North Cove on the Connecticut River - at a free mooring

Matt up the mast! (with safety line)

Ahoy there its m Matt in the Hatt. Sarah wasn't on the boat today until dinner time so I will write the blog tonight just like last night. This morning I woke up on the late side after watching Magnum Force last night till 12. I woke with the sound of the motor purring into my ear. There is a huge downside to sleeping in the aft cabin , the motor is right next to your head. Well after that I proceeded to the unoccupied V berth. I slept a short while there then moved on to the cockpit after Fleetwing was plowing into the sound. It got extremely rough when we left and I made the mistake of going back down bellow. My stomach began to churn abit as I stormed back into the cockpit and curled up with a good book for a while. Then I fell asleep and didn't wake till after the boat was halfway across. We got a chance to sail so we took it and sailed the rest of the way. we arrived and I grabbed a moaring and tied it down to the forward cleat. I then rotted my mind somemore on the computer till mom and the girls arrived to return Sarah to the boat. We all sat awhile and had fun till it was time for mom and Natalie to go. Then a brand new thing happened to me. I had to go up the mast to the first spreader and secure the burgee line. Everything was going well till the time came to come down. Nana didn't put slack on the safety line while grandpa lowered the bowmans chair. Well lets just say I was singing in a higher note after that. Then both Sarah and I rotted our mind with computers and ipads. Dinner then was ready. We had some lovely ham, mac and cheese, and beans.  It was wonderful. after that we had some cookies and cream ice cream, with Hoolie drooling off to the side. now we all are relaxing and letting dinner set in.


We spent a calm night at Mattituck and left a couple of hours before low tide just to have a safety margin in exiting the inlet although we could have made it a low with our 4' 9" keel. There was less than 5 kts in Mattituck  but when we reached the inlet we found a confused sea with winds in the 15 kt range opposing a 1.5 kts current causing short, steep waves, very uncomfortable. We had waves breaking over the bow and water hitting the dodger - which we had closed, luckily. This was not going to be fun all the way across the Sound! However, after 2/3 of the way across, the winds and waves started to abate and we put up the sails for the rest of the way.

View Down the fairway at North Cove

North Cove is one of our favorite places to stay since it's protected from winds and waves in all directions, close to the Sound and, best of all, has free moorings. The harbor is periodically dredged by the Army Corps of Engineers and as part of the deal the residents that have moorings must allow transients to use them at no charge when they are away. The moorings with yellow ribbons are the ones available for free use. The channel into the anchorage is the shallowest part with depths mostly around 6.3 ft MLW but with one spot at 5.0 MLW for about 30 ft. It's 6 to 7 ft in the harbor along the fairway.

We are now back to a full crew after Sarah rejoined us today. Matt had his adventure up the mast so the other crew member is learning his trade. On Tuesday we're headed for Stonington  and the anchorage there by the breakwater. There's Hoolie relief nearby on the breakwater so it's perfect for us.