From the earliest days in our Nation’s history, the Race, Long Island Sound’s gateway to the open sea, was well known for its navigational hazards. During the maximum ebb tide, an hour or two after high tide, currents through the Race can exceed 5 knots!…
Posts tagged as “Robert Bachand”
Long Island Sound is ordinarily host to only four species of sharks: the Sand Tiger, Sandbar (=Brown), Spiny Dogfish and Smooth Dogfish. A few other species are occasional visitors to the Sound, but one species was likely never expected to swim these waters. In May…
The surface waters along the shore seem to come to a low boil with a school of menhaden thrashing just below the surface. With a breeze blowing the right way, one might even detect their foul, oily odor. Mossbunker, bunker, porgy, bug-head, and fat-back as…
The attractive Second Empire Victorian-style lighthouse is a gateway to the East River and New York Harbor. Extending out from the shoreline on its southeast side, dangerous rock reefs are scattered throughout. Safe passage is to the northwest side of the structure.Even before the birth…
Highlands of Navesink was a natural vantage point for a lookout post. At 200 feet above sea level, approaching ships could be spotted at a distance of nearly 20 miles. During the 1740s, Great Britain and France and their allies were in a conflict called…
Whether seen from just offshore or on nearby land, lighthouses, symbols of our navigational past, each have their own special appeal. Of all of the U. S. states, which one has the greatest number of lighthouses along its coast? That will be answered at the…
When sailing western Long Island Sound at night, a reassuring steady beacon of white light can often be spotted 17 miles out from its source. Shown from the 73-feet fieldstone tower that stands on a bluff, the lighthouse at Eatons Neck has served mariners for…
In the early morning hours of February 27, 1942, the 7,451-ton tanker R.P. Resor was running parallel to the New Jersey shoreline, en route from Texas to Fall River, Massachusetts. Under the dim light of a quarter moon, the ship’s lookout spotted the running lights…
In its early history, the tidal waters of New York Harbor were host to large areas of oyster beds. They served as an important food source for Native Americans and early colonists. Their abundance eventually prompted Dutch colonists to name the harbor’s three tiny islands,…
Its nickname “chameleon of the sea” is well deserved. Seemingly gliding gracefully across the bottom with little effort, it can change its color from brown, gray green or even darker to blend with the pattern and color of the bottom on which it lands. To…