Cruising on the Annie B

to Riverhead, NY
July 2002

By Ruth Jansson & Bette Conner
JansCon@aol.com

Riverhead, New York, is located where the north and south forks of Long Island begin—a new destination for us. It was the day after our Nordic Tug rendezvous broke up in late July and two boats had gone on to Riverhead with an invitation for us to join them. We did so the following day and were very pleasantly surprised.

We left Three Mile Harbor anchorage and took the southern route around Shelter Island, entering Little Peconic Bay just beyond the West Neck anchorage. We arrived at the entrance channel to Riverhead on the rising tide, 1.5 hrs before high.

Approach is a little tricky because of some shallow areas, but it's clearly marked on the charts and quite easy with nav software. There are a couple of places, however, where water is somewhat shallower than marked. We wouldn't enter or leave at dead low.

The channel is on the west end of Peconic Bay. There are several marinas with boats larger than ours. Arriving in the town of Riverhead, it felt as if we were on the Erie Canal once again--at a free dock with electricity and water! The entire area is handsomely landscaped.

The Atlantis Aquarium is adjacent to the town wall to the east. There's a sea lion show every two hours and many interesting exhibits. The aquarium is very attractiive and well attended.

A few hundred feet in from the wall is a small cafe with some outdoor tables that is open for lunch. Town is a 2-minute walk away—with a great deli, a bagel shop with breakfast for $1.88 (bagel, egg, ham, coffee), and a good casual restaurant close by. Shopping is good if you need anything--pharmacy, Sears, West Marine, clothing stores, etc. Flowers line the entire Main Street surrounding the base of shade trees and hanging from lamp posts.

It's a good place to visit.

Annie B along the town wall

Dockside cafe

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