June 6 – Port Washington, NY

Port Washington Mooring Field

Our beautiful weather we had yesterday quickly turned to cloudy cool weather today. A front was coming in from the west and Tropical Storm Andrea is moving up from Florida. I think we’re going to have a few really wet days. We could see this weather coming earlier in the week that is why we moved to Liberty Landing early yesterday. We wanted to be able to enjoy at least one day in New York City. We didn’t want to get stuck paying for this marina while we sat in the rain, so we needed to be able to move up Long Island Sound to Port Washington today before the bad weather started.

In order to get to Long Island Sound we had to go up the East River past the east side of Manhattan. Hell Gate is where the East River and the Harlem River converge and then narrows down as it goes under the Hell Gate Bridge. The current can be very swift in this area, so you have to time your passage so you aren’t going against the tide. The best time to go is during slack tide. We wanted to go at slack flood so we would have the incoming tide giving us a boost up Long Island Sound. Since that time wasn’t until 3:30 PM we had most of the day to get cleaning chores done on the boat.

By the time we wanted to leave the wind had picked up and the sky was very grey. So taking pictures through this new area was a little hindered. I took a lot of pictures, but only kept a few. Maybe we’ll have a nicer day on our way back. We had an easy trip up the East River and through Hell Gate. We even had a nice push most of the way, which made for a shorter day. We went under the Brooklyn Bridge, and by the United Nations, Roosevelt Island, Ryker's Island, the old Riverside Hospital where Typhoid Mary was quarantined, La Guardia Airport and four lighthouses. There was a lot to see even though the weather didn’t cooperate.

We are on a mooring ball just off of Port Washington in Manhasset Bay. Very well protected, so we are ready for the bad weather to arrive. As we came into the mooring field we recognized one of the other boats, it was Rhumb Line. We first met Ted and Trish on the Erie Canal last summer and again in Lake Champlain. It’s always nice to see familiar faces. Hopefully we will get a break in the weather so we can catch up.

One last look at Lower Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge. Freedom Tower is to the right.

The Queensboro Bridge and Roosevelt Island

Part of the UN

I guess these people decided they wanted a country home...in the city.

Look closely at this picture, there are two layers of traffic under the builds along the river.

The Queensboro Bridge and the Roosevelt Tram crossing the East River 

Looking back at the Hell Gate area