East Greenwich, RI

We left our Point Judith anchorage at 9 on Sunday, July 7 to travel to our next destination in East Greenwich, RI.  It was very foggy and we waited a bit for some of the fog to clear before heading off.  The day had cleared up sufficiently so that plenty of people were at the nearby beach, even more than the previous day.

We had to travel onto open ocean at the end of Long Island Sound to cross over to Narragansett Bay.  The cruise was not too comfortable as we were taking it on the beam, but we arrived unscathed by 4:20.  Archie wasn’t thrilled with the rough passage but he got over it! 

East  Greenwich is near the top of the bay and we have a gift certificate so we could stay for free at one of the marinas there. It’s amazing how much water surrounds the state of Rhode Island!  East Greenwich is near Warwick on the map below and Point Judith is at the southernmost point of land just SSW of  Narragansett. 

We planned to stay at this marina for two nights so we could get a lot of things done, such as laundry and some boat maintenance. We had a won a gift certificate donated by a marina management company at the last MTOA  Rendezvous worth $1000! Unfortunately, there are very few of those marinas in the area we are cruising this year so we want to use it whenever we can. 

We contacted our friend Gerhard who lives nearby to see if he was available for dinner.  In 2022 he had taken care of Archie when we joined other MTOA members in Washington state where we all chartered trawlers to cruise the San Juan Islands.  Gerhard arrived around dinner time and after cocktails aboard Zendo we went to a local restaurant for dinner.  It was great to catch up with him. He was especially happy to see Archie after having just lost his sweet poodle, Beau, to cancer. 

Later that evening we strongly considered leaving early the next day because the winds and seas were forecasted to kick up.  Fortunately, however, we decided we could stay one more day as the winds and rougher seas were forecasted to hold off another day.  So we got a lot of our boat chores accomplished including laundry, defrosting, wiring, cleaning, etc. It’s a good thing that Jonny is as slim as he is to be able to fit into all the nooks and crannies of the boat. He has become incredibly adept at boat maintenance!

We had plenty of leftovers to eat and a well stocked refrigerator since Gerhard had kindly taken us to ShopRite to stock up. So we had an easy night before heading out to Cuttyhunk Island the next day.

Point Judith, RI

We left Shelter Island on Friday, July 5 because it was predicted to be the best day to travel across Long Island Sound for the next couple of days.  We dropped the mooring at 8:25 and headed out on a foggy day.  It was not the most comfortable passage - a little lumpy. So much so that Jonny went down below to make our lunch. Archie tolerated it quite well so that was a good thing.  And Jonny managed to catch forty winks.

By the time we got to the breakwater at Point Judith, we were very relieved.  As soon as we got inside the breakwater, all was calm as we passed beaches filled with sunbathers. We still had on two layers under our wind jackets from having been on the water (as opposed to in the water).

We had to make two stops before arriving at our anchorage, first to fuel up and then to get a pump-out and fill our water tanks.  I took Archie for a short walk and took in the sights of the little beach town.

We finally arrived at our anchorage in the Port Judith Pond at 4:25 and anchored not far from a group of 20 boats that were rafted up together. 

We contemplated going to visit Jonny’s cousin David and his family, but the dinghy ride would have been too long and returning in the dark was not a good option. Besides, we were a bit beat up from the cruise.  Instead, we just took it easy and relaxed. I made crab cakes and a delicious vegetable dish with zucchini from David and Mary Ann’s garden.

That evening we watched George Stephanopoulos interview Joe Biden. We were wondering why so many boats were entering the harbor in the dark, but it didn’t take long for us to understand why when the first of two big fireworks displays began.  We had a ringside seat on the bow of Zendo.  The only problem was after a while the smoke given off from the fireworks was blowing in our direction and at times almost completely blocked our view!  All the boats celebrated the end of the display by blowing their horns. It was a nice surprise for us as we didn’t think we were going to see any fireworks this year.

The next day David came by in his boat to pick us up and take us to their beach home in Matunuck.  

