Some days just go your way and this was one of them.

Traveling through New York City requires you pass through Hell Gate. The narrowest part of the East river at the end of the Long island Sound. In addition to having all of the Sound funneling into this straight of less than 1 mile wide it joins the Harlem river. At peak flood tide it flow eastward at up to 3 knots. At peak ebb it flows 4.5 knots westerly. We are heading west and so needed to time the pass with favorable current. We could go for the roller coaster ride and arrive a max ebb and blow through the gate at 12.5 knots or we could plan to arrive at slack water or when the flood is changing to ebb and then ride a lesser current westward the remainder of the journey. There are two ebbs, 0458 and 1708. Pass through on the early morning tide and pass lady liberty in the dark after getting up and leaving at 0400. not appealing.

Today we had some catch up to do on email this morning and only had 35 miles to our planned destination from the day before when we made only 5 miles and turned in as the 25 knots and 5' waves on our nose convinced us. After sleeping on our discussion the night before Pamela suggested we pass the gate at the second ebb. In fact what time was it maybe we could do it today and get our day back? Sure as shit we arrived at the first bridge, Throggs Neck about 40 mins early and cooled our heels until the appointed time I had calculated using the slack water time from Eldridge tide and current tables. We got underway and hit the gate at slack and sailed through only to be jettisoned out into the confluence with the Hudson. We skirted across to Lady liberty and paid our respects and flew through the Verrizano narrows and now sit in Great Kills National Park Marina on Staten Island. Its just above sandy point NJ that is on the Atlantic our launch point for Delaware bay on the next northerly.

Great picture of One World Trade Center says it all. Despite adversity we are victorious.