Summary:

On Saturday, July 9^th 2011 I paddled from Pier 40 in Manhattan across the NY upper bay, the lower bay, and the Navesink, landing in Red Bank NJ, covering a total distance of 26 nautical miles in approximately 8 ½ hours (including a rest of 2 ½ hours at Sandy Hook). On the following day I completed the reverse trip (in more difficult conditions) which took 8 hours of paddling with only a 15-minute break at Sandy Hook. This is the longest kayaking trip I have taken so far, although not the riskiest. This is my travel notebook. It is intended to be a useful collection of notes for any fellow kayaker who would like to plan a similar trip, and a pleasant reading to anyone who loves going by sea.

A GPS track of my trip plotted against a Google Map view.
The red line indicates the outbound trip; the green line the return trip.
The blue line marks the planned route.
Click on the image to access a larger version.

Thanks:

Many thanks to my colleague Larry Nociolo for his support, his help and generous hosting. Thanks to the board and the members of the Monmouth Boat Club for the warm welcome, for allowing me to use the facilities and for hosting my kayak for the night.

Disclaimer:

This time I'm going to skip the legalese boilerplate. If you miss that section, please find it in my Cape Cod trip report. The only point I want to make is that kayaking can be dangerous, and if you use any of the information I reported here to plan your own trip, you must assume full responsibility for all aspects of your trip and implicitly give up any rights to sue me for any losses you incur as a consequence of your trip.

Resources:

Marine chart NY harbor area (map 12327): - lossless (TIF), 218M; - lossless (TIF), 18M; - lossy (JPG), 4M;

Marine chart Navesink area (map 12325): - lossless (TIF), 25M; - lossy (JPG), 4M;

My tides and tidal currents charts based on NOAA predictions: (OUT) Saturday, tides at the Battery and currents at "1 mile west of Red Hook" (OUT) Saturday, tides at Sandy Hook and currents at the Highlands Bridge * (Disregard the interpolated currents in this chart at the extremes, it is screwed up courtesy of gnuplot.) (IN) Saturday, tides at Sandy Hook and currents at the Highlands Bridge (IN) Sunday, tides at the Battery and currents at "1 mile west of Red Hook"

A permanent URL to this page is http://www.scarpaz.com/2011-07-09-Red-Bank. Please use the above URL when linking from your web page or citing this page. Hot-linking of material on this website not only violates the terms of use but is unreliable and it can break after any revision I apply.

Highlights:

Currents measured by NOAA at the Narrows: Please note that the chart above is based on measured data (as opposed to predictions reported in the currents charts above), and it was not available during the planning of this trip.

Observations:

Each of the two trips (out and back) can be divided in three parts: first the upper bay, then the lower bay, finally Sandy Hook and the Navesink.

Crossing the upper bay presents some dangers associated with commercial traffic at any time (tanker ships, barges, ferries, cruise ships) and recreational traffic (motorboats, jetskis, sailboats) in the weekend. The upper bay is strongly tidal and it is not recommendable to paddle it against the tidal currents.

Paddling the lower bay presents one danger associated with crossing heavily trafficked channels (especially the Ambrose channel) and similar challenges to kayaking in open ocean waters: one can not rely on being close to land in case of emergency, there are fewer visual aids and they are at longer distances, the destination or the waypoints may be beyond the visual range and force instrumental navigation, winds and breezes are unimpeded by buildings and terrain and can be much stronger, waves can be way taller. Unlike the open ocean, the lower bay is still associated with significant tidal currents.

The Sandy Hook bay and the Navesink are calm bodies of water and present no dangers with the exception of jetskiers of erratic behavior. Tidal currents are moderate. Paddlers heading to the tip of Sandy Hook should not be afraid of overshooting into open ocean and being unable to come back: Sandy Hook offers a long stretch of smooth beach with little surf or surf acceptable for landing; it is possible to land almost at any point. Even amid a strong ebb current, a kayaker can just head west without attempting to maintain course, knowing that he will land safely.

On both days, the Leonardo terminal (more formally, the Earle Naval Weapons Station, Earle/Leonardo Pier complex) had a large warship stationed there, probably being stocked for a mission. On my trip back I also saw a couple of small U.S. Navy cutters traveling from East to its direction. The warship can be seen in multiple shots in my album above.

