We finally had to disengage ourselves from this scenic spot. But first Jonny had to remove the pennant from the mooring ball and return it to its owner, Ted, who met him at the Stony Creek dock. After a quick lunch, we left our beautiful spot at 1:30.
We headed out onto Long Island Sound bound for Old Lyme at the mouth of the Connecticut River. It was a gloriously sunny and clear day, cool enough to wear an extra shirt. Our plan was to arrive at the Old Lyme Dock around five. Their fuel was the best price around and we learned that if we filled our tanks (which we needed to do) we could stay the night for a small charge. There were remarkably few boats on the Sound considering it was a holiday.
That changed as we approached the mouth of the Connecticut River. Besides the lovely lighthouses, we were “greeted” by the sight of a huge super yacht named Excellence.
We looked it up online and discovered that it was 275 feet long and owned by a gentleman who made his billions by owning 18 car dealerships in Boston. He lived in Old Lyme and commuted by helicopter weekly to his office in Boston. And he owned several mega yachts, all of which were named Excellence. Apparently he read In Search of Excellence early in his career and figured if he named his yachts that, his boat captains would adopt that philosophy in their care of them!
As we entered the mouth of the river, boat traffic increased significantly as all the speed boats and pleasure boats returned for the day. They zipped by us as we plowed up the river. We arrived at the Old Lyme Dock early and the first thing we saw was another huge yacht docked there, also called Excellence.
And as we watched, a helicopter was taking off from the lawn behind the dock house. Clearly, this was the owner of these yachts returning to work for the week!
After hovering for a bit waiting for some boats to fuel up, we approached the dock where we were guided into a very protected slip behind Excellence where we took care of our fuel and water needs. We were one of only three boats there, a wonderful place to stay and plug in after having been on a mooring for two weeks. We learned from the dockhand that Herb Chambers, the owner of these yachts, lived up the hill and has been leasing the fuel dock to the dockhand’s dad (and fellow UConn grad) for many years.
That evening, after dinner, we took a walk and discovered a wonderful boardwalk that extended along the coast all the way to the main railroad bridge that crosses the river. People were fishing and crabbing along the bridges in this beautiful setting.
That evening, in the shadow of our illuminated neighbor, we had a blissfully calm night’s sleep absent the rocking and rolling of previous nights.
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