They have a lovely home there and it’s always filled with their children and grandchildren.

David’s sister Abby and sister-in-law, Anne, also came over from visiting Abbys daughter Alana in Waterford, CT. David’s wife, Bobbie, had lunch for us since they had a lot of food leftover from a party the day before.  

We had a great time visiting with everyone and at the end of the day, David took us back to Zendo passing all the traditional coastal homes and a cool lighthouse.  We got ready for the next day which will be a long travel day up Narragansett Bay.

Shelter Island, NY

After having left Zendo for a whole week at the Niantic anchorage, we pulled anchor and headed out on Wednesday, July 4.  Our destination was Shelter Island on the eastern end of New York’s Long Island.  Our MTOA friends, Tom and Kathy Kallman had invited us to join them at the mooring field there for the 4th of July. It was a foggy day but we had a smooth, almost four hour cruise across Long Island Sound. Archie was his usual chill self.

We rendezvoused with Tom and Kathy at the mouth of the Shelter Island harbor and followed each other in.  They are aboard a beautiful Nordic Tug 44.

The entrance to the harbor in Shelter Island has an attractive lighthouse and is lined with magnificent homes.

Jonny hoisted a gift from our friend Richard Chew.  It is a traditional Union Jack flag to be hung only on Sundays and holidays and while the vessel is at rest. We thought that Independence Day was an especially appropriate day to fly it.

After we settled in to our moorings, Tom and Kathy came by in their dinghy and we invited them aboard to see Zendo.  We watched a youth sailing class in an adorable fleet of Optis racing against each other as they maneuvered their prescribed track. 

Then we all decided to go into town to provision for our onboard dinner. We went to Tom’s favorite Marie Eiffel market and stocked up for the evening’s meal.  While Tom and Kathy headed back to Liberty, we took Archie for a walk through the Shelter Island Heights neighborhood. 

Shelter Island is a beautiful village with lovely homes and many wide swaths of lawn for Archie to frolic in.  

We let him off the leash at one point and he started to chase what at first we thought was a peacock.  All his barking caused the homeowner to come out thinking that Archie was his dog! We had a nice chat with him and his wife who were very tolerant of Archie running all over their expansive yard that looked out over the harbor.  It turned out that the big bird was a wild turkey, not a peacock!

Upon returning to Zendo, I made a rhubarb crisp from the rhubarb from David and Mary Ann’s garden. Tom and Kathy had invited us aboard Liberty for dinner and we headed over there at 6.  Kathy made a delicious shrimp scampi and a lovely salad with burrata cheese and we had the rhubarb crisp for dessert.  We spent a very enjoyable evening sharing stories and just generally enjoying each other’s company.  Tom is the vice president of MTOA and since Jonny is president, they find endless things to talk about.   

We took our leave later that evening knowing that we’ll see them again in the next week or so. Tom and Kathy are chairing the upcoming MTOA Rendezvous in Essex, CT and we will be there.  The next morning we planned to head back across the Sound early because the weather over the next couple of days didn’t look great. Otherwise, we might have stayed longer to contact our friends Ernie and Sophie who live close by.  All in all, our quick trip to Shelter Island was a great time!

Niantic, CT

We had a short two hour cruise from Old Saybrook to Niantic on Wednesday, June 26. We arrived by 9:45 following a trip along the Connecticut coast. We settled into a calm anchorage in the middle of Niantic Bay.  Jonny had worked with the local port captain, Bill Volmar, to find a place where we could safely anchor and leave our dinghy for the week while we went to New York state.  Bill’s friends, Everett and Helen, have a lovely waterfront home with a dock big enough to accommodate our dinghy.

We chatted with Everett and Helen for awhile while we waited for Bill and his wife Joan to pick us up. We took them to lunch at Dock’s, a waterfront restaurant where I had my first delicious fried clams of the season.

