Thimble Islands, Branford, CT

It was fortuitous that we decided to leave Easthampton for the Thimble Islands on Saturday, August 24 instead of Sunday because the waters were very calm unlike the following day when the wind really picked up.  It took us about four hours to make the crossing and we didn’t arrive in the Thimbles until 6:45 in fading light.  What a beautiful setting!  We were surrounded by small rocky island outcroppings, some with only one home, a few with multiple dwellings and some with none.

We were just a short dinghy ride from the little ferry dock in the hamlet of Stony Creek which is part of the town of Branford.  

That evening we settled into our peaceful mooring where we would remain the the next few days and ate leftover chicken and corn that Ernie and Sophie had generously packed for us along with a lovely zucchini!  The sunsets each night were beyond stunning!

On Sunday, after a leisurely morning, we took the dinghy into the ferry dock.   The Stony Creek section of the town of Branford  is a quintessential New England coastal village. The aforementioned ferry is a tiny vessel that takes people back and forth to the islands.  

Lynn’s cousin, Sally, who lives in nearby Woodbridge picked us up in a “vintage” 1988 Mercedes!  We went to lunch at the Chowder Pot where Lynn and Jonny feasted on two more of their New England favorite foods, Rhode Island clam chowder and baked scrod. We had a very nice visit with Sally who dropped us off after a few hours.

We had a quiet night aboard Zendo (after another gorgeous sunset) watching an old John Wayne western on one of the very few channels we could get on TV.

We had rented a car from Enterprise for Monday so they came to pick us up and we got an early start driving up to Waterbury to visit Lynn’s Aunt Lillian who is 99 and her husband Bob who is 101!!  It was a real treat getting to see them again. Uncle Bob was sharp as a tack, even carving the roast chicken that their daughter Janice brought to make chicken salad for lunch.  Aunt Lil was doing OK but she seemed a little less herself than on previous visits.  It’s always a special treat to be with them. They have been married for over 75 years and though they have had their share of difficulties and heartache over the years, they have always been, to Lynn, a model of an especially happy and strong marriage.  We always make time for a visit with them when we are in Connecticut.

Afterwards we stopped at the cemetery where Lynn’s parents are buried to pay our respects.

From there we drove down to Milford to meet one of Lynn’s childhood friends, Bill Rappoport.  Billy was working but he took time out to meet us for a coffee at a nearby diner, where the waitress clearly loves him having served him apparently for years!  It was great catching up with him. We see Billy and his wife, Lisa periodically when we are in Connecticut and we even saw them a few years back when we were all in the Bahamas at the same time. Billy is one of the few of Lynn’s core group of friends from high school who hasn’t retired yet.  

Since we had a car for the day, we took advantage of it to stop at a local grocery store to reprovision and then decided to go into New Haven to treat ourselves to one of their world famous pizzas.  Big decision, between the two rivals for the top spot - Sally’s or Pepe’s, but it became easy when we discovered that Sally’s was closed on Mondays.  That gave us a chance to try (amazingly for the first time for both of us) Pepe’s white clam pizza, rated the #1 pizza in America.  Boy, was it ever delicious!  With the addition of bacon on top it was like eating clams casino on a luscious crackly crust.  We ordered a bottle of Chiani to go with it -  more on  that later.

When we arrived back at Zendo with our bags of groceries, we realized we didn’t have the half full bottle of wine that we had taken with us from Pepe’s. Oh well! It was too late to dinghy back. Maybe if we were very lucky it will still be on the dockside bench where Jonny forgot it when he goes back the next morning to return the car. 

On Tuesday morning Jonny dinghied back to the dock to return the rental car and lucky for us the brown bag with bottle of wine was still there!  After he returned we took Zendo over to the Branford Yacht Club to fill our tanks with water.  This is the yacht club that the owner of our mooring ball now belongs to. Jonny spent some time helping him with some boat repairs while Lynn made a zucchini casserole from the beautiful local squash and tomatoes we had from Ernie and a local farm stand.  We eventually returned Zendo to our mooring ball.

Later that afternoon, another set of old friends came to visit.  Peter and Paula Zimmer live in Longmeadow MA, but they were in nearby Clinton visiting Paula’s mom.  Lynn has known Peter since grammar school and all four of us were at UConn together. We hadn’t seen them in too many years.  So they came over with their sweet rescue dog, Jake, and we had a really great visit catching up on each other’s families and lives. They brought local corn on the cob and beautiful heirloom tomatoes from their garden so along with the zucchini casserole, we had a good dinner sitting on the aft deck watching the sunset. It’s such an incredible treat to spend time with old friends with whom we can reconnect as if it was yesterday!

This was to be our last night in the lovely Thimble Islands and we would be very happy to return to this tranquil spot in the future!

Easthampton,NY

We left Crocker Marina in New London on Friday, August 23 for a short three hour crossing to Easthampton on Long Island to visit our friends Ernie and Sophie French. We had a very calm passage on an overcast day.  The seas were flat and we had just a little rain but the clouds lifted by the end.  Three Mile Harbor, the passage that took us close to their home, is quite long and there were hardly any boats in it. We couldn’t anchor quite as close to shore as we would have liked because of the shallow waters.  Ernie was waiting for us at the water’s edge on his friend’s property where we could pull up the dinghy and leave it on shore.

We walked a quarter mile up the hill to his home which was basically equidistance between the harbor and the Atlantic. What a gorgeous setting on the far eastern end of Long Island!

We hadn't seen Ernie and Sophie since their wedding seven years ago so it was a real treat catching up with Ernie and getting to know Sophie who is so warm and friendly. Ernie was full of stories about living in the Hamptons and his charter and drafting businesses.  They cooked a delicious dinner and we ate on their back deck on a lovely evening.  After they bought their home a few years ago, Ernie completely renovated the house and it’s very comfortable. That night we returned to Zendo just as it got dark and spent a restful evening at our anchorage.

