HELLEGAT
The area of the East River known as Hell Gate
was originally termed Hellegat
a Dutch term meaning
clear opening.
If you misjudge the tides it’s anything but
as we found out.
This time we, or in truth François made sure we got it right
We left a little after sunrise,
me at the helm
because of the getting back on the horse thing, Francois told me.
At least one of us was confident…
For you Law & Order fans,
here’s one of the buildings on Rykers Island
that we passed on our way to Hell Gate.
At 07:00 we reached Hell Gate Bridge
just before slack tide….
Barely a ripple.
I have to say I was kind of disappointed
that we didn’t run into some turbulence at least.
Not even a cruise ship or water taxi to dodge.
I was so ready for it.
But we cruised through without incident
thanks to François’ good planning
and scheduling.
Making really good progress,
we covered 48 nautical miles today.
Past Nyack and the Tappan Zee Bridge
we stopped for the night at Haverstraw.
You may be wondering why this next picture of a super crane,
brought all the way from California
to aid in the construction of the new Tappan Zee Bridge,
so they could tear down the original to eventually rebuild it?
And you may also be wondering how I know all this interesting trivia
about the Tappan Zee Bridge?
Because we were boarded AGAIN .
and during the boarding of 2 Customs & Boarder Protection agents
2 coast Guards and 2 Westchester County Officers,
fillled us in on all the local news while they checked our papers…
and warned us that we couldn’t anchor near the bridge.
…a fact of which we were very well aware.