Laura, There's something wrong with your plan, and I think it may have to do with the definition of the time of high or low tide. There is not any official time for low tide, but rather there is a time for low tide *at that particular location." Farther up the river the low tide is at a different time. If you start off 4-5 hours after low tide at your particular location, the tide will catch up to you maybe 2 hours later and soon after that, you'll get a push downstream. Look up the low tide for the Battery (which is about the same as at Verazzano) and arrive there very soon after low tide. As you continue upriver, the tide at your location will rise but because you are moving, it will rise for more than 6 hours, and you will then be at a location that has a later tide. I just worked up some numbers for July 6th for the George Washington Bridge (GWB) and Haverstraw Marina, a distance of about 30 miles: At GWB: Low = 2:49AM High=8:55AM At Haverstraw: Low=4:22AM High=10:12AM Notice that tides at Haverstraw occur about an hour and and 33 minutes (1.55 hours) after low tide at GWB. This means the location where the tide is at Low, moves upriver in this area at about 17 knots. The water doesn't move at this speed, but rather the location of low tide does. You want to be on the water with a rising tide, to get the push. If you could travel at 17 knots, you would be at the same point of tide forever. Best results are when you travel from an hour after low tide and stop an hour before high tide at the new location. So for July 6th, you would be at GWB after 3 AM (low tide) and arrive at Haverstraw before 10 AM (high tide) which allows 7 hours for the 30 miles which comes to around 4 knots minimum speed. Or if you don't like cruising at 3 AM, change the times to 3 PM thru 10PM which will work roughly correctly. Since you go twice that speed, you can pass GWB as late as 6:30AM and arrive at Haverstraw at 10 AM. Or you can catch the afternoon tide, passing GWB around 6PM and arrive at Haverstraw around 10 PM. Both are probably not practical, as you'll want to cruise during daylight, so July 6th is not a good day to get that push. However 2 weeks later, the times would be perfect for daytime cruising. As you proceed up the Hudson, you will find the low tide will come later and later on the following days as you are farther upstream. If you shove off early on the 3rd and 4th days, you may well be within the push zone, but the first 2 days you'll get a drag instead of a push. But passing NYC on July 6th or 7th, you'll be out of sync and you'll get a drag instead of a push, during normal daylight cruising hours. The time to avoid that day is from about 9 AM to 4 PM. You'll see some tugs and barges anchored above GWB during the day on July 6th, they are waiting for the tide. Did your eyes glaze over half way thru all this? And when you come up the Champlain Canal, be sure to overnight at Fort Edward, lock C-7, which is my home port. I'll take ya's out to the bar and confuse you even more! Fred Tug 44 ---------------------------------------- From: "Laura" <lortmann@optonline.net> Sent: Saturday, June 22, 2013 4:37 PM To: fred@tug44.org, great-loop@lists.trawlering.com Subject: RE: GL: FW: current table Haverstraw and Kingston NY Thanks Fred, and thanks to all of you for your kind and detailed responses. I am trying to digest all of the detailed responses from you, and others on list and off list. We are coming from the south shore of Long Island. Our boat is a downeast / lobster boat conversion and we are going to try to stay at 8 knots as that is our sweet spot for fuel economy. However we can certainly go faster as necessary. Looking at coming though NY Harbor on July 5th or July 6th with a first stop at Haverstraw. There are six hours between high and low tide at the Battery, and I think that if we are through the Verrazano at four to five hours after low tide we will get the push up to about Haverstraw. Haven't gotten any further than that in planning yet; I am still reviewing all of your responses. We are ultimately heading up the Champlain for as long as our time lasts this summer. Regards, Laura / Narcosis