Stony Creek, CT (return trip)

On Monday, September 21 we left Old Lyme bound for the Branford Yacht Club.  We left at 8:45 because we had almost a 4 hour cruise and we were meeting our friend Ted there around noon.  Ted is the gentleman who had allowed us to use his mooring ball at the Thimble Islands for two weeks, free of charge.  He had also offered to pick up the outboard motor that we had to have repaired when we were in the Thimble Islands. And he was selling us three extra solar panels leftover from his own installation!

It was a quite a chilly but clear day and Lynn was all bundled up on the flybridge during an uneventful cruise to Branford.

When we arrived, Ted was there to greet us and Jonny hauled the outboard and three large brand new solar panels onto Zendo.  He has been wanting to get solar panels for awhile. We won’t be as reliant on our generator once the panels are installed.  His plan is to install them over the winter so they’ll be ready to use next cruising season.  Jonny was somewhat frustrated with himself for not repairing the outboard himself but we really didn’t have a good time and place for him to work on it. His plan is to sell it along with the dinghy that we had used before buying our new one a couple of years ago in Canada.

After receiving guidance on how to install the solar panels we stopped for a pump-out at the yacht club and had a short one hour cruise back to the Thimble Islands where we anchored this time.  We relaxed for a couple of hours before meeting Lynn’s cousin Sally for dinner.

As we took the dinghy into the harbor we passed the unusual technique used in the Thimble Islands to mark many of the inner moorings. They use long straight tree branches to mark the mooring locations. We wonder about their sturdiness in storms but they do have a particular charm!

We had tried to get together with Sally two times before but as they say, “the third time is the charm”.  She picked us up at the harbor and we went to Rossa Vino in Branford for dinner. This was the same restaurant we had eaten at in August with Steven and Ann, et.al. and once again we were able to sit outside. This time it was cold enough that they turned on the heaters halfway through the meal. We had a very nice time catching up with Sally since we hadn’t seen her since last summer.

By 8:30 we were heading back to Zendo where we started to settle into our cozy saloon for the night.  Unfortunately, the heat in the saloon wasn’t working properly (the same unit that we gave us trouble with the AC).  Jonny mucked around with it for over an hour and it just got worse. He even called the fellow who had helped us with it in Baltimore, but that didn’t help either.  Again, the unit in our cabin was working so we could warm up that room for the night. Oh well, what would Jonny do if he didn’t have a project to work on or a problem to solve?