From The Big Apple to Long Island's Gold Coast

Monday morning, July 18^th – There were two reasons we wanted to make an early departure from Lincoln Harbor Yacht Center.  First, the choppy water within the marina would turn even choppier once the commuter-filled high speed ferries began crisscrossing the Hudson River.  And second, the infamous water of Hell Gate stood between us and our destination for the day, the Long Island Sound.

Hell Gate is where the strong currents of the East River meet the waters of the Harlem River near Mill Rock.  Its reputation for strong, reversing currents (4 to 5 knots), large waves, and heavy commercial traffic is well-deserved.  Timing your safest, least harrowing passage through the area is dependent on the tidal currents.  After consulting Eldridge Tide and Pilot Book, Frank determined that an early departure from LHYC would be prudent.

Lazy W’s engines were purring; by 6AM we had thrown off the lines and were ready to go.  While I stowed the fenders and tidied up the lines, Frank put Lazy W in reverse.  No movement!  I wondered if we had lost reverse gear.  Frank wondered if we had forgotten to undo all the lines.  Neither one of us was correct.  Lazy W’s bow was sitting in mud!  Even though there was 40+ feet of water in the Hudson River, there was less than 4 feet in the marina.  We tied up again waiting for the incoming tide to release the bow.  A half hour later the bow was swaying in the water so we made a second attempt to leave.  We extricated Lazy W from the slip and dredged our way through the fairway to the Hudson River.

Numerous NY Waterway taxis were already traversing the Hudson and speeding up and down the East River.  It was a gorgeous morning for a cruise past the South Street Seaport...

...and under the Brooklyn Bridge...

 

...and up the East River passing the Chrysler Building.

 

 

Our timing through Hell Gate was just about perfect.  There was no on-coming commercial traffic to intimidate us and the current was running in our favor.  Before long we were approaching the Throgs Neck Bridge, the demarcation line between the East River and the Long Island Sound.  Under the bridge at Fort Schuyler is Frank’s alma mater, SUNY Maritime College.  

Manhasset Bay is on the south shore of the Long Island Sound about 5 miles east of the Throgs Neck Bridge.  The town of Port Washington manages a mooring field of 10 yellow balls that are available to cruisers for two nights free of charge.  Amazingly there were several mooring balls available just off green buoy 3A and we snagged one for Lazy W.  We spent several days here bobbing amidst the hundreds of sailboats, occasionally taking the dinghy into town where we stuffed ourselves with calamari and clams oreganata during happy hour at Louie’s Oyster Bar and Grille or feasted on incomparable NY pizza at any of the pizzerias along Shore Drive.  We made time to dinghy around the bay to gawk at the surrounding pricey real estate.

 

 

After dinner one evening we had some unexpected visitors to the boat.

The heat wave gripping the eastern seaboard was getting a bit unbearable.  Lazy W has air conditioning but in order to use it at anchor we need to run the generator.  Since there is little insulation on Lazy W to keep the cool air in and the heat out, as soon as the generator and A/C are turned off the temperature aboard begins its upward climb.  We needed to spend some time in a marina where we could plug in and run the A/C 24/7.  Brewer’s Yacht Yard in Glen Cove, here we come!

Glen Cove’s location on the North Shore of Long Island seemed like a good place to rent a car and do some touring to sites that we would find hard to access by boat, bike or foot.  Sagamore Hill, the Cold Spring Whaling Museum and the Vanderbilt Mansion were on our list of must sees.

On the hottest day of the record breaking heat wave we visited Sagamore Hill, the un-air-conditioned home of Theodore Roosevelt.    TR, our 26^th president, was born in New York City in 1858.  He served the country in many capacities – Assistant Secretary of the Navy, a Rough Rider in the Spanish-American War, Governor of New York, and Vice President under William McKinley.  He became the youngest president of the United States upon McKinley’s assassination in 1901.  Sagamore Hill, his estate at Oyster Bay, became the “Summer White House” from 1902-1909, hosting many leaders and dignitaries from around the world.

