North Cove at Old Saybrook, CT - at a free mooring

PYC ought to have a sailing school too

We had intended staying overnight in Stonington to weather the storms headed our way but when we looked at the morning forecast it appeared that the storms had been delayed until very late in the day. Given that we got in  motion and headed out shortly after 8:00 towards the Connecticut River and North Cove.

The wind was directly on the nose so we didn't get any sailing in but we did make North Cove by noon. The entrance channel is still good for 5.3 feet at low tide and inside it was 6.5 to 8.0 feet at the first four moorings. North Cove is designated a "Harbor of Refuge" and is maintained at a minimum depth for anchoring by the Army Corps of Engineers. All of this is paid for my our tax dollars and even when moorings are put in, the stipulation by the ACOE is that there cannot be a charge for transients using them if they are empty. As a signal when they're free (when no one will return for the night) they are to have a yellow ribbon wrapped around the mooring ball. Such designated moorings can then  be picked up by a transient at no charge, which we did on the fourth ball in.

The North Cove Yacht Club - very nice

The harbor itself has 360 degree protection and is very calm with no wakes whatsoever. There is a yacht club there, the North Cove YC of which Frank Vinciguerra was a Commodore at one time. He was also a former Commodore of the Poughkeepsie YC. Even today many of the members have ties to the Poughkeepsie area.

There is a convenient public dinghy dock at the end of the mooring area and with a short walk into town, there are shops and even a small grocery store. It's just a nice stop over. The storms are due by around 10:00 or so but we're looking forward to Thursday to see if we can sneak over to Mattituck for an anchorage, otherwise we'll just stay here another day.