Hell Gate

The constant roar of cars scurrying to and fro is drowned out only by the thundering din of planes taking off overhead.  And then there was the all night disco party boat that came in around 3am.  Our quiet, peaceful anchorage is at the end of LaGuardia's main runway!  We tucked in here last night to wait for a more favorable tide through Hell Gate.

Hell Gate, at certain times of the tidal cycle, richly deserves its name.  The waters of Long Island sound become the East River which narrows significantly here. Water funnels through the narrowing channel as the tide turns.  The tide can crank along at 4+ knots.  We like to motor around 5 knots so if that 4 knots is against you it's going to take a while.  The original dutch explorers named it.    Early log books from the 1600 and 1700's talk about giant whirlpools, reefs, islands and rocks.  One out of every 50 ships that ran Hell Gate were either damaged or sunk.  In an average year, 1000 ships ran aground in Hell Gate.

In 1850, a public spirited citizen of New York paid an engineer $15000 to blast the reefs in Hell Gate. Over a several months numerous blasts reduced the reef to between 9 to 24 feet below the surface with the side benefit of the whirlpool disappearing.  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers picked up the project and at 11:13:50 on October 10, 1885, 12 year old Mary Newton turned the key that set off the largest man-made explosion until the atomic bomb. 

Rain drizzled and skyscrapers rose into the clouds as we motored along.  This city just teems with life and seeing it from the water offers an interesting perspective.