Mystic, CT

We took our time leaving our peaceful anchorage on Fishers Island on Sunday, July 13 and by 10:30 we pulled up anchor and took off for Mystic. It was a foggy morning which was one of the reasons we left a little later - to let the fog burn off.  This was another relatively short cruise and we arrived in Mystic by noon. Mystic is a beautiful town with lovely homes lining the shore.

We had to wait for a couple of bridges to open to arrive at the Seaport.

The MTOA Northeast Rendezvous was taking place at Mystic Seaport which is a fascinating place, an excellent recreation of a historic whaling village. We tied up at the marina which is actually inside the Seaport. This area is a major sailing and boating center filled with boats of all shapes and sizes.

Our group consisted of 60 people and 25 boats. We enjoyed three days of fun activities and interesting experiences.  The first night started off with docktails and apps on the dock followed by an excellent pot luck dinner.  On Monday morning there was a pancake breakfast and Jonny and I volunteered to be cooks. That day we also went to a private planetarium show at the seaport followed by a guided tour of the L.A. Dutton, a fishing schooner built in 1921 that is undergoing restoration. There are several of these historic boats at the Seaport.

Mystic Seaport is lined with several shops that recreate the services provided to seafarers of the past including a cooperage (barrel maker), a print shop, a drug store, a general store, a bank, and of course, a tavern. Many of them have guides who explain how things were done back then.

After another evening of docktails and apps, we went to dinner with a group of friends at AJ’s, an Italian restaurant.

On Tuesday, we had an interesting presentation by Bruce Lemkin, a retired US Navy Captain who shared his experiences commanding a nuclear powered submarine. Afterwards we visited the Mystic Aquarium which was fascinating, but extremely crowded with families and school groups on this hot summer day. We saw seals, beluga whales, penguins and lots of interesting sea creatures.

I was particularly fascinated by the amazing array of jelly fish, some of which were truly psychedelic!

We all had lunch vouchers for Mango’s, a delicious pizza restaurant, which was hopping but worth the wait. We sat with our friends Liz and Steve who we always love seeing. They drove all the way down from upstate NY where their boat is docked just to be here.

That evening we had an awards dinner followed by dancing to a fun band called Jen and Tonic that played all the favorite dance tunes of our youth. The next day everyone would be departing after breakfast. This group of MTOA members came from as far away as Florida and the Midwest, but most live and cruise along the beautiful coastline of New England. This is definitely one of our favorite cruising grounds and we love having friends like these throughout the region!

Fishers Island East, NY

We walked all through the charming village of Noank on Saturday morning, July 12 passing by some rather historical buildings. 

Stopping at the very quaint Carson’s Store, we got a real taste of the local scene.



That morning we went back and forth trying to decide whether we should stay at our mooring in Noank or take a quick trip back over to Fishers Island and explore the east end of it. Always game to try something new, we decided to head over there. We sent our thanks to our mooring host and headed over to Fishers Island at 2:30.

A quick 40 minutes later we arrived at the lovely bay on the east and more exclusive end of the island. As expected, there were quite a few boats anchored on a beautiful summer weekend but we knew most of them were day trippers and would be gone before dark.  We anchored on the perimeter of the area and planned to move later that afternoon so we could be closer to shore. Jonny is still having to row Archie in because our outboard is in the shop for repairs. 

Later that afternoon, after moving Zendo closer in, Jonny rowed Archie in for a walk. There was a small beach where he could pull up but the surrounding area was private and inaccessible.

In the meantime, I made dinner and when they returned we relaxed on board.  It was a lovely evening and we were in a beautiful and tranquil setting so we were happy with our decision to come here.  We knew we were going to be very busy the next few days because we would be in Mystic for the MTOA Rendezvous with lots of other people and a wide array of scheduled activities (quite different from our usual routine)!

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!