HARLEM RIVER TO THE HUDSON RIVER AND NYACK ON HUDSON

My friend George refers to his favorite philosphical waxman, Yogi Berra, when he says that forks in the road are for the taking.  I could not agree with him more....George, that is.  In our case, it is not that difficult.  There are only two ways to get to the Hudson from Long Island Sound.  In both cases, you have to take the East River.  However, when you get to Hells Gate, the choice unfolds. 

Here are the choices:  you can turn left and take the East River down to the Battery and then turn right at the bottom of Manhattan and head north at the mouth of the Hudson River.  Or, when you get to Hells Gate, you can turn right and head up a little travelled river called the Harlem River.  Very few cruising boats use this route. 

There are several reasons for this.  Of them include that, the height restrictions are serious.  IF you cannot clear 24' then you will have to deal with bridge openings.  On the Harlem River, this means you have to arrange for such openings 4 hours in advance.  Then someone from the NYDOT will travel from bridge to bridge opening them for you one at a time.  This doesn't sound so bad unless you consider how difficult this could be with a "favorable current" pushing you along at 4-5 knots.    Just imagine mashing sweet potatoes between your teeth.  Not a pleasant image, if you know what I mean. 

If you are a sailor, the Harlem River is most definitely out of the question.  Furthermore, the Harlem River does not wind its way through the nicest part of town.  There have been reports of kids dropping bricks from the bridges onto passing boats below.  NICE!  So, you would want to time your passage during school hours.  Like that's going to help.  Moreover, there is almost always construction going on involving one or more of the bridges crossing the Harlem River.  Additionally, there are some who claim it is simply not navigable.  As a result, the Harlem River is a seldom cruised body of moving water.  Result:  I guess you could simply call it a wild new adventure.

Now, just about any other time, you want to hit Hells Gate on a favorable tide.  However, with the Harlem River, you have to take into consideration the fact that at the very end of the stream is a low bridge with a 5 foot clearance called the Spuiten Duivel Railroad Bridge.  There is not a lot of room to manuever in front of this bridge and if you have a current pushing you towards the bridge, and it is slow to open, well......think sweet potatoes.  So, we timed our passage through the Gate when the current would be good at the SD and not at the Gate. 

There were times when our speed was down to barely more than 3 knots.  I used 3 knots as our benchmark.  If I could not hold at least that, I was ready to turn around because there would simply be no way I could hold onto control of the boat under the circumstances.  It came very close, but we made it.  There were sailboats coming in the opposite direction that were totally getting loose in the swift moving current.  It was almost funny and would have been when they got sideways, had it not been for the significant danger they were in.  As I said, we made it through the Gate and into the Harlem River with no problems.

Once we got onto the Harlem River, the current calmed down and was actually opposing us, but was not limiting our forward progress severely at all.  In fact, by the time we got to the Spuyten Duyvel Bridge, the current was perfect to allow us to hold our position without any effort at all while we waited and waited and waited for the bridge tender to do his job.  Actually, since the tender was not answering the radio, we had to make 4 different phone calls before the bridge tender finally responded and opened the bridge for us allowing us to pass onto the Hudson River.

There are 15 bridges over the Hudson.  They are all very cool in their own rights.  Some were very tall, some were not so tall.  Some looked very old, and some looked fairly modern.  Some were swing bridges, some were lift bridges. 

The scenery along the banks was varied; from trees and greenery, to housing projects and concertina wire; from Yankee Stadium to new office buildings and condominiums.  Since little or nothing has been written about this river passage, we had no idea what to expect.

The water was plenty deep, and reasonably wide.  Two boats would have no problem passing one another, even in the turns.  There was plenty of construction going on, however, and this did limit maneuverability in one spot, for sure.  As we came around the bend, all we saw were signs that said "Channel Closed."  Fortunately, as we came out of the turn, we saw the one opening that was in fact open and we squeezed through.  Other than that, no problems.  We saw no potential threat of falling bricks either.  The fencing on the bridges appeared high enough and thick enough to prevent such an untoward eventuality.  Plus, we went through at a time when kids who go to school would be in class - summer school class that is. 

The other thing that was very distinctive about this river was the rocky surroundings.  The sounder showed the bottom to be soft over rock.  This lead me to conclude the river was man made.  This became especially apparent later on when we were surrounded on both sides by rock walls.  Then, you see how this all comes together when you enter the Hudson in the "palisades."

As I said, we made it through the Harlem River safe and sound and really enjoyed it.  If you can clear 24 feet, this is the way to go as the East River has much more beautiful vistas of Manhattan than the west side (the Hudson).  Then, just keep going.

So, we made our way onto the Hudson and ran up around 20 miles.  After we cruised under the Tappan-Zee Bridge, we pulled off the river and dropped the hook in front of a town called Nayack On Hudson, New York.  Never heard of it?  Neither had we.  However, it is quite a gem. 

We found a place to tie up the dinghy at the Nayack Boat Club (aka yacht club).  They are one of the only clubs in the neighborhood and are over 100 years old.  We met Henry who is 92 years old and has been a member of NBC for most of those.  He was a delightful fellow who gave us the rundown on the town and where to go and what to do.  So after spending some time with Henry, we hit the streets (as usual) and made many wonderful discoveries of our own.

This town is very old and has done a lot to hang on to its Victorian roots.  The homes are beautiful.  What struck me, however, is how so many folks plant vegetable gardens in the front of their homes.  I saw corn, tomatos, peppers, chilis, and a wide variety of other summer veggies. 

The town itself is host to a variety of interesting stores and shops.  You could find everything from whole food stores to vegetarian restaurants; from Irish Pubs, to Thai Cuisine, and everything in between.  All of life in this town revolves around essentially two streets.  We found a nice spot to water for the afternoon and came back to the boat refreshed, if not a little too refreshed.  It's funny how, a town that is only 25 miles from New York City, can feel as if it is 2500 miles from New York City.  I suspect we'll find even more cool places like this as we push north on the Hudson River.

More later.  Bye from Nyack.