Tuesday, 10 June
Jimmy Crafaro turns momentarily from his work to address the customer seated five feet away, waiting his turn in the chair at Atlantic Waves.
“Yeah, but watcha gotta rememmba is dose people ah doin’ the best they can…,” says Jimmy.
His assessment of the current bureaucratic morass in New Jersey may be true but it does little to comfort the waiting man, one still trying to re-build his house from the damage done by Hurricane Sandy. Jimmy returns to his work, clipping, combing, gel-ing—yuck!—changing scissors, clipping some more, with the same vigor as his editorial.
This is the morning of what the weather indicates should be a lay-over day in Atlantic Highlands. There’s time for a trip to “Atlantic Waves” and polishing bronze ports, working-out with the TRX, going ashore to provision at the market. Then back aboard at midday, the fog gives signs of lifting, there’s a bright spot in the haze that looks a lot like sunlight and it’s decided: let’s make a run for it, up the East River.
At 1300, Eldridge’s Tide and Pilot Book confirmed there still would be time to catch the fair tide at The Battery and, thus, Hell Gate (a corruption of the Dutch word “hellegat,” meaning “heavy duty wash cycle on your Whirlpool.” More on that later.)
Fall back plans were discussed—as in, what to do if thunderstorms do materialize as forecast—Little Red responded to the call for action and Steadfast rounded the Atlantic Highlands breakwater at 1344.
The current wasn’t quite as advertised. Steadfast crabbed up the Chapel Hill South Channel before turning under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge where speed-over-ground (SOG) jumped from 5.1 to 6.7 knots, a speed on which the day depended.
Lower Manhattan as seen from Buttermilk Channel approaching Governor’s Island.
While water speed stayed at about 5 knots or less, SOG climbed to 7.3 near Governor’s Island, then 8.4 under the Brooklyn Bridge, Little Red all the while turning a consistent 2300 revs-a-minute.
The Brooklyn Bridge remains one of the most stately and iconic images of New York City.
At Hell Gate, Steadfast rode the swirls and eddies that tried to twist her right, then left, and hit a top speed of 11.3. For 27 feet, that’s movin’.
The current stayed with her past College Point, Throgs Neck and up to the Stepping Stones where it finally slacked and she made her normal 5-to-5-and-a-half.
She turned into Manhassett Bay at 1915 hours, slid under the gaze of Gatsby-like estates and rides now, quietly, on a town mooring—free, we’re told—in the lovely harbor at Port Washington.
Like the summer “cottages” in Newport, stately mansions line the banks of Manhassett Bay.
Thirty-seven-nautical-miles, on the button, in just over six hours for an average of 6.3 knots. That includes the two hours “crabbing” across the current in the Lower Bay.
And what of Jimmy Crafaro and his morning client, you ask? It appears Jimmy is a fan of the Four Seasons. When he’s done his work, your correspondent looks more like one of the “Jersey Boys,” an aging Bob Gaudio, perhaps, than your familiar skipper of Steadfast.
And this day, this day is a chart-topping number-one smash!
Steadfast out.
At Sea with Steadfast 
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