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Knickerbocker Sailing Association

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Sandy Hook, Memorial Day 2006

Advice Concerning the East River tides for the Memorial Day Flotilla
by KSA Member

The Memorial Day 2006 weekend will provide a comfortable timing for fair currents southbound from Long Island Sound to Skull Island, but the return on Monday will be an early one – almost the reverse of last year in terms of convenience.

For the Southbound East River Trip:
Schedule is for Saturday, May 27. (Subtract 1 hr for Friday, add 1 hr for Sunday). There will be approx five boats making this trip on Saturday morning.

The best departure time should have you entering the East River (Throgs Neck) at about 10 am. The optimal time for passing through Hell Gate would be 11:00am to noon, passing through New York Harbor around 1:30pm, final destination Sandy Hook around 3:30 pm.

Note: The distance between Throgs Neck Bridge and Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is 20 miles, but by traveling at the optimal time, even a vessel making four knots will travel the 20 nautical miles in three hours, due to an extremely favorable current.

Caution: Due to the swiftness of this current, vessels should use extreme caution at Hell's Gate, and in the area along Roosevelt Island, where the ebb tide will exceed five knots, causing stationary rough conditions (rapids). Maintain adequate steerage way (boatspeed), wear pfds, and use extra measures to ensure that everyone stays onboard. Be alert to avoid heavy commercial and recreational traffic and their wakes. Channel 13 is the vessel-to-vessel VHF channel of commercial traffic transiting the region.

For the Northbound East River Trip:
Schedule is for Monday, May 29. (Subtract 1 hr for Sunday, add 1 hr for Tuesday)

Best departure from Skull Island is unfortunately very early – between 6:00 and 8:00am.

A 7:00 am departure will catch the best current, so that a vessel should expect to reach Throgs Neck before noon when the tide turns foul. Vessels should make every effort to exit the East River before 2:00pm. For an afternoon departure, vessels should wait until 4:00 or 5:00, but a slower trip can be expected by not waiting for full flood, and dark will fall while transiting the East River.

Advice for the Hudson River:

The tidal clock in the Hudson moves progressively later as you move further up river. So a southbound journey will move quickly through several complete tidal shifts.

Departing from Haverstraw Bay Saturday at 6:00 or 7:00, the tide will be fair for the first few hours, then foul until south of the George Washington Bridge (near noon), then fair again to Sandy Hook by 3:30 or 4:00. Conversely, for the return Monday a 7:00am departure will afford a continuously fair flood current for the entire northward trip.

A Word of Warning to Skippers

Given shallow water in the entrance to the anchorage area, it is extremely important that skippers use caution when arriving and departing.

Detailed instructions will be given to skippers prior to the event, but KSA strongly recommends that skippers enter and leave when the tides are rising.

Any skipper which has reservations about entering or exiting can request help and a member with local knowledge can guide them in and out of the area.

Predicted Rising Tides @ Sandy Hook

The table below shows periods of rising tides at Sandy Hook and the height above mean low at each time May 2006.

Sunrise and Sunset Sat May 27

• Twi N - 4:16am
• Sunrise - 5:29am
• Sunset - 8:16pm
• Twi N - 9:29pm

New Moon: 27 May 2006 1:26am EDT.

Please note: KSA does not guarantee the accuracy of data provided on this page. Skippers should verify all data for themselves.