Navigation & Anchorages:
The south coast of Long Island has a general trend of 247° for 68 miles from Montauk Point to Fire Island Inlet and thence trends 263° for 36 miles to the western end of Coney Island in the Lower Bay of New York Harbor. It is a clear shore and may be safely approached as close as 1 mile with not less than 30 feet anywhere between Montauk Point and Rockaway Inlet, except off Fire Island Inlet and the inlet’s westward side where the shore should be given a berth of at least 1.5 miles. When viewed from seaward it presents only a few prominent features. It is composed of a series of sand dunes backed by low dark woods.
Coney Island, on the northern side of the entrance to New York Harbor, is a large summer amusement resort. Numerous stacks, towers and amusement rides, including a red steel parachute tower 303 feet high, are prominent on the island. Coney Island Light (40°34’36″N., 74°00’42″W.), 75 feet above the water, is shown from a white square skeleton tower on Norton Point, the westernmost extremity of the island.
Coney Island Channel is a buoyed passage along the south side of Coney Island that leads from deep water in Lower Bay to Rockaway Inlet. It is used principally by vessels going to Jamaica Bay and Coney Island. A shoal area with a least depth of 6 feet is about 0.1 mile west of Buoy 3.
Gravesend Bay, northward of Coney Island, affords good anchorage; a general anchorage is in the bay.
Coney Island Creek is at the southeastern end of Gravesend Bay and on the north side of Coney Island. Commercial traffic on the creek consists mainly of occasional barge shipments of sand and gravel. The area northward of the entrance to the creek is being filled, and piling is along the northern side of the creek at the filling site. Numerous obstructions and wrecks are in the creek; mariners are advised to seek local knowledge before entering. The creek is crossed by three fixed bridges having a least clearance of 3 feet. The ruins of a fourth bridge exist about 0.17 mile above the third bridge in about 40°34’49″N., 73°58’42″W. A boatyard about 0.8 mile above the creek entrance provides berths, electricity, gasoline, water, ice, storage, marine supplies, and hull and engine repairs. Lifts to 14 tons are available. In 1981, a reported depth of 4 feet could be carried to the boatyard.
A buoyed channel with a least depth of 10 feet leads from deep water northward of Coney Island to off the docks in the eastern part of Gravesend Bay.
A small-craft facility on Gravesend Bay can provide berths, electricity, gasoline, diesel fuel, water, ice, storage, marine supplies, and hull and engine repairs. Lifts up to 30 tons are available. In 1981, a reported depth of 15 feet could be carried to the marina.
Current:
The flood current entering Lower Bay from the sea attains a velocity of about 2 knots in Ambrose Channel entrance, near the outer extremities of Sandy Hook, Coney Island and The Narrows. It sets generally parallel to the lower straight section of Ambrose Channel and tends to continue to that direction where the channel bends toward The Narrows, setting more or less diagonally across the upper straight section of Ambrose Channel. At the beginning of the flood, the current sets in at the bottom and near the shores while it is still ebbing at the surface in Ambrose Channel.
The ebb in Lower Bay is generally stronger than the flood by 10 percent or more. At its strength it sets from The Narrows approximately parallel to the upper straight end of the lower straight section.