TOM-KAT Completes America's Great Loop!

At 9:15am on July 7, 2008 TOM-KAT completed America's Great Loop at the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. We traveled 6,051 statue miles in 378 days. It has been an awesome journey!

Our journey today started at 7:05am in the fog as we left Great Kills Yacht Club. 6499 and the harbor mooring field. The fog continued up to the Ambrose Channel, which is the main shipping channel into New York Harbor. Thanks to AIS, GPS and Radar, we were able to easily spot freighters and tows in the channel long before we could see them visually.

By 8:30am, we were cruising under the Verrazano Narrows Bridge into New York Harbor. This bridge was opened in 1964 and is a double decked bridge connecting Brooklyn and Staten Island. It is the longest suspension bridge in the United States and 8^th in the world. Due to weather related expansion and contractions of the structure, the bridge is 12’ lower in the summer months than the winter months!

In the far distance in the next picture you might be able to make out the shape on the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier docked on Staten Island. The ship is normally docked in NYC as a museum ship at Chelsea Pier. In the summer of 2007 it was moved to Bayonne, NJ for repairs and then to Staten Island for renovations and temporary docking. It is due back at Chelsea Pier in November of 2008.

We worked our way along the Brooklyn side of the harbor trying to avoid the ferries, tows, freighters and water taxis! We crossed over to the Statue of Liberty and passed on her south side to drop the hook behind Liberty Island. From the anchorage we can see the top of the Statue and the torch through the tree tops….it’s a pretty amazing sight!!

Our Best to Everyone and Thanks for Sharing This Journey With Us!