Great Kills

Staten Island: Great Kills Harbor

Sunset over Staten Island

We bid goodbye to our sandy little anchorage.  We’d miss being surrounded by a daily flotilla of drifting fishing boats, swooped on by the biggest seagulls you’ve ever seen and rocked by surging ferries (not!!!).  We needed time to prep for open ocean voyaging, get our SkyMate (satellite coms & weather) up and running and re-provision.  We motored the few miles over to Staten Island and into harbour refuge, Great Kills.  Kills is a Dutch word meaning “river”.  The area was once a small fishing & oystering port – no more… 

Snug as a bug...

The harbor was chock-full of mooring balls and marinas wanting exorbitant dinghy dock fees but it was sheltered.  We anchored close to the boat ramp and had instant access (via a bike path) out to a busy main road and shops.  Somehow the area is reminiscent of Sydney’s (well lived in) inner-west.  Amazing how in a few days we’ve jumped from “Gone with the Wind” to Woody Allen’s ”Broadway Danny Rose”. 

The seagull (above) looks smaller than he really was.  The mooring ball is industrial size - a perfect vantage point for a seagull to hold a conversation/issue orders to others. Nearby boats were covered in all manner of handcrafted devices to keep these huge monsters from doing their worst on idle decks.  You could be scrubbing for months otherwise!  

From: Sandy Hook, NJ  Lat/Long: 40 27N  74 00W  Date/Time: 14/8/10: 1510
To: Great Kills, NY  Lat/Long: 40 32N  74 07W  Date/Time: 14/8/10: 1650
Time Taken: 8nm (2hrs)  Distance (this year): 384nm (77hrs)
Distance Total (since 2008): 4024nm  (776hrs)   Fastest Speed: See Note**
Weather: Winds kts; Seas ft; Swell
(** It was a nice afternoon and we motored because we could!! Avg 4kts)