Jetster Inbound

The flight back home through LaGuardia the other day chilled with its turbulence but thrilled with scenery.  I used my phone rather than camera to avoid hitting the window with the lens.

Here we enter  NYC airspace over Raritan Bay.  Imagine this on a clock face at the 0800 and heading clockwise. The land is the SW corner of Staten Island.  That’s Outerbridge Crossing over the Arthur Kill (AK), and the cargo vessel following the ever-so-strange channel is SCT Matterhorn, all 538′ of her outbound.

Here we look at the creeks in Freshkills Park, Isle of Meadows, and then Carteret NJ on the other side of the AK;  just off the left side of the photo is the location of the marine scrapyard featured in my documentary, Graves of Arthur Kill. 

A few seconds later, our Embraer 190 crosses the KVK;  dead center is the Bayonne Bridge and Shooters Island at the confluence of Newark Bay (to the north, or right on this photo) and the Kills . . . Arthur and Kill Van.  We’re now at about 0900 on our clock face.

Here’s my favorite shot of the series . . . the entire length of the curvy KVK.  Exiting the Kills and bound for sea past the Staten Island Yankees stadium is the 751′ Hoegh Asia.   I’ve no idea who’s on first.   The salt pile and the IMTT tank farm are key landmarks.

Below are the twin peninsulas of MOTBY, with Bayonne Drydock and the Bayonne Cruise terminal directly across that peninsula.  In the lower rightmost patch of green on this peninsula you can locate the statue dedicated by Putin . . . yes, THAT Putin.    The peninsula to the right–the Global terminals Bayonne— accommodates container ships and ROROs. In the distance Newark Bay Bridge and the rail bridge to its right cross Newark Bay.

Slightly farther north, you can see Global terminals, the Weeks Marine yard, the Greenville rail docks serving NYNJ Rail, and Sims scrap yard in Jersey City, where an unidentified bunker loads.

Approaching 1000 on my clock, here’s the confluence of the Hackensack (nearer) and Passaic Rivers, forming the SE point of Kearny NJ where they become the north end of Newark Bay.  Several hundred ships were built in the Kearny yard–this side of the point–in the first half of the 20th century. The Passaic disappears here into the tall buildings of Newark NJ.

Behold the meadowlands, and if you want to read a good book about that marsh, here’s a review of Robert Sullivan’s book, one of my all-time favorites.  Captains Bill or Hughie give fun tours there too.

So remember this flight is headed into LaGuardia from the NE, so that puts us at 1400 on our clock face, and that means we’re over New Rochelle this point in the approach pattern and that’s Hempstead Bay beyond Sands Point, with Execution Rocks Light looking like a submarine near leftish  center of photo.   The top of the photo looks SE across Nassau County.

It’s City Island, the most unlikely part of the Bronx, to which it’s connected by the City Island Bridge.

And just before landing . . .  it’s Throgs Neck …  and a few seconds later, touch down.

All I can add is that I was glad for a portside window seat on the Embraer.  All that water, that’s what I call the sixth boro.  More Jetster soon . . . .