Conference vicki::boats

465.0. "Help on local knowledge..." by SIETTG::FLANAGAN () Mon Aug 07 1989 10:18

    Hello Fellow Boaters:
    
    I was wondering if any of you could provide some local knowledge or
    experience with the Long Island Sound/New York City area.  My parents
    and I are taking a trip from Bourne Mass to Atlantic City  in our
    38 ft. boat (power).  We have experience with the waters as far down
    as the Connecticut river, but don't really know the lower Long Island
    Sound area.  Things we're interested in are sea conditions, nasty
    currents etc.  I will be making the return trip (I'm flying down to
    AC to meet them), and a friend who lives on Long Island is making the
    trip down in my place.  Here is our planned cruise.
    
    DAY 1)  West End of Cape Cod Canal  to  Shelter Island (inside fishtail
            of Montauk).  They will be stopping for gas in Block Island.
    
    Day 2)  Shelter Island to Oceanside, NY.  Travel through Shinnecock
            Canal and Shinnecock.  Exit out of Shinnecock Inlet  (how is
            the shoaling here?) and travel length of Outer Long Island,
            entering at Jones Inlet and traveling through Reids (sp?)
            channel to Hog Island Channel to Oceanside.
            
    Day 3)  Day trip into New York harbor.
    
    Day 4)  Oceanside, NY to Atlantic City, NJ.  Straight shot past
            Sandy Hook to Absecon Inlet (AC).  We'll be staying at Harrah's
    
                        Return trip
                        -----------
    
    Day 1)  Atlantic city back to Oceanside.
    
    Day 2)  Oceanside, NY  to  Mystic Connecticut.  We plan to travel
            up New York Harbor tho the East River.  Through Hell's Gate
            past Execution Rocks and straight to Mystic River.
    
    Day 3)  Mystic back to Kingman Marine  (this one we know).
    
    
    
    Any local knowledge and tid-bits that any of you can add about points
    along our trip I would really really appreciate.  It's a long trip
    (about 222 miles each way) and we're really looking forward to it. 
    
    thanks in advance
    
    John

     The one part of your trip that you should be extra carefull is going
    from the sound to the east river. They call that area hell gate and the
    peak currents there can excede 12 knots. Try to go through when the
    current is minimum. The east river has a lot of commerical traffic, and
    the river as well as upper and lower New York bay has a lot of junk and
    half submerged pilings floating around, so keep a sharp look out.
     The inlet at AC is well marked, wide and deep so you should see no
    problems there. If you are running close to the coast there is a sand
    bar just before the AC inlet. It's on the chart and if you stay out a
    couple of miles you won't have any problem. If you need to go inside
    before you get to AC use Manasquan rather than Barnaget inlet.

    Thanks. 
    Well, the trip was a success.  I didn't make the trip down, my
    parents and friends did and they had beautiful seas and weather, though
    a bit of fog which didn't stop them a bit with the help of radar.
    I made the trip back.  That was interesting to say the least.  It
    was too rough to make the outside run from Atlantic City, so we took
    the Intracoastal up to Brielle [NJ] where we had to wait 2 days for
    the seas to subside (reports of 10-15 footers out there).  Made the
    run from Brielle to New Haven, Conn. on Sunday [the 20th].  Hell's
    Gate was a piece of cake.  Lots of current, but there were no 
    ground swells at all.  Lots of deadheads in the harbor though [and
    we're talking railroad ties and telephone poles].  Long Island Sound
    was beautiful.  The remainder of the trip was uneventful.
    
    Much too long for a 10-day trip though.  Too rushed.  Also, I don't
    reccomend you do it with gas engines like we did.  We're talking a 
    round-trip gas cost of $2000+.  Ouch!
    
    Cheers,
    
    John