Stonington, CT

While I had a Spanish lesson at 8 a.m. on Saturday, September 14 Jonny cleaned the carburetor on the dinghy engine which it needed. From there we rode into shore to walk around Block Island some more.  It was  an exquisite day, sunny and warm with no humidity. 

We walked up the hill to a very busy farmer’s market with interesting crafts, beautiful flowers, some local food products and very few vegetable stands.  I bought a set of pretty cards and we bought a couple of homemade pastries to eat later.  

On the walk back, we found a short but pretty trail through the woods where Archie was able to run off leash for a little while.

Then a few minutes later,  who should we run into but Bill and Joanne Volmar who had helped us find a place to anchor Zendo when we went to upstate New York in  June! They had come over for the day from their home in nearby Niantic.  What a nice surprise! We got to tell them about our adventures since we last saw them.

By 11:40 we left the harbor for our cruise across the Sound to Stonington, CT where we planned to have dinner with our friends Susan and Ralph. 

We arrived by 3:00 after stopping at the harbor to fill our water tanks and get a pump-out.  We reconfirmed the cost of a mooring there thinking it might be less now that we are off-season, but it was still $100 per night which is a lot higher than even Nantucket or Martha’s Vineyard.  No problem, there is an anchoring field adjacent to the mooring field which is what we did the last time we were here a few years ago.

However, once we got to the anchoring field we we had quite a time getting the anchor to stick. We had to try four or five times over about 45 minutes before it finally held. 

By that time we had just enough time to shower and get into town to meet Susan and Ralph for dinner.  But we got there in time at 4:30 to allow us all time to stroll around this lovely Connecticut shore town before having dinner. They had just moved to nearby Westerly, RI from Newtown, CT and were still settling in. They hadn’t been to Stonington before so it was a treat for them to see it as well.

I had made reservations at Noah’s Restaurant where we had celebrated my birthday several years ago when our friends Addie and Lange King were with us. This time we had a cute corner table in the bar and  enjoyed a delicious dinner. It was great to see Susan and Ralph and to catch up after not seeing each other for quite a while. Susan is another friend of mine from my high school days. We so appreciate the many friends and family we see on our boating adventures!

We dinghied back to Zendo in the dark and made an early night of it. The next day we would have a longer cruise to New Haven.

Block Island, RI

We left Bristol early on Friday, September 13 to take advantage of the beautiful weather and the chance to have more time on Block Island, our destination for the day.  We left by 7 a.m. and cruised down Narragansett Bay with its never-ending seaside homes.  Arriving in Port Judith we stopped for fuel. We docked right next to the famous fishing vessel, the Hannah Boden, which was Linda Greenlaw’s swordfish boat depicted in the movie, The Perfect Storm. We had recently rewatched the movie, so this discovery was very timely for us.

It was a great day for cruising and we arrived at Block Island by 12:50.  We took a mooring in the large harbor and we were happy to see that it wasn’t crowded though there were still plenty of boats there.  During the summer, by all accounts, the harbor is packed full of boats, many of them rafted to each other.  We prefer visiting these nearby islands in the off season. 

I worked on my Spanish homework awhile before we dinghied in to shore to explore.  Unfortunately, halfway through our passage, the engine stalled out and Jonny couldn’t restart it.  He started to row back to Zendo but a nearby boater kindly offered to tow us back with his dinghy. Upon our return, Jonny proceeded to troubleshoot the problem. He changed a piece on the gas line and it ran better.  We got back in and rode into shore where we walked around this side of the island which is near the harbor where pleasure craft like ours are anchored. Then we walked across the island to the other side where the ferry from New London docks.  That side had more shops and restaurants and was a bit busier.

We thought we might stop for a beer at one of the restaurants that were clustered by each of the three docks where boats like ours were docked. But we decided just to go back to Zendo instead.

There we had a delicious dinner of grilled swordfish and a very good new recipe of patty pan squash made with a salsa of parsley, anchovies and garlic. Yum!

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That evening we took it easy with Jonny reading and me watching a couple of episodes of Emily in Paris. Next stop is Stonington, CT where we’ll be meeting Susan, another high school friend of Lynn’s, and her husband Ralph for dinner. 

