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Stratford Shoal Middle Light

Bridgeport, CT Port Jefferson, NY

Every sailor messing around with boats on Long Island Sound knows this light. It sits on a pile of rocks equidistant between Bridgeport, CT and Port Jefferson on Long Island, NY.

But mostly, big boat racing sailors and cruisers have the fondest memories of this light, forged during overnight passages. Sailing on Long Island Sound is no place to be on a foggy night at 2 o'clock in the morning and the world around you is pitch black. A horn rumbling in the night warns of impending dangers and all eyes aboard ship try to pierce the darkness to see the elusive Stratford Shoal light and avoid the treacherous rocky shoal.

Then someone shouts: "I see it off the port bow" and all rest easy as they watch a light smaller than a pinhead coming through the darkness - occasionally disappearing again and again.

She stands sixty feet high among a gaggle of very dangers shoals and rocks and flashes a white light every five seconds that can be seen for thirteen miles in good weather; and her great horn sends the sweetest noise you could ever hear - in fog!

You can see this historic place from the Port Jefferson/Bridgeport Ferry as you cruise by at some distance; otherwise you will need your own boat - but it would be worth the trip.