NEW YORK CITY - East River to the Hudson River

Here is our route covered in this blog

Saturday July 8, 2017: After our evening rain at Port Washington, the sky cleared up for our trip through New York City’s East River and the start of our trip up the Hudson River. We timed our arrival at Throg’s Neck Bridge, at the start of the East River, so that during the first 7 miles on the river, we’d have a slight current against us. However, that meant we’d we’d arrive at the Hell Gate section of the East River right at slack tide. This area can have currents up to 5 knots making transiting of that section of the river much more challenging. We of course wanted to be as relaxed as possible so we could take in the sights and get some good photos. We’re only doing this trip once!

Long Island home near Port Washington

We were not disappointed. The river currents were just as expected and all well behaved. Experiencing the river by boat is such a treat for the eyes. We saw:

• Bridges - we went under Throgs Neck Bridge; Bronx-Whitestone Bridge; Hell Gate Bridge; Queensboro Bridge; Williamsburg Bridge; Manhattan Bridge; Brooklin Bridge; George Washington Bridge and Tappan Zee Bridge (all very impressive)
• Tugs pushing barges 
• Tour boats (loads of these)
• NYC Police Boats
• Fire Boats
• Sail boats
• Go fast boats
• Mega Yachts
• Sea Doos

Planes taking off overhead every few minutes 

One of many...

We of course saw and were wowed by all the sky scrapers and the city skyline including the impressive One World Trade Centre replacing the Twin Towers downed in the 2001 terrorist attack. One World Trade took 7 years to complete and opened in July 2013. It is the 6th tallest building in the world at 1,792 feet tall, 104 floors above ground, 3,501,000 square feet of floor space.

UN Headquarters

Recognize this building?

Cool architecture - American Cooper Buildings (rental apartments)
(a skyscraper hug? or Dancing Towers)

Roosevelt Island Tram passes overhead

Helicopters everywhere

Southern tip of Manhattan - One World Trade building

Other highlights included:

• Seeing a Fire Boat tug put on a water pumping display
• Seeing the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island and having Tug’n’s picture taken in front of her
• Seeing the Hudson Tea building in Hoboken, where Ria and her family lived for about 5 years when they first moved there from Toronto.
• Passing under the Tappan Zee bridge where two more bridges are in advanced stages of construction to replace the original bridge
• Surviving all the immense boat traffic, especially where the East River meets the Hudson River, where the south tip of Manhattan is kitty corner to the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island. Boats were coming and going everywhere and it was no small task to make sure you were following the “rules of the road” and trying to stay out of trouble. 

Tug'n and Statue of Liberty

NewYork City Fire Boat display

Retired British Airways Concord Jet

Hudson Tea building in Hoboken - Ria, Pat & family lived here

It was a long 9 hour day underway and it was a relief to arrive at our anchorage at Stoney Point on the west side of the Hudson River, just past Haverstraw. We just got our anchor down before the sky opened up to deliver Tug’n another rinse of fresh water. We certainly enjoyed our well deserved Happy Hour refreshment. It turns out railway tracks follow both sides of the Hudson River. Our side of the river (west side) had the freight trains which we heard all night long and they each blasted their horns just as they went by our anchorage. Maybe we’ll try the east side tomorrow.

Tappan Zee Bridges under construction

Impressive tug on the Hudson River