Next message: W. J. M. Fordyce: "Re: lv-ab: Liveaboard Decisions"
1) Currents in Long Island Sound are fairly moderate: 1 to 1-1/2 knots. But
the currents at the inlets (Hell Gate on the west, The Race and Plum Gut on
the east) can be ferocious: up to 5 knots. Pay close attention to the
tidal-current tables. You may want to pick up the NOAA Tidal Current Chart
for LIS -- it shows grapically, hour by hour, what the current is predicted
to do. You might also want to pick up Eldridge Tide & Pilot, which offers
much local knowledge.
2) Since you're coming from Florida, remember that the tidal range is much
greater: 6-7 feet in LIS, and more farther north.
3) Yacht clubs and marinas use moorings rather heavily, so if you want to
use the tender service instead of the dink, check schedules and protocols.
4) Watch out for lobster pots and fish traps while under way. Also,
lobstermen tend to get cranky when they feel that people are screwing
around with their pots, and have been known to vent their feelings with
gunfire.
5) Many, many great anchorages, marinas and yacht clubs along LIS:
Larchmont (NY) YC; Indian Harbor YC (Greenwich, CT); Riverside (CT) YC;
Stamford (CT) YC; Pequot YC (Southport, CT); Norwalk (CT) Harbor; Eaton's
Neck (NY); Lloyd's Neck (NY); Port Chester, NY. A trip up the Connecticut
River (about half way to Rhode Island) would be worth your while. Mystic
Seaport in eastern Connecticut is rich in history. You might also want to
visit the Coast Guard Academy in New London; Newport, RI, of course, is
something of a mecca for sailors; Boston YC; Volunteer Yacht Club
(Marlboro, Mass.).
6) When tranisiting the area near eastern Connecticut, look out for
submarines, especially at night: They go in and out of Groton (Electric
Boat Works) and New London (Navy base).
7) Rhode Island was seeking to have all of its waters declared a
zero-discharge zone. If that has been implemented, do everything by the
book, since the state will probably seek to press home the point by
vigorous enforcement.
8) Block Island, RI is a good stopover, especially after Labor Day, when
the summer crowds are mostly gone.
9) You'll probably want to go through the Cape Cod Canal en route to Maine,
rather than going offshore. But take a few days to poke around the Cape and
the islands. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is quite interesting.
I am particularly fond of Wellfleet, which, if you thing of Cape Cod as an
arm bent at a right angle, is at the inside of the elbow. En route to
Wellfleet, you will see an old cargo ship that was scuttled years ago and
used by the Navy for gunnery and bombing practice.
10) On the western side of Massachusetts Bay, New Inlet is a nice, quiet
anchorage. Plymouth is not far away, and you can visit Plymouth Rock (which
I expected to be of Gibraltarlike proportions, when it is really about the
size of a footlocker).
11) I've had some good times in Gloucester, Mass., and strongly recommend
that you go on a whale-watching trip from there.
12) In Maine, be aware that the water gets very deep very fast, so 50 yards
off land you can be in 100 feet of water.
13) There is a marine-biology center in Boothbay Harbor, ME, that makes for
a fascinating day trip. It is focused mostly on lobsters, and you can see
them from newborns that are bearly visible to the eye, up to goliaths that
weigh 20-plus pounds. There is even the shell of one lobster taken in the
early part of the century that weighed almost 70 pounds. By the way, if
you're up for a lobster dinner, try going to one of the lobster shacks on
the wharves: They'll boil you up one that just came off the boat and charge
you next to nothing. (I remember getting seven 3-pound lobsters (uncooked)
for $28.) BYOB and have a grand time.
14) If you use loran instead of GPS, be aware that there are some local
anomalies that can result in an error of up to 1/2 mile. Local knowledge or
the appropriate Coast Pilot would probably help you stay on course.
15) Throughout your voyage, pay close attention to the weather -- not just
to NOAA's weather broadcasts but to chatter on the VHF, and by looking
around you constantly. We were hit by a microburst during the Around Long
Island Regatta one year. We were knocked on our beam ends, and as we were
picking ourselves up, we saw that other vessels to windward had suffered
the same fate. Had we been looking around rather than just at the sails, we
would have seen it coming.
Hope your voyage is everything you hope and more. I have some very pleasant
memories of cruising in the Northeast, and hope to return there with my
wife someday for an extended trip.
Mike Fordyce
S/Y K. 361 (C&C 40)
M/Y Fortissimo (Chris Craft Roamer 56)
Vallejo, Calif.
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