After rounding Sandy Hook, NJ, you can access the Kill Van Kull (an alternate route around Staten Island to New York Harbor) and the Raritan River from Raritan Bay. A number of harbors that sit along the South Shore of Raritan Bay and on the North Shore of Lower Bay (Great Kills Harbor) provide protection for cruising mariners.

To the north through The Narrows lies New York Harbor, where a skipper can head north up the Hudson River, east through the East River to Long Island Sound.