Journey to the Hard

The rest of the sailing season was kind of a bust. It rained 7 weekends in a row. It was so bad that the Times wrote about it. I did manage to take some coworkers out with me which was pretty fun, although Peregrine did also carry its first seasick crew member, on my watch. While not directly related, I started to notice some sewage smells when we were going over some waves, but I didn’t have time to investigate. Thankfully, the sailing season didn’t end with bad weather, seasickness, and sewage. Instead, it went out in the best way possible.

I decided to keep the boat on the hard in Jersey City for the winter since I wanted a quicker commute for winter projects. I live two avenues from the 23rd St PATH station. If I catch trains well and ride Citi Bikes on both sides of my trip, I can get from my door to Liberty Harbor Marina in about 30 minutes. Not bad!

So, I needed to sail Peregrine from Port Washington to Jersey City. Considering (1) the furthest I’d sailed Peregrine was ~7.5 nm from Hempstead Bay to Manhasset Bay, (2) I was going to be sailing through the busy East River and Battery, and (3) I needed to do some docking in Jersey City, I ideally wanted to have some knowledgeable crew with me. Medical issues forced my dad to back out, so my brother Benjamin came up from Baltimore to help me out.

The weather ended up being absolutely incredible. 80 degrees and sunny at the end of October. After 7 weekends of rain, I couldn’t have asked for anything better (except for a little bit of wind…).

We took the 7:17 AM train out to Port Washington and got underway by around 9:45 AM. We left Manhasset Bay, and hung a left.

As we sailed along, I noticed the sewage smell again whenever we went over a wave. I ended up closing one of the seacocks near the head, and the smell went away. In the moment, I convinced myself that this made logical sense, but I didn’t have much time to think carefully about this. I was just thankful the smell had stopped.

Navigating was thankfully pretty easy. If you look at the map, it’s fairly obvious which way to go, and you can always follow other boats if need be.

A fun part of the trip was that we went under so many different bridges. I think we went under 8, 2 of which were Robert Moses bridges.

It was unsettling to sail by Rikers Island and see, up close, that there is a literal prison island that is somehow still in operation in NYC. It was even more unsettling to sail by The Boat, an 800-bed jail barge.

As we made our way towards Hell Gate, the current continued to pick up. I had been hoping to hit Hell Gate at maximum current, but we arrived about an hour early. Nevertheless, we hit 10 knots over the ground! Things definitely get a bit squirrely at that speed, but there thankfully wasn’t much traffic.

A magical moment after Hell Gate was when we came around Hallets Point. The East River slowly reveals itself to you, and then you’re off to the races.

We got up close and personal against Roosevelt Island and the Upper East Side as we cruised along; things are quite narrow here.

After Roosevelt Island, everything opens up. By the time we got down towards the Brooklyn Bridge, I was back in my old stomping grounds, having spent 5 years sailing around the Battery with the Manhattan Yacht Club. We avoided the Staten Island Ferry, went down and said hello to the Statue of Liberty, and then made our way up to the Morris Canal.

We ended up having to idle in the Morris Canal for about 15 minutes waiting for a spot at the Liberty Landing Fuel Dock. Finally, a spot opened up. After a harrowing, narrowly-successful attempt at docking, I learned that Diesel was at the other end of the dock. With significant help from the dockhand, we docked at the east end. We filled up fuel and pumped the holding tank.

We then made our way over to Liberty Harbor Marina. I was determined to do a better job docking on this third try. When I called the marina, they told me to dock in the spot that was closest to the travel lift. This ended up being a very tricky spot to get into, but we did it perfectly, slow and steady. Later, I talked with the marina, and they informed me that there as a different, much easier slip that we were supposed to pull into. Oh well, practice can’t hurt, right?

My wife was going out that night, and we needed to get home to take care of the kid. The boat was going to be hauled on Monday, so Benjamin and I quickly did as much as we could to winterize the boat. Having a second set of hands made things go very quickly! Even better, a second set of feet meant that we could pump the fresh water twice as fast by parallelizing between the head and galley sinks. After everything was pumped, we filled the lines with some tasty anti-freeze. What were the chances that this was the brand of the cheapest vodka near me?

All told, the trip took around 6 hours, although we actually made it to the Battery in 3. Great crew, great weather, and well-timed tides made for a solid end to the season. By Monday, it was cold and rainy during the haul out. I was thankful for a single day of sunshine!