Cruising New York - Lower Bay
Entrance to New York Harbor - Verrazano Narrows Bridge from Sandy Hook 8NM.
New York Harbor is a wonderful place to visit, whether passing through or sightseeing. The harbor is large and deep, and always a hit with guests and crew alike. NOAA Chart 12327 covers this area.
A few words of caution should be helpful first. This is a large and working commercial harbor with the largest of the worlds vessels moving about. They are under the command of harbor Pilots who know what they are doing. Sailboats and small (ie: All) pleasure vessels do not have the right of way before any of these ships. They appear to move slowly, but that is often very deceptive, not only due to their size, but also because they are in the significant tidal and river currents flowing through the area, which can add 5 knots to their speed. To assist and control large vessels, the U.S. Coast Guard operates a mandatory Vessel Traffic System in New York Harbor, similar to Air Traffic Control. This is supported by both radar and video monitoring and recording. It was this video that captured the U.S. Air Jet ditching in the Hudson. New York Harbor is also patrolled by a wide assortment of resources from both the U.S. Coast Guard and the New York City Police among many others.
The Lower Bay is the large area of water in the Atlantic Ocean just outside the Harbor. It is defined by a line, about 4.5 NM, between Sandy Hook, NJ at the northern tip of the New Jersey Atlantic Coast, and Rockaway Point to the East. To the North, the Lower Bay extends about 8 NM, to the entrance to New York Harbor known as "The Narrows", almost 1 NM wide in this scale of things, and spanned by the Verazanno-Narrows Bridge connecting Brooklyn to Staten Island, the New York City boroughs of Kings and Richmond, respectively. Verticle clearance at the center is 215 ft.
The eastern side of the Lower Bay is the coast of Brooklyn with a narrow recreational area with no dockage in front of the Belt Parkway, winding along the coast toward the Bridge. Various parking areas were made famous by Murray-the-K, a famous New York Disk Jockey for "Submarine Race Watching".
Staten Island is indeed an island with a navigable waterway behind it to the West, separating it from mainland New Jersey. The entrance is at the west end of Raritan Bay, behind Sandy Hook. The area is a heavily industrial area used primarily by commercial traffic.
Tides and currents in New York Harbor are significant and should be considered and used to advantage. The tidal current flows through The Narrows about twice a day from the Atlantic Ocean tides. This change can be measured more than 100 miles up the Hudson River. The downstream flow from the Hudson River pushes back the tide and flows out The Narrows with low tide. The tidal currents also flow both up and down the East River and Harlem River that encircle Manhattan Island and re-join the Hudson at the north end of the island. In addition, tidal water flows down the East River from Long Island Sound, where high tide piles water up at the western end and into the East River. Currents in some narrow areas can be substantial and require caution.