Noank, CT

I took advantage of being at a marina on Friday, July 11 and did laundry while Jonny walked Archie. They found a beautiful waterfall but neglected to take a photo. But here is a cute photo of Archie instead!

Our plan for the day was to stay on a mooring in Noank at the home of a friend and sailing buddy of Michael Bracken’s. We took off from Norwich at 11:30 on a sunny day but as we cruised down the Thames River, it became very windy and quite chilly. There were white caps on the river and we were concerned that the Sound would be quite rough. It turned out that the Sound was calm and we think the rough water on the river was due to a wind tunnel effect.  

We stopped for lunch at a mooring across from the UConn branch at Avery Point.  The building in the photo below was the Plant mansion and is now part of the university. 

After lunch, we had a quick one hour cruise and took another mooring at Steve Stollman’s home, our acquaintance from Key Biscayne who has a waterfront home in Noank.  Jonny rowed us up to his dock.

We saw Steve working on a project in his yard. His historic home was built in 1754!

After chatting with Steve, we strolled through the charming Village of Noank, part of the Town of Groton.  The village is filled with lovely, old, well-kept homes with beautiful gardens.

Steve invited us to return for a drink but it was getting late and we wanted to get back to Zendo. I made sausage and peppers and a salad for dinner and we watched a couple of episodes of Shameless which had been recommended to us. It was indeed, shameless!

Norwich, CT

We awoke to a cloudy, rainy day in New London on Thursday, July 10 but fortunately the rain let up in time for us to go ashore.  We were meeting Sandy, a good friend of Cathy Mallove (Jonny’s cousin) for breakfast at Muddy Waters Cade. Jonny has his grandmother’s wedding ring that his mother, Janice, wanted Cathy to have since they were very close.  Cathy lives in Toronto and rather than mail it to her, we are bringing it to Sandy because she, Cathy and their group of girlfriends are vacationing together in Block Island next week.

Sandy has a dog that looks a lot like Archie (Cocoa is a doodle, Archie is a Cockapoo). The dogs look like kissing cousins but they mostly ignored each other! But we had a nice time over breakfast chatting about New London and the various acquaintances of Jonny and Sandy.

Walking back to Zendo we passed some of New London’s interesting landmarks.

Our plan for the day was to cruise up the Thames River to Norwich. Jonny had never been there by boat even though it’s a short distance from New London and I think I’ve only been there once or twice in my life. We left New London at 11:50 for a pleasant cruise up the river.  We passed Windscilla, a wind farm installation vehicle that was on a huge scaffolding structure. It looked like an oil rig because it has to drive the wind turbine deep into the ocean floor. 

We also passed the Coast Guard Academy and the US Submarine base with the Nautilus docked by the shore.

Interestingly, both Harvard and Yale have boat houses on the shore for their annual crew races.

The river was an interesting mix of bucolic scenery, academies and industry.

This impressive building is the Mohegan Sun casino.

We entered Norwich Harbor and arrived at the Marina at American Wharf by 1:40.  

The marina has recently been totally renovated. We were pleasantly surprised by how attractive and efficient it was. The marina staff greeted us and helped us tie up on a T dock. The grounds were very attractive, so much so that they were in the process of setting up for a wedding that would be held under a tent overlooking the marina on the weekend. 

We went to the equally attractive restaurant and brew pub on the grounds and had a beer and some nibbles.

The Norwich area is the home of two significant casinos that are owned and managed by two different Native American tribes. Foxwood is owned by the Pequot tribe and Mohegan is owned by the Mohegans. We had never been to either of them, probably because we’re really not into gambling. Mohegan Sun was very close and the marina provided transportation so we decided to go. What an amazing facility it is! It is creatively decorated with a Native American theme, but everything is “over the top” with a large waterfall in the atrium, a huge Dale Chihuly glass sculpture, Native American art and sculptures, four thousand slot machines and other gaming options, and scores of bars, restaurants and shops. Pretty amazing!

We soon learned there were no happy hours so we decided to have dinner at Michael Jordan’s Sports Bar. We split a delicious order of their special fried chicken dinner with all the fixings and a Caesar salad.  After dinner we walked around the casino and I pretended to try my hand at one of the slot machines.

Having gotten our fill of the casino experience we headed to the door, surprised to see that it was still light outside. Being in the casino feels like nighttime all the time! We got an Uber back to the marina and spent the rest of the evening relaxing aboard Zendo. 

New London, CT (second time)

On Tuesday, July 8, Archie got a walk while I had a Spanish lesson.  We had a relaxing morning onboard. After lunch we had a quick and smooth one hour crossing back to New London on a sunny and pleasant day. 

That afternoon I was relieved to have finally got my blog up and running. We had to load the tool I use on our newer IPad and adjust the way I load photos and I was off and running. I wrote seven blogs that afternoon - easier because I hadn’t been taking as many pictures. So now I have to remember to take photos again!

