ELECTRO SAILING AROUND NEW YORK: PART ONE

Time to get caught up on some of the blog posts after Sandy, the holidays and a freelance job interrupted my work flow here on The Bianka Log Blog.  I return now to the beautiful fall days before Superstorm Sandy raked the area with 90 MPH winds and storm waves. I was anchored up near Hook Mountain on the Hudson River admiring the fall colors. But, I had to get back to BIANKA's homeport for a dentist appointment in a few days. Of course I had my ear on the forecasts of the storm Sandy heading up to the area but, details were fluid five days out as to where it would hit. Since this was my first trip this far north on the Hudson River since I installed electric propulsion I did not know how far I would get. If things work well with the currents and winds I might make it all the way to the East River and back to Port Washington in Long Island Sound. A distance of about forty nautical miles. Shown by the red line below:

My plan B was to stop off at one of the marinas in New Jersey or the 79th Street Boat Basin on the way down for the night if it looked like the Hudson river currents were going to be turning against me. BIANKA and I would  continue up the East River and into Long Island Sound the next day. Happily, I did not have to use Plan B as the currents were favorable. The forecast winds however were pretty light (5 knots or less) which meant I would be electro sailing (motor sailing) for much of the way. But, the real nice thing about electric propulsion is that motoring with it for the forty nautical miles is nothing like motoring with a diesel engine. It is very quiet and there is almost no vibration. You can hear birds squawking over head and the sound of the trains along the shore. It makes for a much more pleasant trip.  Here's a video of the first part of this journey around Manhattan under electric propulsion:

 ELECTRO SAILING AROUND NEW YORK PART TWO CLICK HERE

AUTUMN CRUISE UP THE HUDSON RIVER 2012

It seems there is always someplace new to experience on the water. After making the transit down the East River I rounded the Battery a little after sundown and I wanted to find an anchorage soon.  In the past I have poked into the basin behind the Statue of Liberty. But, it does not have a lot of room and if it was filled with a few cruising  boats on their way south I'd have to find another spot in harbor after dark and also fight the ebb current coming down the Hudson (North) River. So I decided to check out a new anchorage that looked inviting but, had never seen to many boats use. It is an area north of Ellis Island. So after rounding the Battery in Manhattan's southern tip I made a B line in the fading light for the area. Winds were out of the west blowing 10 to 15 knots and I put the bow as far west as I dared and dropped the anchor.

It turned out to be a pretty good spot. A little rolling at first but, it calmed down nicely until 4 AM when another roll woke me up. In the morning I waited until the flood current began to push up the Hudson and then weighed anchor and used the current to help push BIANKA along.  First past the still unfinished Freedom Tower:

Below is a photo of what it looked like during BIANKA's cruise in 2011. 

 A lot of progress was made but, last year I thought it might have had all the glass installed by this year. Hopefully, it will by next years cruise. Though there are signs that things will be reaching a peak soon. The parts of the tower that will be making up the transmission tower aka the spire on top have begun to arrive in the harbor as seen in this Tugster Post.

Continuing up the river the Empire State and Chrysler buildings soon showed up in my view with Pier 40 in the foreground:

A little further on I passed the Intrepid Air and Space Museum. Which had a new addition since last years cruise. That white bubble near the stern housed the  Enterprise Space Shuttle.

A week after this photo was taken Hurricane Sandy destroyed the tent which covered the spacecraft and exposed the shuttle to the elements.

Further on several those floating cities known as cruise ships where tied to up the land based city getting ready for their afternoon departures.

Soon BIANKA was passing the George Washington Bridge one of the bridges that make up the gateways to the City of New York. Near the eastern base of the bridge is the Little Red Lighthouse made famous in the book The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge:

 BIANKA then sailed past the Yonkers Recreational Pier.

The last Victorian steel pier on the Hudson. A leftover from the days before air conditioning when people headed toward the waterfronts to escape the stifling heat of summers without indoor air conditioning in their houses.

Further on the main reason why I wanted to make this fall cruise soon appeared as the dramatic Palisades started showing some of the fall colors.

There was not a lot of boat traffic on the river which made for a very pleasant sail. I did come across another boat sailing back to New York. I think it was the ADIRONDACK a day sailor based out of the Chelsea Piers. I was thinking as it sailed by this is what it must have been like on the Hudson in the days before the steamships started plying the waters:

A few miles further on and BIANKA would reach the intended destination of the cruise which I will write about in a future post.