A Visual Cruising Guide to the Southern New England Coast: Portsmouth, NH, to New London, CT - Softcover

Bildner, James

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0071489193 ISBN 13: 9780071489195

Verlag: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press, 2009

Inhaltsangabe

New concept in navigation provides the perfect complement to your charts and traditional cruising guides This unique cruising guide features aerial photos matched with chart segments to guide you through channels and harbor approaches. Prepared with input from local experts up and down the coast, hazards, safe channels, and key navigation aids are clearly labeled on photos and charts.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

James L. Bildner is a life-long sailor and avid recreational pilot who shoots the photos for his books from his own helicopter. He owns a chain of upscale gourmet food stores in the greater Boston area and cruises the New England coast in his 52-foot Hinckley, Windward. A member of the Cruising Club of America, Jim has pulled together a network of local contributors to vet and detail the piloting instructions in this book. Jim is also the founder of the Literary Ventures Fund, a nonprofit with offices in Boston and New York, which invests marketing/promotion funds with commercial publishers to help exceptional works of fiction, literary nonfiction, and poetry find the audience they deserve. Hometown: Marblehead, MA

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AVISUAL CRUISING GUIDE TO THE SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND COAST

New London, CT, to Portsmouth, NHBy JAMES L. BILDNER

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 James L. Bildner
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-07-148919-5

Contents

Chapter One

REGION I Eastern Long Island and Fishers Island Sound

—NEW LONDON, CT, TO POINT JUDITH, RI, INCLUDING BLOCK ISLAND—

New London
The Mystic Region
Stonington and Little Narragansett Bay
Fishers Island
Block Island
Point Judith

New London is less than 30 nautical miles west of Point Judith, but any passage between the two is complicated by the lack of an anchorage along the 14-mile coast between Fishers Island Sound and Point Judith, and by the strong tidal currents and treacherous shoals and rocks that separate Long Island Sound from Block Island Sound. Some 110 miles long and 21 miles wide at its widest, Long Island Sound communicates with the Atlantic Ocean through the East River and New York Harbor at its western end and through Plum (Island) Gut, The Race, and Fishers Island Sound at its eastern end. Through these constricted openings must pour enough seawater to fill the sound on every rising tide and empty it on every falling tide.

The results are dramatic. The flood through Plum Gut—the southwestern-most of the sound's eastern openings—averages 3.5 knots, while the ebb averages 4 knots, strong enough to set up standing waves when opposed by the wind. Between Little Gull Island (off Plum Island) and Race Point on Fishers Island to the northeast is the notorious 4-mile-wide main opening, The Race, with currents that range from 2.5 to 6 knots on ebb and flood and are characterized by strong rips, boiling eddies, and—when the current sets through a strongly opposing wind or sea—steep seas. The half-hour slacks at high and low water are the best times to transit The Race.

The third opening, at the eastern extreme of Fishers Island Sound, offers a choice of five passes through the rocks east of Fishers Island. Tidal currents average about 2 knots through all five passes and, unhelpfully, tend to angle across rather than flowing through the passes. Of the five passes, only Watch Hill Passage, Sugar Reef Passage, and Lords Passage are recommended to boaters lacking local knowledge.

Navigation between New London and Point Judith is further complicated by the busy traffic that characterizes these waters. Cruising sailors and powerboaters, racers, picnickers, anglers working the rips for bluefish and stripers (The Race is famous for its rich sportfisheries), tug-and-barge traffic between Boston and New York, ferries crossing the sound or plying between New London and Block Island, lobsterboats, commercial fishing vessels, and Navy and Coast Guard vessels operating out of New London and Groton all converge along this coast. It is not unusual to see a submarine heading to or from the submarine base located in Groton.

Still, these waters offer a magical feel and a unique combination of delights, including Mystic Seaport; the commodious, breakwater-protected harbor of Stonington; the dunes and beaches of Napatree Point; the sheltered shoaldraft waterways of Little Narragansett Bay, the Pawcatuck River, and Point Judith Pond; and offshore, the legendary yachtsman's destination of Block Island. If you are eastbound, this is a chance to breathe deeply of sweet, cool air from the Atlantic and to enjoy the transition from the urban bustle of New York and the harbors of central and western Long Island Sound to the more open waters ahead. You will also enjoy more dependable breezes—a welcome relief from the often windless summer days of the western sound.

However you choose to spend your time in this area, make sure you allow enough time to experience the full range, diversity, and beauty of its offerings.

NEW LONDON

FACING its sister town of Groton across the mouth of the Thames River, New London commands the northeastern corner of Long Island Sound. This is one of the primary yachting sites between New York and Boston. If you are approaching from the west or south, shape your course to leave Bartlett Reef and the 35-foot light on its southern end, Little Goshen Reef, Goshen Ledge, and green-and-red can "R" marking Rapid Rock to port, then carry a northerly heading between flashing green "1" and flashing red "2" at the mouth of the New London Harbor Channel. Be sure to account for the strong tidal currents that sweep this area, especially if you are navigating at night.

When approaching from Fishers Island Sound to the east, you have the option of following Pine Island Channel to the north of Black Ledge, then entering the harbor channel north of its mouth.

The Thames River is a bustling commercial and military port. Ferries run to and from Long Island, and there is always activity around the Coast Guard Academy, on the New London shore of the river, and the naval submarine base on the Groton shore. Your chart will show you the locations of anchorage areas reserved for Navy and Coast Guard vessels and also the security perimeter around the sub base, which you must stay outside. But the channel is deep, well marked, and well maintained, and there is ample depth west of the dredged fairway for small craft intent on avoiding close encounters with ships.

Greens Harbor (see photo page 19) provides the seawardmost and also the best Thames River anchorage and mooring access, though it can be crowded with boats in midsummer. Marina dockage is available in Shaw Cove as well as Greens Harbor. Indeed, marinas abound, and every conceivable yachting need can be satisfied in New London. This old industrial city has restored its attractive waterfront.

As home to the USS Nautilus Memorial/Submarine Force Library and Museum, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Connecticut College with its surrounding 750-acre arboretum, numerous parks, public beaches, and a wide range of shops, museums, and ethnic restaurants, New London and Groton provide an almost unlimited number of things to do, making a visit well worthwhile. If you're lucky you might see the square-rigged training vessel Eagle arriving or departing, perhaps even with middies standing at attention on its yardarms.

Cruisers wishing to avoid the intense traffic of New London Harbor or looking for a transient spot near the coastwise route may find an attractive alternative in the cove east of Avery Point and north of Pine Island (see chart page 18), at the combined mouth of Baker Cove and the Poquonock River (both of which are too shallow for cruisers). The cove provides moorings and some limited anchorage possibilities, though the holding is poor. The presence of the Groton–New London Airport's main runway on the shore nearby may mean that your night's stay is not a quiet one.

THE MYSTIC REGION

A BOATER turning east after leaving the Thames River immediately approaches the western end of Fishers Island Sound. Seaflower Reef stands guard over the western approach, and a half-mile to its southeast are the islets of North Dumpling, South Dumpling, and Flat Hammock. Behind them lies the entrance to West Harbor on Fishers Island. The U.S. Coast Pilot describes Fishers Island Sound as "exceedingly treacherous, characterized by boulder patches which rise abruptly from deep water." In The Thousand Dollar Yacht, a delightful memoir of sailing out of Stonington in the 1960s in a decked-over sailing dory, Anthony Bailey acknowledges that the currents "are fierce, especially for a section that...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2009
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0071489193
• ISBN 13: 9780071489195
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 274
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: GPSR Kontakt; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland