Being only minutes away from the Greenwich Village we took a cab to pretty good Spanish restaurant where we had very nice dinner with tasty sangria pitchers. That wasn’t enough, so on the way back we stopped by another cool looking place for unplanned coffee and deserts. As we got back to the boat, it was party time on the dance floor of Daniana…..poor neighbors, but at least crew of the yacht’s next to us did say hellow in the morning, so I guess we didn’t upset anyone.:thumbsup:

The next morning we left NCM at around 7-7:30am heading to Manasquan Inlet. We had passed by good number of large cargo ships. The weather was much different from the day before. It was very cloudy and chilly. As we were getting closer to Verrazano Bridge, about couple of miles from it, the “fun” began. For the next 1-1.5hrs it was a part of the trip none of us will ever forget. All of a sudden the thickest fog I’ve seen in my life had rolled in and instead of seen ships and other objects around us we found ourselves in the circle of thick foggy wall. The visibility, I would guess, was about 100’ give or take, may be less in some spots. As I’m listening to the VHF (I had the scan on for multiple channels), one captain said that he couldn’t see the bow of his vessel.:wow::wow::smt100 We tried to take couple of pictures, so you judge for your self.

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http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s174/ofishman/LI To NJ Trip/LI_To_NJ244.jpg
But, I’ll just tell you this much, between four of us on the boat we didn’t see the Verrazano Bridge until we were right under it. The only concern I had not to hit any of the bridge’s supporting platforms. I didn’t remember their count and location. So, I was strictly following GPS/Radar images and only after I told the crew that we must be right under the bridge, we had spotted a small portion that was barely visible in the fog.
Here’s a picture admiral took as we passed under the bridge. What you can clearly see is that only top portion of the bridge is visible and there’s zero visibility at the bottom, near water level.

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This was the first time any of us had navigated in the fog, so this was big time extreme case that tops all of my night cruises with poor visibility. The complexity was that we were in the middle of the busiest waterways with huge cargo and cruise ships travelling all the time. The most freighting moments were when we herd very loud horn coming from one of the ships, which was getting closer and closer, but we just couldn’t see a damn thing.

So, here are the steps I followed to make this a successful pass in these conditions:
  • The first thing I must say that this was 100% return on investment in good electronics. That is GPS/Chartplotter and the Radar. My 320DA has the same equipment, so I was pretty familiar on how it operates. Only by having this equipment I personally was comfortable and had the control on the situation and knew exactly where I’m going.
  • We had admirals put on the life jackets and two for me and my friend were right next to us.
  • We deployed the dinghy and it was on the tow line behind the boat.
  • I dropped the speed to only couple of knots p/hr.
  • Navigation lights were turned on.
  • I made sure VHF is scanning channels 9, 13, 16, and few others.
  • This is the time I’ve learned that sailboats simply don’t have a button to engage the horn. Luckily, we had the bell.
  • We had extra pairs of eyes looking in every direction. This is the time you need to know not just what’s in front of you, what’s in the back as well. Who know what kind of idiot is running fast right behind you. My friend was sitting on the bow and was shaking that bell every minute or two.
  • I had the course off the shipping channel, but close enough to maintain our course.

This adventure went on for about an hour or so and then sun came up and we had some break in the action. However, this didn’t last for long, because another wave of fog rolled in and we were back to the same routine, which lasted another 30 minutes or so. The rest of the open ocean run between Verrazano Bridge area and Manasquan Inlet was not too bad aside from some 3-4 footers rising higher on occasion. I’ve also learned that sailboats handle rough waters differently than powerboats. With powerboats you have enough power to push trough the waves and also ride the waves where on the sailboat you can only roll with them making it more of a rollercoaster ride. Nice 5-6 footer at 45 degree at stern can tilt the boat quite hard. My friend’s wife was laying on the port side cockpit lounge when we had nice wave tilting the boat that made her dive on the floor. That’s when I’ve learned that I had different name, like it was my fault.

We had reservations at Brielle Yacht Club for the 2nd night of the trip. I’m not sure what’s up with the marina businesses this year, but this was on of the best in the area and they had broken pump-out, services were turned on only on some slips. The transient slips were offered right on the outside. But, I must say that the dock master was very friendly and was trying to accommodate us. We were able to dine at Ships Wreck restaurant. Whoever read book “Shadow Divers” know what I’m taking about. I would highly recommend anyone go to this place for dinner. Very nice menu, although a bit on the pricy side.

We had pretty early start due to fisherman’s traffic at around 5:30am. The sleeping time was over very fast at that point. Admirals started feeling not too well, so we took off on the final leg of the trip (MI to BLI to TR). Monday’s weather was very nice. We had most inviting conditions in the open ocean. It was very calm and warm making it very pleasant ride all the way to BLI. From there we zigzagged through Oyster creek channel in to ICW, passed by Tices and up north to home grounds of Toms River. At the mouth of the river we opened bottle of Champaign, set the sails, turned off the engine and had celebrated arrival of Daniana to her new home Lighthouse Marina in Toms River, NJ.

Cheers to all,
Alex.
 
Great story and pics. Glad you arrived to your destination safe and sound.
 
Wonderful story. Sounds like a trip you will remember for a lifetime!

The jail you passed in the East River is the New York City jail on Rikers Island the jail has a staff of 11,500 to control an inmate population of up to 13,000.

The fog must have been quite a challenge in that area. A great boat warming gift to your friend would be a proper fog horn. The bell was a good idea in a pinch, but a sailboat under power and underway is required to make the same signals as any other power vessel. You did the right thing by staying out of the channel and moving slow. You could have also made calls on channel 16 and 13 to alert commercial traffic of your position.

Sometimes I miss my sailboat. Sometimes I don't.
 
The fog must have been quite a challenge in that area. A great boat warming gift to your friend would be a proper fog horn. The bell was a good idea in a pinch, but a sailboat under power and underway is required to make the same signals as any other power vessel. You did the right thing by staying out of the channel and moving slow. You could have also made calls on channel 16 and 13 to alert commercial traffic of your position.

Sea Gull,
Great idea on the fog horn gift. I'll defenatelly consider it since I was wandering what would be a good gift for my friends for thier new toy.

You're 100% correct on the position announcement in the fog. We learned something every day and this is what I had learned that day when I herd other commercial vessel going under the bridge and he said "I'm vessel so and so, passing under the Verrezano Bridge, monitoring channels 9 and 16". When I herd that I said to myself that this was a good idea. So, next time that's exactly what I'll do.
 
Glad you made it. We hit the same fog coming down from boston to Long Island NY. Every thing went well, Except for the large Light house with out the Light on...
Where thinking of a Trip from south shore LI. to LBI. but every thing Weather / Seas would have to be perfect.
Great Pictures of NY. You know what they say
"NEW YORK, NEW YORK, Greatest city in the world. Thats why they named it twice."
John G.
 

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