Trip from Albany to NYC and back on the Hudson

Mischief Managed

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Thinking about taking a three day/two night trip from Albany to NYC and back aboard my 25 foot cuddy. I plan to trailer out to Albany, to launch and park there. That said, if there's a better place to launch and park, I'm open to suggestion. We'd like to spend the first night on the hook/at a public dock and the second night in a transient slip. I have a 177 mile range (worst case) at a 32-35 MPH cruise and the round trip is roughly 260 miles. So clearly I'll need to gas up.

I'm looking for advice and tips on the following:

Best place to launch and park: If there's a long stretch of no wake zone between Albany and NYC, or if the boating is particularly dull near Albany, I would prefer to avoid it. If it means launching south of Albany, I'm OK with that.

Anchorage or public dock: looking for a quiet spot without wakes or wind driven chop in between Albany and NYC.

Marina recommendations: We'd prefer a small, quiet, mom and pop kind of place in between NYC and Albany. Showers are a necessity, shore power is not (but would be nice)

Fuel stops: I have enough range and flexibility to be selective about my fuel stops. What's the least expensive place to buy gas on the choosen route?

Navigation: I have an electronic chart of the route, and will procure the latest paper charts as well. I intend to stay in the marked channel. Are there any underwater hazards that are not marked? Are there any locks on this route? Are there long stretches with no wake zones or low speed limits?

Points of interest: At my typical cruising speed of 32-35 MPH, I will only need to be moving for < 9 hours in total to make the 260 mile round trip. Obviously, I expect some slow operation here and there, so for arguments sake, lets say I need to operate for 12 hours. That's only 4 hours per day, so I'd like to explore some options to kill the other 9 to 10 hours of daylight. Please tell me about interesting towns or villages with public docks and/or restaurants we can visit by boat. I'm not interesting in tying up in NYC, I;ve spent plenty of time there already

NYC navigation: I only require 5.5 feet of vertical bridge clearance. That should be fine for all but one bridge (Spuyten Duyvil Bridge) if I go around Manhattan via the Harlem River and East River. That said, as long as I don't go under that bridge, at high tide, I can probably make it without requesting the bridge to open via VHF, not that I'd mind asking... Is there any reason not to make the trip around the island? Seems like it would be interesting and fun.

Any other ideas for this trip would be welcom. Thinking mid-August. [h=1][/h]
 

ken51k

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Mar 5, 2012
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I did the trip north from Albany into Lake Champlain (3 weeks). You said you want to spend the first night on the hook at a public ramp. You can not park your car and trailer over night at any of the public ramps. Make arrangements at a marina to keep your rig there. Here are a couple of useful web sites
http://www.boatingonthehudson.com/directory
http://www.scribd.com/doc/131806305/Hudson-River-Guide-2013-latest-revision

Do some research and have a great time. Sorry I can not help you more, but you can find a lot of information online.
 

Frank Acampora

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I actually have cruised from NYC to Canada years ago when passports were not required. Going the opposite way it is a very nice trip and you will be taking it very leisurely at three days. Around Kingston and south --as I remember--there are flats so yes, you must follow the channel. Otherwise, no problems. You can see West Point, but as far as I know, there is no docking allowed As for circumnavigating Manhattan Island, It is a lot of fun and well worth doing. But really, there is not much to see. Yankee stadium is about it. Again, as I remember, no shallow water. You do need to be careful in the East River at Roosevelt island. The river is narrow and if you get some large traffic, you may encounter 4-5 foot wakes which you simply can not avoid. Do not let Hell's Gate scare you. Yes, there is a CG station there and yes, the confluence of the Sound and two rivers will sometimes cause "whirlpools" BUT-- in your 25 footer with adequate power, you should have no problems--hell, I went through in a 15 footer with a 55 outboard. The whirlpools did move the boat around a bit but it certainly was not white knuckle. Out in the bay proper, there are a number of ferries so you will want to follow rules of navigation. There is no docking allowed at the Statue of Liberty and now given the terrorist fears I suppose you may not even be allowed close. Now, you can cruise out under the Verrazano Narrows bridge or you can cruise to Jersey and do the (I think) Hackensack river and look at the mountainous landfills.

All in all, you should have a fun trip. There are marinas all along the way so fuel will be no problem. You can even refuel at someplace around the Seaport in Manhattan after you pass under the venerable Brooklyn Bridge.

I take it back---Three days is not leisurely for the round trip. You would want to take at least four.
 
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Mischief Managed

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I did the trip On Monday and Tuesday. We did not have the time to do Albany to NYC for three days (due to crappy weather today) so we launched a little further south in Saugerties and made the loop around Manhattan clockwise on Monday and spent the night at Tarrytown Yacht Club. On Tuesday, we motored up to Kingston for Lunch, then pulled the boat out in Saugerties around 2 PM.

