Long Island Sound Crossing

[IndianChris]

Cool pics. Are those the Northport stacks in that second picture? Cool! Looks like you had a nice day.

After looking at maps, I was thinking of taking your advice and exploring those islands a bit. We'd like to do a round-tripper. Leave from Caumsette and plot a course with the GPS towards those islands. Explore a bit, have a snack and return to Caumsette to a cooler of beers and burgers ready to be bbq'd. Feel free to join us!

The distance from Caumsette to CT is much shorter, as you said, than if we left from the mouth of the Nissy or Sunken Meadow. It's better that way since I don't even have a kayak yet.


I'm gonna have a sit-down with my absentee-buddy this weekend who got me started on this whole trip. We're gonna tool around Smithtown Bay for a while. I'll borrow a Tempest from work which is the boat I hope to have in a week or two. Once I have it, we'll set a date for the trip.

Don't get me wrong, I've been paddling canoes for a while so I do have some experience with a paddle. And I've been tooling around at work when it's slow in the Tempest. Endurance-wise, I also expect to be fine for the Caumsette departure. What I need to learn before we do this is a solo-wet recovery. I also will learn wet recovery with the assistance of another paddler. Any advice on instructional books or web-sites on these?

Thanks again.

 

[IndianChris]

Did a LITTLE practice the other day in the Sound. Wow. Big body of water. The current moves quick through there as well. Was out early in the morning when it was calm and paddled out to some big green bouye (is that how you spell it?) Need to get out when the swells are a little bigger just to build up the confidence.

Practiced some rescue techniques as well. T-formation? That's really cool as long as you can hold your breath long enough for the other guy to get there.
Plan on getting out there again this week for more confidence building.

I wasn't able to find out anything on line about magnitude of tidal currents in the sound BUT from the USGS site I did find out this...
1 - Tidal currents in the Sound decrease from east to west.
2 - The two points we plan on leaving from actually have the highest tidal currents due to the fact that the Sound bottle necks a little bit there (by Caumsette and from Cedar Beach near Miller Place). This is actually deduced by the amount of erosion/deposition on the floor of the Sound. Higher currents, more erosion. Slower currents, more deposition.

Very interesting. Will try to post more and pics soon.

 

[cbcbd]

Cool pics. Are those the Northport stacks in that second picture? Cool! Looks like you had a nice day.

I am not sure what those stacks are called but I figured you might

After looking at maps, I was thinking of taking your advice and exploring those islands a bit. We'd like to do a round-tripper. Leave from Caumsette and plot a course with the GPS towards those islands. Explore a bit, have a snack and return to Caumsette to a cooler of beers and burgers ready to be bbq'd. Feel free to join us!

Cool, let me know once you have a date set and if I'm around and not working I'll paddle over to the islands for a CT welcome!
Next weekend a friend of mine reserved all campsites at Grassy island (one of the Norwalk islands). If you guys do it this weekend you'll have a place to stay

What I need to learn before we do this is a solo-wet recovery. I also will learn wet recovery with the assistance of another paddler. Any advice on instructional books or web-sites on these?

From what I remember, this book was pretty good and had plenty of pics:
http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book...2667001?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187190246&sr=8-2

Great website I stumbled upon once:
http://www.atlantickayaktours.com/Pages/ExpertCenter/main-expert-center.shtml

Was out early in the morning when it was calm and paddled out to some big green bouye (is that how you spell it?) Need to get out when the swells are a little bigger just to build up the confidence.

Buoy
Love the swells and the waves!

Practiced some rescue techniques as well. T-formation? That's really cool as long as you can hold your breath long enough for the other guy to get there.
Plan on getting out there again this week for more confidence building.

Hold your breath? Is this the one where you stay inside the kayak and roll yourself back up using another boat's bow? If so, I think that one is called the Assisted Bow Rescue or just Bow Rescue.
The most common and easiest 2-person rescue method is the T-rescue - extremely good to know for any group paddling out. And the good thing is that it's easy to talk someone through it even if they hadn't practiced it before.

I wasn't able to find out anything on line about magnitude of tidal currents in the sound BUT from the USGS site I did find out this...
1 - Tidal currents in the Sound decrease from east to west.
2 - The two points we plan on leaving from actually have the highest tidal currents due to the fact that the Sound bottle necks a little bit there (by Caumsette and from Cedar Beach near Miller Place). This is actually deduced by the amount of erosion/deposition on the floor of the Sound. Higher currents, more erosion. Slower currents, more deposition.

Cool. Didn't know, but it makes sense. The water gets pretty fast and wavey as you get near Caumsette.

 

[DougPaul]

I wasn't able to find out anything on line about magnitude of tidal currents in the sound BUT from the USGS site I did find out this...

I have no idea how much info on the tidal currents is available on line. Check the nautical section at a book store or your local nautical supplies store for books and tidal charts.

I have seen a chart with the tidal flows around the Sound, but it was a long time ago and I don't remember where I found it.

Tidal currents can easily be faster than you can paddle or kick up turbulence that you don't want to be in. (But if you are willing to wait ~6hrs, they will reverse...)