The next morning Bill took Jonny to pick up our rental car. Jonny, Archie and I then drove to New London where we visited his cousin Jimmy at Mallove’s Jewelers and I was lucky to get an appointment for a haircut next door.  Jonny went to Defender’s for boat supplies and we ate lobster rolls and other goodies at Captain Scott’s.  These are some of our favorite things to do in New London. 

That evening we packed for our trip to Ithaca for Sophie Bracken’s wedding to be followed by a couple of days in the Thousand Islands.  On our way there we stopped in Waterbury, CT to visit my parents’ graves which I hadn’t been to in several years. So many of my family members are buried in this cemetery but it is so large I was unable to find the graves of other members even with help of the staff there!

We arrived in Ithaca in the late afternoon and had to stay at a nearby hotel because we miscalculated the dates of our Air BnB. But everything turned out fine. We got to the Air BnB the next day which was even better than expected. On Friday, the wedding festivities included a casual get together at a cider mill on a hill overlooking the city. Ithaca is in a beautiful setting with many waterfalls right inside the city limits. Over the  next couple of days we were able to visit several of them. 

The weather on Saturday was rainy off and on but we were able to go for a hike by one of the falls.

Late that afternoon we attended another wedding event, this time at a covered pavilion in a nearby park.  The event was delayed due to the rain but fortunately the weather improved and everyone enjoyed the afternoon playing outdoor games, eating, drinking and chatting. The younger set (not us) followed it up with a bar crawl.

On Sunday morning we had breakfast with our friends Kathy and Paul Lubbers. The wedding took place that afternoon at the historic Argos Inn. Prior to the wedding, Jonny was honored to be asked to perform a short pre-ceremony where Sophie and Jason signed their Ketubah, a Jewish tradition which is something like a marriage contract.

That was followed by a cocktail reception and then the wedding ceremony and reception. Sophie and her husband Jason met while attending Cornell in Ithaca so this was a destination wedding for almost all of us! The wedding was lovely with about 60 relatives and close friends.  Sophie looked beautiful and this newly graduated veterinarian walked down the aisle with her dog, Roo!  What followed was lots of fun with delicious food, lots of dancing and visiting with old and new friends.

On Monday, we drove two and a half hours to visit our friends David and Mary Ann at their home in Cape Vincent, NY. They live in a comfortable old farmhouse right across the street from the St. Lawrence River.  We know David and Mary Ann from the Arsht Center. They spend several months a year in Miami and we are fellow volunteers at the Arsht. We had visited once before on Zendo during one of our trips to Canada (which you can see from their front yard)!

David is a terrific cook and he made us dinner the first night after we explored tiny Cape Vincent by car and walked along the shoreline for a bit.   The village is in an incredible setting at the point where the St. Lawrence River meets Lake Ontario. 

The next morning I joined Mary Ann to do a little work on the local community garden. The garden is large and prolific and provides vegetables for the local food bank.

She and David are very active in many aspects of their community and Mary is especially active in Cape Vincent’s beautification committee. Afterwards, while David took Jonny out on his boat and Mary Ann took me on their jet ski. I hadn’t been on one for twenty years and was a little nervous about the possibility of falling into icy cold water. But personal water crafts have come a long way since then.  This one was very comfortable and steady and even though we went pretty darn fast, there was never any concern about tipping. I was amazed that Mary Ann, who is a few years older than me, was so comfortable and even somewhat daring in her enthusiasm for this exciting and fun means of travel! 

After we all returned from our boating adventures,  David gave us a wonderful tour of the area including a long hike and picnic at Wellesley Island, a beautiful state park on one of the Thousand Islands. 

David also drove us through Thousand Island Park, a village with gaily painted houses, many adorned with gingerbread trim. 

That evening we had a very delicious dinner at their favorite restaurant, The Clipper, in nearby Clayton. NY.  Later on Jonny went over our upcoming itinerary with David. We all retired early as it had been a very full and fun-filled day. 

The next morning David made us delicious blueberry pancakes and we took our leave heading back to Niantic to resume our cruise. We look forward to seeing David and Mary when they return to Miami this winter.