The 23 rooms of Sagamore Hill are filled with the original furnishings of the Roosevelt family.  The personality and spirit of Roosevelt fill the house – 6,000 books fill his library shelves, bear skin rugs cover the floors and, most disturbingly, heads of enormous water buffalo and deer from his many hunting expeditions and safaris peer down from the walls.  His Rough Rider hat and sword hang precariously from the antlers of one such head.

An avid sportsman and hunter, Theodore Roosevelt was also a staunch conservationist.  During his presidential term he doubled the number of national parks, set aside 100 million acres of national forests, and signed into law the Antiquities Act which enabled him and his successors to proclaim historic landmarks and structures as national monuments.

The stuffed bear of our childhood that we all know as Teddy Bear was named after Theodore Roosevelt.  The story goes that in 1902 he refused to shoot a sickly bear on a hunting trip.  That moment was immortalized in political cartoons.  The founders of the Ideal Toy Corporation seized this as a great marketing opportunity and asked Roosevelt’s permission to give his name to a new stuffed bear that they were getting ready to sell.  The rest is history...

Cold Spring Harbor was one of Long Island’s leading whaling ports from 1836-1860.  The Whaling Museum on Main Street is filled with fine examples of scrimshaw, ship models, and photographs from that time period.  A fully equipped whale boat dominates the exhibits.  When a lookout perched high atop the whale ship’s rigging spotted a whale, a six man crew would launch one of several whale boats and row out to the whale.  The harpooner would spear it and the crew would eventually row back to the whale ship with the whale in tow.  Here the whale would be processed into whale oil for illumination, lubricating oil for machinery, and whalebone, the flexible plastic of that time period.   The museum also houses an exhibit ‘From Prey to Protection’ which explores the changing attitudes towards whaling.

At the turn of the last century, Long Island’s north shore was home to such extravagant wealth and style it became known as the “Gold Coast.”  America’s wealthy industrialists amassed great fortunes in a time before there existed any sort of federal regulation or taxes on acquired wealth.  Families such as the Vanderbilts, the Fricks, the Pratts, and the Guggenheims built the American equivalent of castles and chateaus.  More than 500 mansions graced Long Island in the early decades of the 20th century.  Although many of these homes proved to be too large and inefficient to maintain and were demolished, some still exist today, though in another capacity – as a college, a museum, a planetarium, a religious institute, a conference center or state and county parks.

The summer home of William K. Vanderbilt II, great grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, overlooks Northport Harbor in the town of Centerport.  Cornelius built his wealth in shipping and railroads.  Willie reaped the benefits of the family wealth.  As a young man his passion was motor car racing and he and his wealthy friends went so far as to build the 45-mile Vanderbilt Motor Parkway from Flushing in Queens to Lake Ronkonkoma to host the Vanderbilt Cup races!  The first section of the parkway opened in 1908.  He was also an avid sailor; he owned many yachts and circled the globe numerous times. 

Vanderbilt’s 24-room, Spanish Revival mansion was built in stages between 1910 and 1936 and reflects the eclectic tastes and collecting interests of Mr. Vanderbilt.  You can’t name your estate ‘Eagle’s Nest’ and not have some eagles present.  The two large eagles flanking the entrance to the estate were taken from the original Grand Central Station.  Just beyond is a grassy area that has columns taken from the ancient ruins of Carthage.  A pathway of Belgian blocks winds through the grounds.  The entrance to the house features a bell tower with a spiked gate overhead to mimic a castle’s portcullis.

 The bell tower topped entrance to the Vanderbilt mansion

The shopping malls of the wealthy were the monasteries and cathedrals of Europe.  As was typical of many of the grand estates of the Gold Coast, the Vanderbilt mansion is filled with fixtures, tapestries, art works and antiquities from around the world.  There is an excess of taxidermy throughout the house with an entire wing dedicated to birds, butterflies, and large land animals.   It is hard to believe that while the country was in the throes of the Great Depression the Vanderbilts were having bath tubs carved from single slabs of marble and living in such grand surroundings!  Such uninhibited wealth and opulence of this era have been forever immortalized in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book, The Great Gatsby.