My outgoing trip was uneventful and it was remarkable in its speed. At one point I measured 8 knots. I arrived at Sandy Hook way before the expected time, and I could rest and sleep on the beach for two hours. I could have waited one more hour to take more advantage of the flood in the Navesink.

The return trip was more difficult. Leaving the Navesink presented no problems. I was planning a short stop on Sandy Hook for lunch around 11AM, but I could not stay on the land: Unlike the northern tip, the western tip was, at the time when I landed, infested by sandflies. These flies attack exposed limbs en masse and suck blood. Their sting is clearly noticeable and it feels like the prick of a needle. It turned out impossible to whisk them away for more than a few seconds, and I just gave up the possibility of stopping on the island for lunch. Paddling to the north shore was probably not worth the delay, and I wanted to be on my way as soon as possible. I had deet with me, but it was packed deep in the night compartment. I resolved standing in the water close to the kayak, with my legs entirely immersed in the water, a dozen yards from shore. I was very annoyed and frustrated.

Paddling the lower bay toward the Narrows turned out to be an extraordinarily more strenuous predicament than expected. In fact, in my planning I only relied on current predictions for two points (the Ambrose channel and the point 1 mile W of Red Hook), ignoring that the west side and the east side of the lower bay exhibit very different current behaviors, like in the picture below. Below is a chart representing the current field in the NY harbor on Sunday 10 at noon, that I consulted after the trip, when writing this report.

Click on the picture to open a larger version. This chart is courtesy of the Urban Ocean Observatory at the Center for Maritime Systems, Davidson Laboratory, Stevens Institute of Technology.

During the paddle I estimated the current speed as approximately 1.5 knots and direction NW. For at least two hours I spent half of my energy compensating for the drift, attempting to maintain a North course by heading to 45 degrees first (NE), and then to 30 degrees. I was moving with a speed relative to the ground around 1--1.5 knots. For this reason, it took me more than three hours to paddle from Sandy Hook to the Narrows in the return trip, whereas only 2 hours on my way down.

Relying solely on two currents estimation points for my trip planning was a mistake on my side. The unexpected complexity of the current pattern in the lower harbor was an unpleasant surprise. This is my most important observation in this report, and the most important lesson learned from this trip.

Once in the upper bay the drift stopped, but then I had to deal with a mass of pervasive recreational traffic. Sunday motorboaters and jetski riders are best avoided and often show some absurd behavior and crass unawareness of the rules of navigation. Recreational motorboaters frequently have no awareness of the wake they raise (or maybe just no regard for others) and, when on a collision route with me, frequently proceeded without change of course, in a few cases looking directly at me with a blank stare. In one case, a sailboat was cruising on motor in my direction and I signaled the captain with a long blow of my air horn. The captain reacted with a last-minute sharp 90-degree turn to his right that didn't make any sense and was probably also performed without any spatial awareness of vessels coming from that direction.

Regarding the use of GPS units, I did have my Garmin Oregon 300 with me, and I used it. But I am sure this trip can be undertaken well without electronics, and I encourage experienced kayakers to do so. Indeed, in this trip I mostly used the GPS just for psychological comfort and "personal energy management", i.e., know how further away was my next way point, and how much time was needed to get there, and how strenuously I had to paddle. There are so many visual aids to navigation in the lower bay that one can definitely get wherever he or she wants, accurately, without any GPS help. As you know from sailing, getting a position fix on a map requires aligning two sets of two visual aids, but getting a course fix only requires one pair of such aids. With the help of a marine charts, one can prepare carefully a list of pairs of such aids, in advance, and then execute the trip according to plan. For example, one can follow buoys 22, 20, 18, on the east limit of the Ambrose Channel, and then get a course fix with the Romer Shoal lighthouse and one of the many tall towers in the area. There is a 95ft tall one just north of Sandy Hook, and a 70ft one just east of it.

Equipment:

Two paddles.
Paddle float.
Pump.
Compass.
Printed marine charts.
Marine VHF radio.
GPS unit.
Cell-phone, turned off, in a small drybag worn around my neck.
One gallon of water each way.
Food for one meal each way.
Twelve spare AA batteries for the GPS unit.