Jonny spoke to his cousin Jimmy who generously offered us a car to use while in town. So Jonny dinghied in to meet Jimmy and followed him to his home to pick up the car.

That evening we defrosted one of our leftover chicken dinners and enjoyed it with some fresh summer squash. Later on we laid out on the foredeck on a beautiful night with a full moon listening to an array of songs that made up the soundtrack of our youth.

The only downsides to this mooring site are the less than tranquil vista and the fact that Acela and Amtrack trains go by regularly and blow their whistles very loudly as the train station is within sight of the mooring field.

On Wednesday we had a very busy day. We took the dinghy into shore where Jonny removed the outboard and loaded it into the car.  Lunch was at Fred’s Shanty (another local favorite on the waterfront) with good burgers and hot dogs.

 Jonny cruised around town taking a trip down memory lane as he always does when he’s in his hometown. We indulged in ice cream at Michael’s Dairy, another tradition. We sat in the gazebo on the well-manicured grounds.

A stop at Defender (a boating supply store) followed.  We also dropped the outboard off at a repair shop where we’ll leave it for a week. This means that Jonny will have to row the dinghy into shore if we are on a mooring or at anchor.  

A highlight for me that afternoon was getting my hair cut at a salon I’ve been to a couple of times before.  It is right next to Mallove’s, the family jewelry store. We stopped in to see Jimmy and make plans for dinner that evening. Jonny proceeded to picked up some groceries while I had my hair cut. And that evening Jimmy generously took us to dinner at a very good waterfront restaurant called Fat Tuna where we had an excellent meal. Afterwards,  Jimmy drove us around the beautiful shoreline neighborhoods with lovely waterfront homes where many of his customers live. We gave him back his car and he dropped us off at the boat. It was a productive and fun day!

Fishers Island, NY

It was an overcast day on Monday, July 7 and we were not in a rush to be anywhere, which is always a nice situation to be in. We spent the morning hanging out on Zendo and taking it easy. The eggplant grinder that we had brought back the day before from Ocean Pizza provided a hearty lunch.  Over lunch we decided to do something we hadn’t done before and cruise the short distance to Fishers Island. We left New London at 1:35 for the short one hour cruise across the Sound. Just as we were approaching the mooring field, that god awful raw water alarm went off again. It is incredibly loud, so loud that I have to cover my ears to drown it out a bit.  Jonny disconnected it and he’s obviously still not sure what is making it go off.

We proceeded to grab a mooring in a lovely harbor next to the Fishers Island Yacht Club.

We took the dinghy in and walked around the beautiful area surrounding the yacht club.  Fishers Island is a very exclusive area but the part of the island that we were on has a surprising number of homes that were normal sized and of course others that were quite lovely but not ostentatious.

We walked through an area designated as a wildlife sanctuary that was donated by some wealthy residents.

There was a small commercial district with a couple of cute shops and small eateries.  An ice cream shop called our names and we indulged ourselves in a kiddy-sized cup of ice cream.  How’s that for restraint!

We learned that the other side of the island was where the wealthy have their large summer homes. That part of the island is gated and obviously not accessible to us.  Fishers Island is actually part of New York but is only accessible by ferry from New London (Connecticut).  Also, curiously, it has a Connecticut zip code.  It definitely reminded us of Shelter Island and the small towns in eastern Long Island - very pretty!

When we returned to Zendo we were so full from our lunch and ice cream that we just had cheese and crackers for dinner.  This mega-yacht was our only companion in our pristine anchorage.

New London, CT

The first day of July and the summer is fully upon us! As I was having my bi-weekly Spanish lesson, Jonny took Archie in to do his business. But he didn’t get far before the outboard on the dinghy conked out entirely. We are now officially moving to Plan B as to where we keep Zendo for the next few days. We decided to go on to New London where we could stay at Crocker’s Marina. We won’t need to use the dinghy there and we can bring the outboard in for repairs which Jonny had already arranged. 

We left Niantic on a pleasant, if overcast, day at 10:45 and arrived at Crocker’s at 12:40 - a quick trip.  We quickly headed over to our favorite Captain Scott’s waterfront lobster and clam shack to have fried clams.  But horrors! They were out of clams so we satisfied ourselves with steamers, corn on the cob and a lobster roll. That afternoon Jonny worked on the outboard and got it working again while I hid out in the air conditioned boat. He was able to fix the carburetor so it’s functioning but there is still an oil leak that needs to be fixed.

The next day Jonny picked up our rental car and we drove three hours to South Londonderry in southern Vermont where our friends Peter and Paul have owned a very comfortable ski home for years.  We had a great visit with them hiking all around the countryside near their home.  Jonny and Peter went for a long bike ride on the Zimmer’s electric bikes.  