Our original plan was to stay for two nights but the weather forecast for the day we planned to cross back over to Connecticut said that the seas would be quite rough. So after consulting with each other and Ernie, our local boat captain, we decided it would be more prudent to make the crossing that afternoon.  Unfortunately for us, Sophie had to work on Saturday but Ernie took us for a drive through the beautiful countryside in that part of the world as we headed over to nearby Sag Harbor. 

We strolled the charming village, checked out the mega yachts in the marina, stopped for a quick lunch, and shopped for a few provisions before heading off. 

Ernie dropped us off at the dinghy and after our reluctant farewells we dinghied out to Zendo for the cruise back to Connecticut.  We hope to return in the future for further explorations and to spend more time with our gracious hosts!

New London, CT

A short three hour cruise was all it took for us to arrive in New London from our Duck Island anchorage in Westbrook on Wednesday, August 6.  The day was overcast but it was lovely sailing along the coast passing familiar shore side towns with their traditional styles. We cruised past the beautiful Harkness Memorial Park, Eugene O’Neill Theatre, Ocean Beach and the New London Lighthouse.

After stopping for fuel, we tied up at the Crocker Boatyard which would be Zendo’s home for two weeks. The next three days were a series of family get togethers with most of Jonny’s cousins reuniting at the home of their mothers ostensibly to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of Mallove’s, the family jewelry store!

We partied at various venues including rental homes, local waterfront restaurants, and the Ocean Beach Pavilion which included fireworks and an Elton John cover band!  We feasted on lobster, steak, and had our fill of our favorite fried oysters, corn on the cob, steamers,  Rhode Island clam chowder and famous local Michael’s ice cream.

We wandered the historic “city” of New London which is taking good care of itself though it has struggled over the years economically.

Stephanie and her cousins had a blast not having all been together for many years.

Jonny’s mother Janice, the family’s matriarch, was in her glory to be back in New London where she had lived 90 of her 94 years before moving to Florida.

On two consecutive days we took a crew of cousins for a cruise of New London harbor on Zendo. The first day was especially exciting as a surfaced submarine entered the harbor.  Navy boats kept everyone safely at bay.

The second day, all the kids jumped overboard for a swim in the relatively warm waters (for Connecticut, that is)!

All in all, we had a fabulous time and by Sunday everyone was dispersing to their homes in California, Washington state, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maine, etc. For the next 10 days, we would be traveling back to Miami to unpack our condo before returning to Zendo to resume our cruise.

Westbrook, CT

We had a really fun morning on on Tuesday, August 5 at Safe Harbor Marina in Stratford, CT.  Lynn’s sister Lisa, and two of her childhood friends, Janie and Dara, and Susan, one of Lynn’s high school friends came on board and spent the morning with us.

They brought breakfast and we had a very lively visit catching up on each other’s lives as they checked out our boating lifestyle. Lisa had been vacationing on Cape Cod with her family and then stayed longer in Connecticut to visit a number of old friends.  Now they she is retired she doesn’t have to rush back home to prepare for a new school year!   By noon, after they took Lynn and Stephanie for a grocery store run, it was time to say good by and shove off.

We cruised along the lovely Connecticut coast lined with traditional waterfront homes.

The destination for the day was an anchorage off of Westbrook, CT called Duck Island. We were meeting up with cruising friends, Liz and Steve Kemper aboard Shingebiss. Five hours later we found Shingebiss in a pretty and protected harbor and we dropped our hook nearby.  We took the dinghy and the salmon we had purchased that morning over to have dinner with Liz and Steve. 

We had a lot of fun hearing about their travels since we hadn’t seen them in many months.  Liz has just been elected to the Board of Directors for the Marine Trawlers Owners Association which Jonny is also on so we’ll continue to see them regularly.  We wintered Zendo in the same marina that they winter in and we’ve become quite fond of them.

That evening we had a delicious dinner of salmon, pork chops, pasta salad and a tossed salad.  They taught us how to play Farkel and we watched a little of a PBS show commemorating Woodstock’s 50th anniversary before departing for Zendo.  A good time was had by all!

Stratford, CT

We had a slightly rough crossing of Long Island Sound on Monday, August 4 as we headed from our Oyster Bay anchorage to Safe Harbor Marina in Stratford. It was sunny but a bit cool especially for Stephanie who was sitting on the shady side of the fly bridge and was somewhat inexplicitly freezing, while Lynn who was sitting in the sun was just fine!

Once we crossed the sound it was smooth sailing up the Connecticut coast past Stamford, Westport, Fairfield, and Bridgeport.

As we arrived at Safe Harbor Marina on the Housatonic River in Stratford, the current was fierce.  Jonny tried three times to get into our assigned slip but it was way too risky. We asked the marina if we could tie up temporarily at the T dock which they easily agreed to. Lucky for us they let us stay there overnight so we didn’t have to wait to move at slack tide.

                                     

We showered and got ready for Jonny’s cousin Steven to come pick us up. He came by around five and after showing him Zendo, he drove us to Fairfield to visit his mom who unfortunately is not doing very well. We did have a nice visit with her which was important for us as she is getting up in years and it’s not often that we get to see her.

Afterwards, we went to Steven and Ann’s home where they have the most beautiful garden.  Steve’s sister, Abby and her husband Rich met us there and we all enjoyed a bottle of champagne together.

From there we headed to a very good Italian restaurant in Stratford called Biagio’s Osterio.  We had a very lively evening reminiscing and regaling each other with funny stories.  The evening ended with Steven and Ann bringing us back to Zendo where we stayed up late drinking brandy and port.  Unfortunately we completely forgot to take pictures - apparently we were having too much fun!