While planning our trip south we were trying to decide which route to take around Long Island. On our trip north we went through NY City and Long Island Sound, and thought it would be nice to take the outside route on our trip south. We wanted to explore the numerous bays that are inside the eastern end of Long Island, and learned from friends that there was actually a cut through route that would put us on the south side of Long Island, perfect! The winds have been strong lately, and the sea state very agitated so cutting out some of the ocean travel sounded like a good idea.
This was the route we planned to take.
We traveled from Block Island to the town of Greenport, where we found a protected anchorage and visited the town. Definitely in the top five of my favorite towns visited in the past two months. It is a small town with a 1950s feel. A great place to provision if you are passing through. Anyway we spent that night researching this unknown (to us) passage to make sure we were making an informed decision about proceeding on this route. There were essentially two unknowns that we needed to gather additional information regarding. This route entails a canal/lock system, and an inlet that is poorly marked.
Our research regarding the Shinnecock Canal & Lock led us to believe that this was a ‘normal’ lock. By normal, I mean a lock similar to other locks we have transmitted. There are gates, you enter when told to do so, tie a line to something, wait for the water level to be raised or lowered, and exit when told to do so. The internet contained numerous articles and videos regarding the lock (including how the Long Island Police Department got there submarine stuck in it), but by all accounts it looked ‘normal’...easy peasy! The part that concerned us was the clearance height of the bridges we needed to go under during our transit of the canal. The lowest bridge was 22 feet. Our boat requires 24 feet clearance with the radar mast up, but only 20 feet if we lower the mast...doable, but let’s try for low tide when passing under that bridge!
The next portion of research was focused on the Shinnecock Inlet. There were numerous warnings that due to extreme shoaling, permanent navigation markers were not placed at the inlet. Our charts showed clear channels, but all advice suggested anyone planning to transit the inlet should seek local knowledge before proceeding. The next morning I called the Shinnecock Coast Guard station and asked the condition of the inlet. I was told that the inlet was navigable, but they suggested we go at high tide, and reminded us to pay close attention to all navigation markers. The high tide (which would occur at 9:00 a.m.) recommendation threw a little wrench in the plan, because I was hoping to leave at sun up to allow us time to make an 80 mile trip to Manasquan Inlet, NJ.
The other part of the equation is that we wanted to take advantage of a weather window on Sunday and Monday, but needed to be tucked into a protected anchorage (hopefully Barnegat) before Tuesday. Should we travel Long Island Sound on Saturday, then through NY to Manasquan on Sunday, and a short hop to Barnegat on Monday...or...should we explore the bays of Long Island and go through the Shinnecock Canal/lock on Saturday, travel to Sandy Hook on Sunday, then down to Barnegat on Monday. Let’s go with Shinnecock...something we haven’t experienced before...fun! It’s my turn to pull the anchor and Keith’s turn to take the helm (little did we know that Keith just drew the ‘short straw’!
After getting the Whaler up, we lowered the radar mast and secured it with a special PVC pipe support. Let’s explore these bays...
The bays were very large bodies of water and were very rough from the high winds that day (which weighed in our decision to avoid Long Island Sound that day)
Yippeee...the entrance to the canal, this should be much calmer. There is a strong current pushing us in, but that shouldn’t last long with a lock up ahead.
The instructions for entering the lock (as printed in several places) state to follow the light signals. Green means enter, red means wait, and flashing lights mean stand clear. Coming upon the lock we could see red lights, but when we came around the bend there were green lights. The boat we had followed into the canal proceeded toward the green lights. We were confused...what is this, is there a lock for each direction...everything looks open...oh good, I guess we get to go right through...oh, not good...
The current and eddies were very strong, we were getting pushed around and needed to increase speed to have steerage. With increased heart rates, sweaty palms, and knots in our stomachs we are getting swept toward a very narrow gate. The realization that we are losing control of a 60,000 lb boat moving at 9mph is definitely an ‘oh crap’ moment.
Are we seriously supposed to fit through there?? The current is very swift here and the eddies are pushing us sideways. As the boat turned 30 degrees off center it was clear that we were going to hit something...this is VERY BAD! My initial reaction was to run down to attempt to deploy fenders. No, wait...if we are going to get reverse T-boned by that bollard I probably shouldn’t be hanging over the side, I should brace for impact. I felt a thrust and saw the flood gates pass by without any crunching sound. HE DID IT!!! Keith pulled it off, at the last minute he was able to go full throttle and use the thrust to correct our approach angle and slip through the gate. Keith gets the helmsman of the year award, but don’t celebrate yet...
Are we going to fit under there! It looks lower than 22ft. Keith said, “there is nothing we can do about it now.” I climbed on the stack and peered over the hard top...YES...there is about 2 feet of clearance...easy peasy? As we exited the canal Keith summed up the experience perfectly, “thank goodness Dr. Ginsburg did a good job.” Dr. Ginsburg is the cardiologist who saved Keith’s life last year by placing two stents in his heart during a major heart attack. This experience put those stents to the test. We were lucky enough to come through unscathed physically, but mentally we were shaken (and of course reflection on what went wrong will continue for a long time.) We are well aware of the fact that we used our ‘Get out of jail free’ card this time!
After further investigation we have learned that we should have called the lock operator to ask about conditions and request use of the lock for our transit south. Apparently, when they open all gates they expect southbound boats to travel through the flood gates and north bound boats to travel through the lock. However, if a large boat is heading south they will stop northbound traffic and let the large southbound boat use the 40 ft wide lock. Wow, it would have been nice to know that bit of information. Lesson learned from this experience is that from now on we will always call the operator of any unknown canal or lock!
We anchored in Shinnecock Bay, and were tempted to start drinking at 1:30 in the afternoon, but we didn’t...we still had to get out of the questionable inlet the next morning.
Luckily, out transit through the inlet was easy with plenty of water under the keel. Once in the ocean we re-evaluated our destination and decided to head south. Manasquan was 80 miles away, Barnegat 100, but we could get half way there and decide. The ocean was rough with large swells so we tried to stick to a two hour helm rotation. Dolphins greeted us, and we were happy to see them for the first time in two months.
Sadly, the only other thing we saw besides dolphins was mylar balloons. We counted ten balloons during our passage yesterday. We usually try to pick them up, but conditions were rather rough yesterday so we couldn’t safely get them.
After checking to be sure tide and wave conditions would allow entry at Barnegat, we decided to suck it up and run for Barnegat. This was the sunset while we were still in the ocean. We weren’t thrilled about entering Barnegat Inlet in the dark, but the only reason we considered it was because our GPS had the tracks from our entrance a few months ago. We were safely at anchor in Barnegat at 9:20 on Sunday night, 13 hours after leaving Shinnecock Inlet.
On Monday we treated ourselves to a beach day...fabulous!!
We LOVE Barnegat!
WOAH!!😱 I was nervous reading that
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