Compo Beach (Westport, CT)

When We Went:

We went to Compo beach in early July of 2005. It was a early Sunday morning. It became a little windy while we were there, but was a very nice day. Compo Beach is located in Westport, CT.

Details:

The Beach area closest to the entrance of the parking area was full of people. We went to the far end of the parking lot which seemed to be more the place for people interested in boating or picnicking on the beach. We saw a few wind surfers and a few other Kayakers. We also saw a few people attempting to launch sail-surfers (large kite attached to the person and person using a smaller surf board), but they didn't seem to be able to get the wind they wanted and were gone when we returned from our trip.

We had a 5 Star breakfast on the beach before we started out on our trip. We started out on the beach and crossed the boat lane (red and green bouys) and went out to a island (you can see the island on the Google map below). We contemplated crossing the very thin part of the island (maybe 25 feet across at that point with the tide (looked to get skinnier at higher tides) and go to one of the Norwalk Lighthouses, but at that point the wind had picked up quite a bit. We decided to turn around and it was likely the correct decision. On our crossing back toward the beach the wind and the waves had picked up quite a bit. The wind was headed off shore, so it made our paddling back more work than the trip out to the Island.

It had been quite a while since we were last out in waves that crashed over the front of our kazoo. Needless to say it was nice to have spray skirts on. It was really quite fun to deal with the larger waves generated by passing boats (most people were nice enough to try to swing wide of us or to slow down, so nothing was overwhelming). Even some of the smaller waves pushed us around (or up and down) at unexpected times. It was fun, but not for the beginner.

The people who were showing us their stomping ground commented that normally the water was much quieter, so newer Kayakers should not be deterred.

Pictures:

Compo Beach Entrance

Picture of the Beach Area

Put In:

The entire beach is a put in area. As you enter the parking lot go around to the far left side. There tend to be far less people there, mostly people launching Kayaks, or Sailboats. The beach area made for a great put in no matter what the tide level was. No concerns here. The waves also did not present a problem. Likely because this is the sound and it was a relatively calm day.

Link to Map:

The Link to the Google Map for the Compo Beach area is below. Compo beach is actually the gray area at the end of the Compo Beach Road. Google doesn't have it listed as an area. All of the other online maps of the Westport area also had a similar lack of detail.

Google's Map

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