We hit rough water southbound on the Hudson between The Tappan Zee and Battery Park. There was a stiff south west breeze that kicked up some nasty steep and close-spaced chop. This made the decision to go clockwise around Manhattan easy since it meant we lopped 10-12 miles of uphill pounding off the trip. The bridge tender at the mouth of the Harlem river was pleasant and easy to deal with. We actually followed one of Billy Joel's boats (Movin' Out, a Shelter Island Runabout) through the bridge opening. Hell's Gate was utterly flat and devoid of any other boats; we went through at 40 MPH, outpacing traffic on FDR drive. Once we were south of the Brooklyn Bridge, the commercial and government boat traffic; and the wake and wind driven chop was pretty intense, but not anything that really bothered me. People seem to understand and follow the rules, as did I. The trip back up the Hudson to Tarrytown was pretty wild. Once north east of 42nd street, boat traffic dropped to nearly zero and we had fun surfing the wind-driven chop at between 15 and 20 MPH.

The only aspect of the trip that was stressful was the flotsam on the river. There was a huge amount of big logs and such that required a vigilant lookout. Not something I'm used to in ocean and lake boating.
 

Ned L

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Glad it went well for you. That is a pretty neat trip and well worht doing if you can. Would you agree with Frank when he said "As for circumnavigating Manhattan Island, It is a lot of fun and well worth doing. But really, there is not much to see." ? It has been more than 30 years since I've done this trip (made it 6 - 8 times back then), and I thought Frank's comments were on the spot.

As a note, it is "Hell Gate", not "Hell's Gate".
 

Mischief Managed

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Glad it went well for you. That is a pretty neat trip and well worht doing if you can. Would you agree with Frank when he said "As for circumnavigating Manhattan Island, It is a lot of fun and well worth doing. But really, there is not much to see." ? It has been more than 30 years since I've done this trip (made it 6 - 8 times back then), and I thought Frank's comments were on the spot.

As a note, it is "Hell Gate", not "Hell's Gate".


I thought there was plenty to see on the Harlem River, it was not at all dull and certainly more interesting than many other rivers I've been on. I especially enjoyed the flat water and light boat traffic. The East River was very interesting. I'd gladly do the trip again.
 

tpenfield

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MM,

Nice trip, it must be spectacular in the Fall foliage season. You are certainly more adventurous with the boat and trailer than I am . . . Of course now that I have a big boat, I'm pretty much confined to a certain area. My old stomping grounds were a bit further north than along the Hudson you went . . . beautiful, Troy, NY (RPI). Haven't been there in about 10 years.

If you ever bring the boat to the Cape Cod area, lemme know.
 

TippTop

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HI, Thanks for posting the details of your trip. Quick question I'm thinking of taking a day trip somewhere along the Hudson this fall. I only have a Bayliner 185 so I can not do an overnight. I live in NYC but keep the boat in PA near Lake Wallenpaupack. Every time I drive upstate I always thought I'd love to cruise up the Hudson in foliage season but worry about such a small boat on that big river. Is there a section of the river that I should avoid? I was thinking I'd put in somewhere North of Haverstraw and go upriver. I would like to be able to make stops for Lunch etc. Should I expect a lot of commercial boat traffic?, are there any areas to avoid? or areas that you would recommend that should be seen?
 

Mischief Managed

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The river north of Haverstraw is much less likely to be choppy than the river south of Haverstraw because it gets much narrower and meanders a bit more, so there's less fetch for waves to build. If you choose a day without much wind, I don't think you'd have any trouble doing the whole trip in an 18 foot boat though. My favorite stretches of river were between the Bear Mountain bridge and Kingston (for the beauty of the river and the interesting places to stop), and between the Tappan Zee bridge and Battery Park, because of NYC... I was surprised by the low level of boat traffic in general and commercial traffic was a non-issue except between the Brooklyn bridge and the Intrepid. In that area it was quite heavy and required vigilance, but I never felt stressed out by it, the commercial guys know what they are doing and responded exactly as expected. I've dealt with far worse situations with private boat operators on holiday weekends on some of my favorite lakes and in the ICW, it's also way too cool to avoid.

The most stressful part of the whole trip for me was the flotsam. There's a lot of big debris floating on that river and you must maintain a sharp lookout ahead if on-plane. Some of it would rip your stern drive or OB right off your boat.
 
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TippTop

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Thanks. That looks like a 50-60 mile trip which would be more than enough for my first time on the Hudson. Do you think there is always a lot of flotsam or did you follow a storm which might have increased it?
 

Mischief Managed

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Thanks. That looks like a 50-60 mile trip which would be more than enough for my first time on the Hudson. Do you think there is always a lot of flotsam or did you follow a storm which might have increased it?

Since it was my first time, I really don't know for sure. My cruising guide did mention it as a problem though, so my best guess would be that it is always a problem.
 

Water logged

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Wow! Great pictures. That had to be a super cruise, I'm jealous.

Glenn
 
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