After anchoring behind the Statue of Liberty one night and enjoying the view of the Manhattan skyline, we got up at 5:30 am the next day to catch the best positive current up the East River around Manhattan. And what a current it was -- over 3.5 to 4 knots at what is appropriately called "Hell's Gate". Unfortunately it was an extremely foggy morning so we didn't see much of the city skyline as we sped down the river. We only heard the airplanes landing overhead at LaGuardia airport.
After a short 4 hours, we arrived at Port Washington on the north shore of Long Island, where we picked up a town mooring. This was a wonderful location from which to take the Long Island RailRoad into Manhattan for a touring, which we did for 4 days, including an overnight hotel stay and Broadway musical. Port Washington was also a great location for reprovisioning since the dinghy dock was walking distance to a Target store, a large grocery store and even a West Marine.