With AIS, it's pretty easy. I assume you have a AIS transponder not just a receiver.
First, as others have said it's not really crowded. You might have a half dozen ships to worry about in the whole trip and they all have AIS.
First, remember that when you are crossing a traffic separation lane like the ones off
NYC, you have to stay out of the way of a vessel in the lane. It's not the normal COLREGS
rule 15.
Monitor the CPA of all ships within 20 miles on the Vesper. It's easy to do. You'll see that most will be showing a CPA of 1NM or more. This isn't an
accident, I've noticed that many ships will adjust course a degree or two at a long range to increase a CPA to 1NM. It wouldn't surprise me if it's a company regulation not just good seamanship.
Offshore I sometimes prefer a 2NM CPA especially at night. I'll then hail the ship on
VHF to tell them that I'm changing course to port (or starboard) to increase the CPA. I only do this when I am at least 5 miles away so as not to confuse them if they were treating me as the stand-on vessel. They almost always answer since they can see my name right on their AIS.
I do this trip frequently. About half the time I go up the East River because the
weather isn't looking good outside Long Island, there's no good deep
water shelter for a sailboat from Sandy Hook to Block Island. It's can be a nasty piece of coast.
It doesn't take that much longer to go up
Long Island sound and there are many fun stops along the way if you aren't in a hurry. It's easy in NY harbor to stay out of the traffic - although I do it in daylight. It's pretty special to sail past the Statue of Liberty and under the
Brooklyn Bridge.
If you go inside, here's a good chart of the East River currents:
http://www.offshoreblue.com/cruising...r-planning.php
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