What are your sailing goals for 2013?

Tideripped

New Member
This is kind of an offshoot of Winter Thoughts post but Ill throw it out there anyway...

Prior years I've done coastal sailing within a mile or so of shore. This upcoming season I want to do some 15-20 mile crossings from Connecticut across LI SOUND. To Long Island - camp overnight and sail back. I want to sail across the middle of no where and get away from it all and benefit from the pece of mind and solitude
As I dodge tankers and such.

That's my short term goal Ill take up when the water hits the 60f bracket or warmer. I've got other things on my bucket list but that's at the top.

What do you guys want to do this year?

Pete
 
I don't have to tell you that you'll need EXACTLY the right conditions to make your shore to shore excursion. The Sound is noted for it's (sometimes) violent winds, (sometimes) lack of wind plus significant currents. I've sailed on the Sound for many years (larger boats than a Sunfish) and almost always find it frustrating although I've done the Bridgeport/Port Jeff crossing many times. You'll get either SW or NW winds normally. What is usually hard is going up or down the Sound when invariably the wind is the wrong way!

I've done some all day Sunfish "cruises" but never really that far from shore. Sounds like it would be fun to do cross Sound - if the conditions are perfect.

Clyde
 
Hi Clyde,
Thanks for the reply. I appreciate your first hand accounts.

I've been following LI Sound weather patterns for the last couple years with Predict Wind which forecasts wind (darned accurately) and I've seen a trend . In the cooler months the prevailing winds blow rather one directionally from the compass points you mention. Summer seems to have its own phenomenon. The heating land masses of Connecticut draw the wind off the sound to their respective shores., Connecticut sucks it up North and Long Island pulls it down south onto its north shore line. In the middle - in that middlec30% runni g east west develops these doldrums. It's the zone between two opposing directional fronts and start the engine!

That's my finds and its hardly concrete but it would seem to explain that dead calm that periodically plagues the central area. The cooler months seem to not have this trend so I'm guessing its because the land never gets warm enough to generate localized air flows.

It is a temperamental and unpredictable body of water. Some the islands along the shore n ct can have these blissful lee side airflows totally untelling of what's on the otherwise but I guess that's true of all islands. I avoid the currents in the sound mostly by keeping to the central coastline but even still I do want to try the Old Saybrook/Orient Point run - tides and all. I will say when the wind opposes the tides the chop and swell out there looks like one soaking wet ride

Thanks for your input. All comments are appreciated.

Pete
 
I don't want to rain on your parade, but a 20+ mile crossing of LI Sound in a Sunfish does not strike me as prudent. If you do plan do do it, pick perfect weather (a beam reach over and back in about 10-12 mph wind would be good) have an exposure suit to match the air and water temp. conditions, and have both a cell phone, a hand held VHF radio, gps locator (all in water tight bags) and flares so you can call for help and pinpoint your location and be seen on the water if you get in serious trouble. I have sailed a Sunfish on Buzzards Bay from Falmouth down to
the Woods Hole area, but I never got more than a mile or so from the beach so even with high wind and foul current, I could always beach the boat if necessary. The fact is that the Sunfish is not designed as a cruiser, and LI Sound is not a body of water to be trifled with.
 
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A trip like that sounds like it would be fun with good conditions and planning. Thread creep, but as a former SAR pilot a signal mirror and a flashlight go a LONG way to being found if needing help, you can spot them miles away. Not trying to load the boat down with 100 pounds of survival gear, but these items are cheap and useful when venturing out into the aqua boonies.
 
Hopefully get out in the boat more than last summer (only 3 times! :eek: due to combination of lack of wind, lack of crew, etc.). I'll be out as soon as the water temperature rises high enough and the wind is blowing strong enough - for me that's late March or early April (Galveston bay).
 
Sail more as well! :) Explore other lakes than the one we learned on (though that ramp and beach are great!). Once my husband and I have our masters degrees in May, we want to celebrate with a camping/sailing trip and get out of town.
 
Sail even more and enjoy it always. Kind of done with racing, just hanging out on Lake Wilson (Alabama) at the Muscle Shoals Sailing Club and on Lake Michigan (Ludington, MI). Good times and good friends.
 
I wondered the same thing if a trip across the L.I. sound is possible. I've come to the conclusion that it isn't a good idea. Although supposedly a guy named James lee meadows sailed from Miami to Boston, pulling in to shore each night. Took him 110 days. He wrote a book on Amazon called, "This book is drunk". I've been very happy sailing from Silver Sands in Milford. I mostly hang in the cove. Circle the island. My goal is to sail as often as possible. Hard to find a good day with 10+mph winds. I went out today in what was suppose to 5-10 and it was ok but not exciting. Hope to catch a storm and live to talk about it.
 
Prior years I've done coastal sailing within a mile or so of shore. This upcoming season I want to do some 15-20 mile crossings from Connecticut across LI SOUND. To Long Island - camp overnight and sail back. I want to sail across the middle of no where and get away from it all and benefit from the pece of mind and solitude
As I dodge tankers and such.
Pete

I've spent two days sailing on Long Island Sound. On both days, we heard high-speed ferries pass us in heavy fog. :eek: We prudently put up a radar reflector first, but our boat was a 22-footer, with much safety equipment.
 

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