July 30 -- Orient YC to North Cove, Old Saybrook CT --18NM

In the morning the dinghy's engine decided to work again. I must have flooded it the night before. It is a fine balance between starving her of fuel and flooding her. So we got ashore for the breakfast sandwiches at The Country Store with seating on shady benches in the side yard, followed by outdoor showers.

The Orient YC is a low cost no-frills operation with no restaurant but runs an extensive youth sailing program. A noon departure for the Gut to arrive there at slack before flood at 1:45 made for a leisurely morning. On the way out of the Bay, as on the way in the day before, we passed "Baba's" (le ss than 200')another behemoth, like Odessa and Majestic, taking a free parking space on anchor. It is not like St. Bart, Sint Maarten, Miami or Newport, but the big boats like to hang out here.

But my math was wrong and we would have gotten to the Gut too early so we sailed along at three knots to kill a bit of time.  And from the Gut to R"2" off the east end of Long Sand Shoal and directly to the breakwaters of the Connecticut River was a straight shot close hauled, motor assisted, with main and small jib, assisted more and more by tide as well until we were making 8.3 knots.

Addendum: This is a page from a travel magazine advertising hotels on the North Fork; I used a Sharpie to mark it with our wake from Port Jefferson of to the west, until CT off to the north.

We got a call from the person who now has the phone number that the Cruising Guide said was assigned to the Old Saybrook Harbor Master. He gave us the correct name and number of the current Harbor Master and I was reminded to spring for a replacement to the 2010 Cruising Guide. We had once gotten stuck aground in North Cove but it was dredged before our most recent visit about 2-3 years ago. The new Harbor Master, whose name and number is now in the Guide, advised that they still have plenty of water for us since that dredging. This chart shows the course (in the white deep water) from the Sound and  breakwaters at the south end to the Cove itself, upper left, but shows the depth as only 3.5 feet as of 1999. Hence the need for current local knowledge. They now have a free guest mooring for up to 72 hours which is closest to the dinghy dock. A great place to stop.

We were in a hurry to take an Uber to the nearest propane refill place before it closed for the night, but realized that we could get by a lot less expensively on a couple more green bottles for the next few days and bought them at the same hardware store on Main Street that before refilled our tank. We will get it refilled using our car, in New Rochelle when we get back home. We also took in the local supermarket and dinner out. The issue was whether the rain, which had been threatening, would hold off long enough for us to get back to ILENE. It did. And we hauled up the dink and attached the new can of propane before retiring. North Cove used to be notorious for insects but not a big problem this year. The small rectangle of deep water in North Cove is well used by neat lines of moorings.