28-Jun-2022 -- Sally & John, Gail & Peter, Nancy & Jim are all boaters who keep their boats in Chester CT on the Connecticut River and travel around Long Island Sound and across to Long Island, NY.

Always looking for new adventures, we thought that visiting a CT confluence on the water would be fun. Unfortunately, there are no confluences on the CT side of Long Island Sound, but there is one in New York: 41N 73 W.

(The only two confluences in CT are on land, up near the Massachusetts border.)

Picking a boat to take us there was easy. The largest and fasted boat volunteered.

We left Chester at 08:45 am with six on board and reached the mouth of the CT River at 09:40. Further waypoints reached were:
Cornfield Point “R2” at 09:48, speed 23.0 kt.
Long Sand Shoal “RG”W” at 10:00

About 11:30 we reached the confluence (Headcount 6)

At 11:30 we took photos at the site: General Area: Water!
North: Milford CT
South: Miller Place LI NY
East: Shore of Mattituck LI NY
West: Port Chester NY
Also photographed two GPS readings.

We ate a short lunch and left at 11:50 for the CT shore to take on some fuel at Cedar Island. Entered the harbor at 12:05 PM and tied up at the gas dock at 01:17 PM Took on 60 gallons of fuel. We returned to the trip and passed Cornfield Point at 02:04 PM speed 24.0 kt. 02:10 found us at the mouth of the river and at 02:24 we passed under the railroad bridge. Stopped for fuel at Hayes at 03:00, just across the creek from our starting point. Head count 6!

It was fun taking a trip where we were all on the same boat and sharing a common goal. All Power Squadron members, we did “big trip” things like a head count (even though we were only a party of 6). We all wore life jackets (with whistles) just as we teach others to do. Carried, and drank, lots of water.

When we had a problem with the boat’s built-in GPS we were fortunate that the captain had a backup, and we also followed our progress on handheld (phone) GPS apps. We discussed how best to approach the confluence, but our worries were lifted when the captain nailed on the first try!

More tiring were the numerous lobster traps on the water. They are small targets, and it took a lot of careful watching to see them all.

What is next for our intrepid crew? Well, there is always that one off Montauk at 41N 72W.