Shelter Island, NY

We had a very short cruise on Wednesday, August 18 heading over to Dering Harbor on the north side of Shelter Island.  Ernie joined us for the 1.5 hour cruise and Sophie was going to drive over and take the ferry to pick him up.  This would be our last night on eastern Long Island and we wanted to position ourselves for an easy crossing of the Sound when the weather window is right.

Once we arrived, we decided to stay two nights to wait for an optimal time to cross Long Island Sound.  This is a beautiful anchorage surrounded by gorgeous sailboats of all sizes.

Our anchorage also provided a view of many stately waterfront homes,

All we did in Shelter Island was take Archie into the little village and walk the hilly streets.  The homes were lovely, many of them with fanciful bric-a-brac trim decorating the porches and eaves.

We have taken to bringing Archie to church yards to exercise him by throwing the frisbee and practicing his skills. The churches in many of these villages are small and quaint with lovely shaded lawns that are perfect, safe places to let him off the leash.

We also found a rocky beach nearby where he thoroughly enjoyed searching for crabs and other aromatic goodies!

Shelter Island has a tiny village center with just a few stores. There is a great, but expensive, little grocery store where we bought some gorgeous heirloom tomatoes and a few other overpriced basics including yoghurt, cottage cheese and blueberries at $10 each!  Oh well! We’ll be at anchor for the next few nights and not eating out so I guess it’s OK.

Tropical Storm Henri is making its way up the east coast bound for eastern Long Island.  We are carefully planning our next few days because of the approaching storm.  Obviously we want to be in as safe a place as possible.  The current plan is to cross the Sound and stay in the Thimble Islands then head west to Stamford and eventually City Island which we think will be much better than being on the Connecticut shore.  But we’ll keep revisiting that decision based on the latest forecasts.

We stayed one more day in Shelter Island to do some intense trip planning since wherever we go is somewhat in the path of the storm.  We were also waiting a day to make sure we would have a calm crossing over Long Island Sound to the Connecticut shore.

East Hampton, NY

Like almost everyday, we started by taking Archie in on the dinghy for a walk through Stonington. This time we walked down by the little beach and enjoyed our stroll through the village’s lovely streets.

We didn’t leave our anchorage on Monday, August 16 until 11:25 for the short cruise across Long Island Sound to East Hampton on the eastern end of Long Island.  It was a beautiful day and the seas were calm - just what we like.  We passed the beautiful Southold Lighthouse on the way.  

We arrived at our anchorage in Gardiner Bay, just a couple of blocks from our friends Ernie and Sophie.  We had visited them two years ago and anchored in Three Mile Harbor, on the other side from where they live.  This time Ernie recommended Gardiner’s Bay because there would be light winds out of the south making the bay very calm and we would be just 100 feet off of the beach at the end of their street.  It was a lovely anchorage - we were the only boat and we could bring the dinghy right up to the beach and leave it there safely.

Ernie was there to greet us when we arrived and we walked up to their home.  Sophie arrived a couple of hours later.  They made us a delicious dinner which we ate outside on the comfortable deck and planned our time together for the next two days.

We dinghied back to Zendo and had a very peaceful and calm night on board with this amazing sunset!

The next day was our 35th wedding anniversary which we had celebrated over dinner in Stonington the night before.  After walking Archie on the beach which he quite enjoys, we put him in his crate on Zendo because Ernie had planned an outing on his fishing boat for us.  He picked us up after lunch and whisked us away for the afternoon to give us a tour of the waters and shoreline where he fishes.  He has a charter business and takes people out on fishing expeditions.  It was a very different experience being on his boat which travels at 30 mph compared to Zendo which travels at 8 mph!  The eastern Long Island coastline is stunning and there is everything from multi-million dollar mansions of the rich and famous to deserted beaches to striated cliffs.

 

It’s really quite dramatic.  We cruised into Montauk Harbor which used to be a sleepy fishing village and is now home to faboulous yachts.

We also periodically stopped at different locations where Ernie would take his rod and reel and throw out a line. He eventually snagged a decent sized bluefish but his policy is to catch and release.



That evening Jonny and I decided to make dinner for them.  We made ravioli from our trip to Little Italy and homemade marinara sauce. Sophie made a wonderful tomato and mozzarella salad and Ernie made garlic bread on the grill.  We sat on their deck and feasted to our heart’s content.