Billy and Lisa Rappoport arrived at midnight having driven up from Fairfield, CT (my hometown and also where Peter and Paula now have their primary home). The next day, which was Friday, July 4, we all took a walk through the nearby wooded path and afterwards drove to Dorset VT to visit our friend Michael Goldfield. I should mention that I’ve been friends with these three guys since junior high days. And Peter and I met our spouses when we were all freshmen at UConn - so we have a lot of shared history! 

We picked up lunch at a nearby shop in Dorset and brought it back to eat at the picnic table at the home that Michael built in that charming village. It is essentially a replica of a historic home owned by a prominent past citizen of Dorset and it is exquisite.

Unfortunately, Michael’s partner, Melina was away at their summer home in Maine.  Although we didn’t get to see Melina, Michael took us to her shop in nearby Manchester. Melina designs and makes custom hooked rugs. She not only designs and makes them but she also dyes all the wool. We got to see her impressive operation located on the riverfront in yet another charming Vermont town. 

We returned to South Londonderry where we had a big beautiful salad for dinner and played a few rounds of Rummy Cube (a first for Jonny and me).

Jonny and I departed on Saturday bound for my cousin Donna’s home in Prospect, CT (near Waterbury).  I hadn’t seen Donna in years and I was excited about the visit. She invited my cousin Janice and her daughter Robin as well. Donna made a delicious lunch and we had a great afternoon catching up on each other’s lives.

Later that afternoon we returned to Zendo which we had moved from Crocker’s Marina to a mooring before we left for Vermont.  We proceeded to stay on board Zendo one more day and were able to get our fried clam “fix” on Sunday when we took a long walk to Ocean Pizza which is also known for its delicious fried clams. We also brought home an eggplant grinder to have the next day.  Whenever we are in New London, we have a list of foods that we have to eat and we are definitely checking off that list on this visit!

Niantic, CT

We awoke to a beautiful, sunny day on Monday, June 30. We took Archie for a nice walk along the length of the beautiful Milford green. When we returned I did a load of laundry in the convenient facilities that were part of our marina (only $1 per load). After Jonny washed down Zendo, he invited a couple who were cruising south to come aboard. They had an interesting vintage picnic boat that they were taking to the Chesapeake. As he often does, Jonny helpfully shared with them some of the apps he uses for weather and navigation. They were very appreciative.

We left Milford at 10 bound for a mooring in Niantic that is owned by our boating friends, Bill and Joan Volmar.  They were very helpful to us on a past trip and continue to be so on this one. Our plan was to leave Zendo there for a few days while we rent a car to drive to Vermont to visit our friends Peter and Paula Zimmer.  It was a beautiful day for a long passage up the Connecticut coast and we arrived in Niantic by 4:30. We had a little challenge finding the mooring ball but we finally did so. Then we had another challenge figuring out where we could take Archie onto land because the waterfront was lined with private homes. 

We finally found a rocky beach which returned out to be a bird sanctuary! It was very pretty and almost deserted with only one family enjoying it with us. 

We’re having difficulty with the dinghy engine and we planned to leave it for repairs while we go to Vermont.  However, the dinghy ride to a place where we could leave it tied up for a few days was at least a couple of miles away and we didn’t feel comfortable taking it that far without a problem. The last time we left Zendo in Niantic on anchor, the place where we left the dinghy was much closer to a dock. We mentioned our concern to Bill who owns the mooring and he offered to loan us his electric outboard but even that arrangement had its challenges. 

That evening we concentrated on consuming our leftovers for dinner so we could leave the refrigerator without too much food since we would be away. We decided to delay our decision on where to leave Zendo until the next day.

Milford, CT

We took our time on Sunday, June 28 and didn't leave Norwalk until 10:20 for the relatively short cruise to Milford. It was a beautiful day on the Sound and we were enjoying it but for some reason Archie was not feeling it. He kept wandering up and down the stairs and in and out of the boat until I finally had to lie down with him on our bed until he settled down.

We really like going to Milford Harbor because it’s a deep harbor with several marinas and a beautiful setting. We especially like staying at Milford Landing, the marina furthest inside the harbor. It has comfortable facilities, is close to several restaurants and we especially love that it is very close to the Milford Town Green.

We arrived at 1:45 and settled in for a couple of hours.  Jonny’s cousins Abby and Anne came by at 4:30 as planned.  We have been meeting them every year since we’ve been cruising but unfortunately their spouses are no longer able to be with us. As is their tradition, they brought a bottle of champagne and we drank that bottle and another accompanied by some appetizers.  Afterwards we walked to a nearby restaurant/bar called Seven Seas that featured lobster rolls. The lobster rolls were so big we had to eat them with a knife and fork.  Later we returned to Zendo for some port and other after dinner drinks.

We always have a fun time together and hopefully we’ll see them again on the way back. Note: photos will resume in the post after the next one!