Urban Sailing

Sailed in NYC harbor on Sunday...practice day for next two weekends’ AYC Spring Series in Rye, NY . “Urban sailing” was the term we coined to describe our reaction to this venue. After a 3hr+ drive to southern most tip of the island of Manhattan, near Battery Park, we parked and quickly located North Cove Marina about a block from the WTC ground zero site, which we visited after sailing, after beer, after sushi. Cute, well protected little marina, in front of hugely tall buildings with restaurants, bars, office towers, apartment buildings and people and tourists biking, jogging, walking, taking pictures. Nice! But slips are expensive here, around $14k/season! for a J/105… location, location, location, I guess…but where do they dry out their spinnakers??

Driving down we were hoping to catch a glance of the Statue of Liberty that day. Little did we know we’d be sailing right in front of her and Ellis Island all afternoon. Interesting harbor traffic, cruise ships, barges, tugs, and ferries. From what we were told, traffic was very light compared to Wed night racing where dodging commuter water taxis, ferries and heavy commercial traffic is the norm. The locals also reported lots of current challenges as Hudson and East rivers merge there, with tidal influences and skyscrapers doing funky things with the breeze.

Really a strange experience sailing in urban environment. While I’m glad Big Applers have access to the sea, I much prefer the more peaceful, natural home waters convergence of Long Island Sound, Fisher’s Island Sound and Block Island Sound.