Cruising Long Island

[whalin]

Hi Folks,

I'm cruising from Kingston, ON down the Hudson to Long Island. We have family in Lake Ronkonkoma NY, which is mile marker 60 on the Long Island Expressway, essentially in the middle of the Island. We would like to find a moorage or transient slip nearby. Port Jefferson is only 20 minutes away, as is the Sayerville area on the south shore. We have a slip booked in Hoboken, so will be leaving from there on the final leg. My question is, which is the better route, up the East River and along the north shore, or down around Coney Island and the south shore?

Thanks in advance,

Dennis

[edguy3]

Dennis,

Unless you have a very shallow draft, the south shore offers few options. The trip up the east river is easy, assuming you time the current right. It is also filled with sites and activity. ( Make sure you check the UN schedule as it can impact your ability to pass)

another feature of the north shore is there are many other places to go within a day's sail.

/ed

[DWJ]

Absolutely. Do the north shore.

[mbianka]

Originally Posted by DWJ

Absolutely. Do the north shore.

Agree. Plenty of places to stop an enjoy before you get to Port Jefferson. Port Washington has a few free 48 hour moorings. You could also stop off and check out the Nauti goings on at City Island:
THE BIANKA LOG BLOG: DESTINATION: CITY ISLAND PART ONE
Technically it is part of New York City but, has a nice small town feel. If
you are there on the weekends they have a small nautical museum you can visit.

I often drop the hook in Cold Spring Harbor for some quiet time at anchor. Or you could head into Oyster Bay and wander around there. Guess why they named it Oyster Bay?

Northport is another Nauti stop and nice town to walk around for a day. Get a mooring at Seymours.

Then on to Port Jefferson. From there you could spend most of the summer just poking around Long Island including between the forks and you have not even gotten to Block Island or Connecticut yet.

[annsni]

Absolutely North Shore (of course I'll say that since I live here!)!! Port Washington has a ton of free moorings for 24 hours (over 20 of them) so that's a great place to stop. I'm in Northport and from Northport, it's just 3 hours to Port Jeff.

By the way, we don't have mile markers. The exits are just in numerical order and not according to miles.

Do you belong to a yacht club? If so, reciprocal privileges are great.

[Stu Jackson]

You could also do a search on "Long Island" and check the Destination section of this website. There have been a few recent superb replies to questions about cruising there. It would save the respondents a lot of retyping.

[whalin]

Thanks for the input. We have a 42 foot Maine style lobster boat trawler. 48" draft. Single engine, full length keel, prop protected by skeg. We had been planning on the north shore route at first, but while preplanning the rte on my nag software, I started looking at the south shore. I remember seeing the nice sheltered waters inside the barrier islands when going to Jones Beach. Thought it would be nice and calm in there, but this route has about 10 miles of open ocean from NY Harbor to the cut behind the barrier islands. Distances are the same either way.

Well, with all 5 responses saying go north, there is no question, we will go north.