Red Hook occupies a prime corner of the Upper Harbor, jutting out to the southwest just below Governors Island. Coming from the north, down Buttermilk Channel, there's a good landing on a gravel beach at Valentino Pier, just after you turn the corner towards Erie Basin. This is the home base of the Red Hook Boaters, who sometimes keep their canoes locked to the chain-link fence that surrounds the park. You can pull your boat up to the top of the beach and then make the short walk to the Waterfront Museum, Beard Street Piers, and Erie Basin.
Another good-looking landing is a bit further east, and thus even closer to the destinations mentioned above, at the foot of Pier 44, on a protected sandy beach that's still got a few rotting pilings sticking out of it. There's a nice park with new plantings here. According to one guy who was working in the park last summer, however, boaters are discouraged from landing here; he said that despite the docks and the industrial setting, the site was envisioned by the community as a wildlife refuge and that the coming and going of small boats would disturb the birds that congregated there.
Know more about this beach? Email us at info@newyorkharborbeaches.org
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| Valentino Pier: Landing is to the left of the pier; everything else is rip-rap |
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| Valentino: good lounging behind beach |
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| Valentino: safe boat storage on the upper shelf |
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| Pier 44: good protected spot |
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| Pier 44: excellent boathouse potential |