Bristol, RI

The first thing we did on Wednesday, September 11 was to dinghy in to for a longer walk in the Toisset Marsh Wildlife Reserve.  It was a beautiful day and a really pretty walk in the woods and through open fields. 

When we returned to Zendo I finally went for my first paddle board ride of the year. The waters were calm and it was such a warm day - it was a blast!

After finishing up the vichyssoise for lunch we left for Bristol by 1:50.  We debated whether to stay on a mooring at the highly recommended Bristol Yacht Club or get one by the town dock. We decided on the yacht club because they have a launch which will make it a lot easier for the guests who we were expecting on  Zendo the next day.  It was a perfect day for cruising and we arrived after a short one hour trip.

We had a relaxing afternoon thinking we would go in to the yacht club for a drink before dinner.  I received a phone call from what turned out to be a big scam regarding Publisher’s Clearing House. We went in to have a drink at the yacht club but alas, it was closed. So we retired to Zendo and made our own dinner and drinks on board.

The next day Jonny took Archie for a long walk through nearby Colt State Park and got a good shot of this deer.

Later on Andy, Ed, Samantha and our friend Gerhard came to Bristol to spend the day with us.  We had such a a good time together!

We all crammed into their rental car and went into Bristol to stroll through that lovely town followed by a fabulous lunch at a French restaurant called Le Central that Samantha generously treated us to!  Jonny and I had been there on a previous visit and liked it well enough to want to return.

Afterwards we all took the launch back to Zendo and took off for an afternoon cruise. We dropped anchor in Potter’s Cove off of Prudence Island and just hung out on the flybridge for a couple of hours enjoying the beautiful weather.

When we returned to Zendo in the late afternoon, they took Jonny and me to Walgreen’s where we picked up a prescription and said our goodbyes.  We then Ubered over to a local bar in Bristol where we met MTOA friends Gif and Christine for a drink.  Gif is the MTOA port captain for Rhode Island and he recommended several anchorages to us, all of which we loved. They were there to support a friend who was playing in a local band. We had a drink together and chatted a bit before heading back to Zendo.

What a busy and fun time we had in Bristol, another one of our favorite New England towns!  We just had a light bite for dinner and made an early night of it. Next stop - Block Island.

Kickamuit River, RI

I had a Spanish lesson at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, September 10 so Jonny took Archie for a nice off-leash walk along the beach by our Fogland anchorage.  After my lesson I obsessed for a couple of hours trying to figure out why my last blog entry from Fairhaven wouldn’t load properly. I was unsuccessful so I just rewrote the damn thing and that’s why we didn’t leave our anchorage until 11:50.

We had a short hour and a half hour cruise on a beautiful sunny day and arrived at an anchorage on the Kickamuit River not far from Bristol, RI by 1:15.  This is a beautiful anchorage, large and very well-protected with few fellow boaters.  It has attractive homes along part of its banks and a large undeveloped wildlife preserve surrounding the remaining banks.

We had the whole afternoon to ourselves and after lunch Jonny went paddleboarding. He hasn’t taken Archie with him yet this year so little Archie wistfully waited for him to return.

Afterwards we all dinghied in to shore and tied up to an outstretched dead tree. We went for a quick walk in the Toisset Marsh Wildlife Refuge along the well-tended trails. We had to cut our walk a bit short because Jonny’s blood sugar levels were dropping but we knew we would return to explore this attractive refuge some more.

As we hurried back to Zendo, a man in a skiff hailed us and introduced himself. He had seen our trawler anchored in the bay and was curious as to how we learned about this relatively unknown spot since we were clearly out of state.  He was very friendly and shared that he and his wife had just returned from Maine in their Grand Banks. They live nearby and we had an enjoyable chat about our recent travels.  He also was just given a gift membership to MTOA so that was a nice endorsement of this new feature that MTOA has recently implemented.

We enjoyed the rest of the afternoon onboard reading and relaxing. I made sausage and peppers for dinner and we made more preparations to meet Andy, Ed and Samantha in Bristol the next day.