Guilford, Connecticut · Long Island Sound · 41°16.1′N 72°40.7′W · VHF Ch 71
Holding at Guilford Harbor is rated good, over a mud bottom. Set well and check your swing before you trust it.
Guilford Harbor is well sheltered from north, northeast, east, west, northwest winds. Check the wind-protection rose above for every direction.
Guilford Harbor is primarily a mooring or dockage harbor, with little or no room to anchor free.
Hail on VHF Ch 71 (Guilford YC Ch 71).
Reservable — Guilford YC transient slips / moorings on Ch 71. It fills on summer weekends.
Guilford is a marsh-fringed river harbor behind a rocky approach — a full-service marina-and-yacht-club stop fronting one of Connecticut's prettiest colonial town greens, a short walk up from the water.
This is a berth-and-mooring harbor, not an anchorage: the Coast Pilot calls it a place "used only by small craft," and depths run thin. Reserve a slip or transient mooring at Guilford Yacht Club (hail Ch 71, launch till evening) and time your entrance for higher water. Once you're tucked up the creeks behind the salt marsh you're well sheltered from everything but a hard southerly across the outer bight.
Hazards & cautions. The approach is rock-strewn — Indian Reef, Half Acre Rock and Riding Rock guard the entrance, so hold the buoyed channel. Inside is shoal and tidal: much of the harbor and the West River carry only 2–6 ft, so enter the dredged cuts near high water and mind the big 5-foot tide.
NOAA Coast Pilot describes Guilford Harbor as a bight used only by small craft, its rock-obstructed approach reached by a buoyed channel southeast of Indian Reef and west of Half Acre Rock.
No cruiser reports yet. If you've anchored here, be the first — your note helps the next boat in.
Augusto ratings and editorial are our own synthesis of public-domain sources and cruiser reports. Always verify against current charts and local knowledge before you rely on them.