“Hidden Harbor” Boat Tours Offer an Insider’s View of New York’s Working Port

This tour goes places that most people never get to see see: Brooklyn’s Erie Basin, Staten Island’s Kill Van Kull and the container ports in Newark Bay, as it showcases New York Harbor’s vital working waterfront.

Expert narration by Ed Kelly, a former seafarer, now the executive director of the Maritime Association of the Port of New York/New Jersey

Tickets on sale at www.workingharbor.org

New York, NY: Tugboats, oil barges, tankers, container ships, car carriers, ocean liners and ferries ply the busy waters of New York Harbor daily, but most of their activity is hidden from land. Narrated Hidden Harbor® Boat Tours take people to parts of the harbor that can only be seen from the water and show the vitality of the working harbor.

The next two-hour Hidden Harbor Tour® will take place aboard Zephyr*, a three-deck luxury passenger boat that will depart from South Street Seaport on August 21 at 6:15 p.m.

“We are a maritime nation, and people don’t know that,” said Ed Kelly, executive director of the Maritime Association of the Port of NY/NJ, who will be the special guest narrator on the August 21 Hidden Harbor Tour. “The maritime industry delivers the American way of life. It is essential to the nation’s security and economic well-being. But because we have gotten so good at what we do people don’t even know we do it any more. It is hidden away. That’s why tours like this are so important.”

Sponsored by the Working Harbor Committee, which has been running special waterfront tours for 10 years, the tour will travel to the most active parts of the working harbor, with a stop in front of giant gantry cranes loading or unloading some of the largest container ships in the world at Ports Newark and Elizabeth.

Once it leaves South Street Seaport, the tour boat will hug the Brooklyn shoreline, and then cross the harbor to the narrow Kill Van Kull, one of the busiest commercial waterways in the world. The KVK, as mariners know it, separates Staten Island from Bayonne, New Jersey. Tug yards, oil docks and marine repair facilities line both sides of the Kill. Just past the Bayonne Bridge, the boat will turn into Newark Bay where tour goers will be able to see the heart of the busiest port on the East Coast and the third busiest port in the nation (after Los Angeles and Long Beach, California). Views of the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan skyline will round out the harbor experience as Zephyr returns to port.

Captain John Doswell, executive director of the Working Harbor Committee, will share the narration with Kelly. They will draw on their long maritime experience to describe how the port works and explain why it is so important.

“This tour amazed me. I’ve lived in New York City my whole life, and I had no idea all this activity was going on in the harbor,” Stuart Dworeck, a media professional and recreational sailor, said at the end of the July Newark Bay Tour. “I am coming back and bringing friends.”

Zephyr* will depart from South Street Seaport’s Pier 16 at Fulton Street and the East River promptly at 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday, August 21 Tickets: $29, adults; $22, seniors (65+); $15, children (3-12). Snacks and beverages, including wine and beer, will be available for purchase.

Advance ticket purchase strongly recommended. Visit www.workingharbor.org or call 212-757-1600.

Two additional Hidden Harbor Tours® will take place in 2012. All will depart from Pier 16, South Street Seaport. The remaining tours are:

Brooklyn Waterfront Tour: September 4, at 5:30 p.m. This tour, narrated by Brooklyn waterfront expert Dan Wiley, will showcase the changing Brooklyn waterfront from the Brooklyn Navy Yard to Sunset Park.

Newark Bay Tour: September 18 at 5:30 p.m. featuring the Kill Van Kull and Ports Newark and Elizabeth

The Working Harbor Committee is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to spreading the word about the rich history, current vitality and future potential of the New York/New Jersey Harbor. The organization also runs an extensive youth education program. Full information is available at www.workingharbor.org.

Directions to Pier 16: Subway: 2,3,4,5, E, J, Z or M trains to Fulton Street, or A and C trains to Broadway - Nassau. Walk east on Fulton Street to the pier

*The tour boat is subject to change to a New York Water Taxi pending day-of conditions; if so, Water Taxis board at Pier 17, South Street Seaport