Our last day in East Hampton was filled with more exploration.  After a lunch of fresh tomato sandwiches and delicious leftovers, we set out to visit Long House Reserve.  This 16 acre garden was planned and owned by Jack Lenor Larson, an internationally known textile designer.  It has a fascinating array off sculptures, art works, water vistas, ornamental plantings and a fabulous exhibit of his gorgeous and unique textiles.  We stayed for a couple of hours and could easily have lingered longer.

Our plan was to move Zendo that night to a Shelter Island anchorage that had been recommended to us.  Ernie and Sophie wanted to show us Shelter Island by car so Ernie, who hadn’t been aboard Zendo yet, joined us for the short one and a half hour cruise while Sophie drove to meet us there in her car.  She had to take a ferry to get from Sag Harbor to Shelter Island.  

By 5:30 we had a arrived at Shelter Island, another beautiful  anchorage with a plethora of stunning sailboats.  There was a very sweet fleet of little wooden sailboats (Herreshoff dinghies) flitting all around us as we arrived.  It must have been a women’s sailing group because they were all about my age and having a great time.

Sophie met us at the dock where we dinghied in with little Archie. She then proceeded to drive us around the island which is more rustic than East Hampton with a mix of more traditional waterfront homes along with others on the winding wooded streets and lanes.  It’s a beautiful place but a bit more remote since one has to take a ferry to get there!

By this time, it was getting late, so we stopped at a local pizza place and ate dinner outside at a picnic table on the lawn.  Sophie drove us back to the dinghy dock and we said our good-byes.  Ernie and Sophie certainly showed us a great time at their lovely home and the stunning area in which they live. We are most grateful!

Stonington, CT

On Sunday morning, August 15, we took Archie for a walk to Fort Trumbull that was just a half mile from Crocker’s Marina.

It was surprising that Jonny had never been there having grown up in New London.  It was a beautiful setting overlooking the Thames River.   The fort was built to protect the colonies from a British attack from the river during the Revolutionary War but it was never actually engaged in defense maneuvers.  Instead it served in various capacities over the years as a training center,  a supply center, and the Navy’s underground sound lab doing top secret work (and the reason Jonny never went there growing up).  The fort was open with descriptive signs and recreated spaces throughout giving the interesting history of the fortification. 

After our interesting walk, we left our slip at the marina at 11:40 for the short cruise to Stonington, the easternmost town in Connecticut.

It was an absolutely beautiful day - the high temperatures and humidity had abated and Long Island Sound was calm.  We went up the Mystic River to get fuel passing by the charming villages of Noank and Mystic.  The harbor was filled with boats of all sizes on this gorgeous weekend day.

By 2:25 we arrived in Stonington.  Our choices were to spend $100 on a mooring ball (the highest we’ve ever seen) or anchor in the same area for free. Guess which option we choose!  Stonington Harbor is stunning and our anchorage was filled with sailboats.  As the afternoon progressed, many of the sailboats left and we had plenty of open space around us.

The first thing we did was to take Archie into town to do his business.  Stonington is a historic Connecticut village and is considered to be one of the prettiest coastal towns in New England. Originally part of Massachusetts, it officially became part of Connecticut in 1662.  One of its historic claims to fame is that it repelled British attacks during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Pretty impressive!

The town is lovely with many old homes and churches that have been kept in great condition.  We enjoyed strolling through the shady streets and along the waterfront where there is a tranquil small beach.  Even the new construction is in keeping with the historic look of the village.

That evening we planned to celebrate our upcoming 35th wedding anniversary with a dinner at Noah’s Restaurant. We were searching for a nice place to eat and this one seemed to fit the bill.  It wasn’t until after we made the reservations that we realized that we had been there before. On our first big trip on Zendo when we did the Down East Loop in 2015, our good friends Addie and Lange joined us for the cruise from Sandwich, MA  to New London. It was September and we stopped in Stonington to celebrate my birthday.  We found this cool, friendly pub to have beers that day and we were having so much fun that we stayed and ate their excellent happy hour offerings for dinner.   Noah’s now has an excellent Sunday dinner menu so it was the perfect choice for us to relive a fond memory and celebrate our special event.

After a delicious dinner including the famous Stonington scallops we took the dinghy back to Zendo and savored our brief sojourn in this charming New England town.