ELECTRO SAILING AROUND NEW YORK: Part Three: HELL GATE

The idea of passing through Hell Gate on New York's East River often causes apprehension for first time cruisers through the area. Having made the transit through   Hell Gate numerous times I can say there is really nothing to be afraid of that a secure hand on the tiller or wheel won't solve.  There are current swirls, some up-welling and short choppy waves making it look more threatening than it is.  Here are some are some tips to make the transit:

1) The biggest danger is getting in the way of a tug and barge or one of the New York City sludge barges that also frequently transit the area. There is plenty of deep water in the Gate to avoid them and give them a wide berth. Remember they do not have the same ability to maneuver as smaller boats do.

2) It is best to motor through Hell's Gate. I've only managed to sail through one time on a northwest wind on my previous boat a Bristol 24.  But, as soon as I was through Hells Gate the streets and buildings of Manhattan and the East River currents caused the boat to do boat spins as it traveled down with the current. So now I always motor from the Brother Islands to at least 23rd Street off of Manhattan when heading toward the Battery and visa versa when heading toward Long Island Sound.

3) It is always better to go with the flow of the current. It makes for a much quicker and  pleasant passage.

4) The metal bridges in the Hell Gate area can reek havoc on the magnetic compass of autopilots so put them in standby and keep a firm hand on the tiller or wheel until you are well clear of them.

The following video shows what it like to transit Hell Gate motor sailing with electric propulsion. I had rounded the Battery about three hours after low tide. BIANKA rode the flood current 14 miles all the way into Long Island Sound. Winds were light so it was mostly motoring under electric propulsion  This trip was in late October 2012 and amazingly  boat traffic both recreational and commercial was non existent for this passage. That may not always be the case . Especially during summer and on weekends:



Ironically, the Honda 2000 generator that had been operating since about 9:45 am had finally ran out of gas right in the middle of Hell Gate. It had been running five and a half hours on one gallon of gas motor sailing BIANKA for about twenty five miles. Nice thing about electro sailing in a hybrid mode using a generator like the Honda 2000 is that the batteries automatically take over and keep propelling the boat as shown in this video:


After refueling it was another ten miles of electro-sailing until  I reached my destination after forty nautical miles of motor sailing under electric propulsion.

ELECTRIC SAILBOAT CRUISE TO NEW YORK 2012

Before Hurricane Sandy distracted me and ended the sailing season I was going to chronicle a recent cruise I made with BIANKA.  Originally I had planned to do this cruise to New York back in September. But, a little repair snafu with the Honda Generator in September curtailed that plan. I just about gave up on doing the cruise this year but, a nice weather window opened up in late October and I thought why not head out for a fall cruise. So I did.

I headed early out to take advantage of the flooding current into Long Island Sound winds were light for much of the trip so I electro-sailed BIANKA for forty nautical miles. It was after sundown as I sailed into Port Washington and picked up a free town mooring. Before I did  I had a gam with a fellow sailor already on another mooring. He was a 38 year old fellow who quit his job in September bought a 24 foot boat and was heading south for the winter. He wanted to do it now since he was single and the flexibility to do it.  Certainly sounds like a plan. We had a nice discussion about life, getting through Hell Gate and other things sailors might talk about. I wished him fair winds and then  motored off in the dark to find a mooring. One nice thing about fall cruising the mooring fields are pretty empty so it was pretty easy to pick one up. The next day had some nasty weather coming through. It was windy and wet so it was a lay day for me.  Sometime during the following night the other fellow headed off to travel down the East River through Hell Gate in the middle of the night. He wanted to make it to the Sandy Hook area during the day and meet up with friends. I can only wonder if the fellow made it through Hurricane Sandy which would hit the area a little over a week later.

After the weather cleared I headed toward New York.  Upon crossing under the Throgs Neck Bridge BIANKA left Long Island Sound behind and entered the East River which is actually a tidal strait. I made a video of the trip from Port Washington to the Battery via the East River:

I rounded the Battery a little after sunset and headed over to an anchorage a little north of Ellis Island. I had never anchored there before. It was getting dark and the winds were blowing 10 to 20 knots out of the west. I got as close to western shore and dropped anchor for the night. There was a little roll from the harbor traffic at first but, it calmed down later except for a 4 am roll that woke me up for a bit. But, the holding was good plus I had a real nice view of the lights of lower Manhattan:

Though in a little over a week all these lights would be plunged into darkness after Hurricane Sandy hits the area and knocked out power to all of lower Manhattan. Though  this night it was a very pretty scene from on board.