On a circumnavigation of Manhattan last year (2025), I had a very professional conversation with a commercial barge skipper. Our kayaking group had earlier used a radio to communicate with a city ferry about letting use pass ahead of them, but this example was a bit more involved.
We were northbound on the East River a bit south of 42nd street. Looking up the river, I could see a barge coming down the channel between Roosevelt Island and Manhattan. As I watched it approach, I kept thinking it would turn to port to slip eastward of the green buoy in the bottom left of the following two screenshots. Not seeing this happen, I got on the radio and put out a securite call about our position.
The barge skipper radioed us, and in short order we agreed our group would stay between the buoy and the marker on Belmont Island (truly, this is a ledge that is above water at low tide, not an island so much as a pile of rocks).
Looking at a chart later, this makes more sense. The channel actually runs closer to Manhattan, so that’s where the bigger ships go.
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