Doug

 

[IndianChris]

Cool, let me know once you have a date set and if I'm around and not working I'll paddle over to the islands for a CT welcome!
Next weekend a friend of mine reserved all campsites at Grassy island (one of the Norwalk islands). If you guys do it this weekend you'll have a place to stay

Well, that sounds great. Thanks for the invite. I don't think we'll be doing it in time though. I'm going to join my pals for a long paddle on Monday (16-18 miles) and we'll likely pick a date then. I'll keep you posted.

Hold your breath? Is this the one where you stay inside the kayak and roll yourself back up using another boat's bow? If so, I think that one is called the Assisted Bow Rescue or just Bow Rescue.
The most common and easiest 2-person rescue method is the T-rescue - extremely good to know for any group paddling out. And the good thing is that it's easy to talk someone through it even if they hadn't practiced it before.

Yeah, that's the one. Gotta have trust in the person otherwise the alternative is the T-rescue like you mention. I've done that with canoes.

Tidal currents can easily be faster than you can paddle or kick up turbulence that you don't want to be in. (But if you are willing to wait ~6hrs, they will reverse...)

Sure, just last week I experioenced how stong they can be. We stopped at a green bouy for a little break and all the while I thought it was just over my right shoulder. In a matter of seconds, we were like 100 feet away from it.

Thanks again for the info and interest. I'll keep on posting updates.

 

[IndianChris]

All right...getting closer. Last week, we paddled from a beach just around the corner from Caumsette in Huntington Harbor and out about 6 miles to some big green bouy...and back of course. The barge traffic was wild . Big vessels! The boats we were among out there were likely from CT. Most defeinately could have made the crossing then but had to be back for a BBQ. Could see Sheffield Island we think. Hey cbcbd...how was the camping? Did you go?

Tomorrow we paddle out to the lighthouse between Mt. Siani and Bridgeport. That should be a 14 mile trip. It's all about building up that confidence and experience. These trips aren't very long but it's the conditions that make you better, right? Should be nice anyway tomorrow. Meeting at 5AM so I can make it back for work at 10.

Big Sound trip planned for 9/15.

Will post pictures from last weeks paddle from Caumsette as soon as they're sent to me. I'll try to make the effort to take my own tomorrow.

Be well.

 

[IndianChris]

Got to Cedar Beach at 5AM today and was in the water by 5:45. The wind and sound of the waves crashing on the shore was not something we expected to hear this morning but non the less, we got out. We decided to change our destination. Since I'm a newbee and the waves were maxing out at somewhere near 5, maybe 6 feet, we headed towards green bouy #9. What an exciting morning. Waves crashing over bows and on the return, sneaking up behind us and forcing us to stay on course. Plenty of stars in the sky and eventually the Sun did rise.

All in all, we did about 11 miles. It was so much fun riding the waves. I still can't believe I was out there in those conditions. Not that it was anything out of control but it was my first time in it. More confidence building. So what if we didn't get to the lighthouse, it was still a great day for a paddle.

Tentatively still planning for a 9/15 crossing. Nothing is written in stone though.

 

[IndianChris]

Made A crossing via the FERRY yesterday and checked out possible landing/launching sites. Not much available. Saw this one little rocky spot that we think we'll take out on, on the Bridgeport side... Still seeking advice from poeple who've made the same trip as far as legal put ins and take outs...
Also got a nice shot of the lighthouse halfway between Bridgeport and Port Jeff...

 

[IndianChris]

Trip complete

Finally made the Sound crossing on the 14th. Was in the water in Port Jeff harbor at 7:15. Landed on some beach just outside the Bridgeport harbor at around 11:40, so it took us about 4.5 hours to cross. We averaged about 4mph. The conditions were just right...no wind (a little from the south so we never felt it), waves less than 1 foot and the sun was mostly out. These conditions though do make for a long, monotonous journey. It was a great trip but pretty humdrum.
This is how we did it. We parked our cars in Port Jeff and paddled across. Getting out on the west side of the Bridgeport harbor was dicey. There was no real good landing spot near the ferry as you see in my previous pics. And who knew if we would get arrested for even trying. We decided to take out on the east side where there was a public boat ramp. I asked my buddy Joe to take his car across (all expenses paid of course) on the 11AM Ferry. He disembarked and drove over to the ramp and picked us up. With all three kayaks on his mini-van we got back on the 1:30 ferry to Port Jeff. End of story.
Felt good the rest of the day. Not sore, not tired. Looking into cirumnavigating Gardiners Island. Maybe even Plum Island to the Gull Islands. And there was even mention of Block Island from Montauk. Can you say "Jaws?" Maybe not. (anyone do that? know anyone who did that?)
Here are some pics...

 

[cbcbd]

Chris, that's awesome. That's a long paddle and I like the idea of taking the ferry back
Being out in the "boring" open water can be sort of boring Next time don't forget to bring the deck of cards


And yep, I did make it out to Grassi island and camped at it - cool sites and some good snorkeling around.


So, what's the next paddle? Season is slowly slipping away

 

[IndianChris]

Thanks!
That camping thing sounds like a good next trip.
I think this Sunday we're gonna head out to Middle Ground, hopefully stop and have lunch and return.

 

[darren]

Cool beans. The best thing is that you said you were going to do it and then you did it.

- darren