New Haven, CT

After the previous day’s adventures we expected our cruise on Saturday, July19 to be much easier. But first we took a walk into the charming town of Old Saybrook where we discovered a farmer’s market that was just opening. What luck! We bought green beans, four ears of freshly picked butter and sugar corn and two blueberry peach pies (a large one and a small one). We figured we would bring the large one to Michael and Debbie Bergman’s house the next day. They are Jonny’s cousins who we often visit on our trip (the same ones where we had a tree fall on our rental car a few years earlier for those who have been reading this blog for awhile). The small pie was just for us since blueberry peach is one of Jonny’s all time favorite pies!

On the way back we passed one of those Little Free Libraries that you see in people’s yards. I just love them!  I found two good books to bring back. Unfortunately I did not have a book on me to trade but I will definitely pass it forward when I can.

Returning to Zendo we left our mooring at 10:05 for the cruise to New Haven. It was a nice sunny day, not too hot and with very calm seas. We passed two scenic lighthouses on our way.

For lunch, I steamed all four ears of corn and we ate them for lunch on the flybridge while we were underway.  This was the kind of corn we were looking forward to eating while in Connecticut - absolutely delicious!

We arrived at the Pequonnock Yacht Club in New Haven by 2:45 where a couple of friendly members and staff helped us tie up.

Later that afternoon my cousin Sally, who lives in nearby Woodbridge, came to pick us up as we had made plans to go out for pizza with her. We always have pizza when we’re in New Haven because it is recognized nationally for having the best pizza in the country!  This time instead of going to the three most well-known places (Pepe’s, Sally’s and Modern), we decided to go to Zuppardi’s Apizza in West Haven which is also highly rated and was recommended by our friend Paula in Vermont who grew up in West Haven.  A big advantage of going to Zuppardi’s was that the lines and wait times are much shorter than the “Big Three.”  It was good to catch up with Sally and the pies were very good - a small clam and bacon pie and a large pie with lots of fresh tomatoes and other vegetables.

The next day Jonny worked on the boat, washing it, changing the water filter and trying to address an issue we’re having with our holding tank.  It is acting like it is full (our gauge doesn’t work well) but we just had a pump-out that seemed very short for what we thought was a full tank.  In the meantime, I defrosted the freezer (an every other week job), vacuumed and dusted.  We also went into town to stock up on a few groceries.  We walked through a neighborhood of older homes within a designated historic district.

Later in the afternoon, Michael came to pick us up to bring us to their home in Hamden for dinner.   Their entire backyard is divided into a huge vegetable garden and a large area for their chickens.

Debbie made a delicious dinner with a first course of roasted breaded eggplant slices topped with burrata cheese served over a bed of arugula and topped with fresh basil. All the veggies were fresh from their garden. That was followed by two branzinos wrapped in grape leaves and cooked on the grill.  We had our pie for desert. Debbie’s meal was fabulous! And we enjoyed the two bottles of wine that accompanied it.

It was a wonderful evening for all of us. But little Archie had to be on a leash the whole time to keep him from chasing the chickens and their two kitties!  

It was almost 10 by the time Michael brought us back to the marina. We were beat by such a full day - a good combination of accomplishments and fun!

Old Saybrook, CT

On Friday, July 18, after rowing to our friend’s dock, Jonny and Archie walked all the way over to the repair shop that was working on our outboard.  Unfortunately, he discovered that they couldn’t commit to fixing it within our timeline for leaving.  They had it for a week but didn’t start working on it until the day before which was very frustrating.  So he returned to Zendo and pulled up anchor and we began our trip to New Haven at 10:30.  Jonny was putting away the fenders and lines and I was steering the boat which is not unusual for us. What was unusual for me is that I neglected to turn on the tracks feature on our chart plotter. This feature allows you to follow the same track that you came in on and avoid any shallow spots or hazards. I was navigating carefully keeping between the red and green buoys (or so I thought) when we ran aground! I was looking at a distant pair of buoys and missed seeing the ones that were a sharp dogleg to my left.  Niantic Bay is very shallow and to traverse it one must follow a very circuitous route winding  back and forth almost like a switchback.  It is fairly well marked but it turns out that people run aground here all the time.  The bad thing for us was that it was dead low tide. Jonny tried for about 30 minutes to get us out, to no avail. We finally called SeaTow and they came in another 30 minutes and tried to pull us out, also to no avail. They advised us to wait a bit longer for the tide to turn and fortunately they waited with us. So after another 15 minutes they successfully pulled us out.

I was very frustrated with myself for not navigating properly and for not turning on the tracks feature. And I was so grateful that Jonny didn't get upset with me (or if he did he kept it well hidden)! We proceeded to the far end of the bay where we had to stop to pick up the outboard. This presented another small adventure.  Jonny had indicated that I should stay on Zendo in a rather tight area near lots of docked boats and just hover there while he rowed our dinghy to the dock and picked up the outboard from the repair shop and rowed back to Zendo.  This proved to be very intimidating for me because I was going to have to keep turning Zendo in circles in a very confined space to avoid hitting any of the boats that were docked and I needed to do this in the narrow channel with other boats going in and out of the channel. As he rowed away he must have sensed my anxiety as I tried to avoid getting too close to the docked boats (unfortunately there are no brakes on boats)! He phoned me and suggested what I had been thinking which was it would be much safer if I just turned the boat around and slowly retraced our passage back to where we had anchored and by the time I returned he would be back with the outboard. So that is exactly what I did and needless to say, I was extremely careful to follow the channel!

Just as I returned to where I left Jonny he returned, and as I hovered with Zendo he tied the dinghy to the back of the boat and climbed aboard. We cruised out to an open bay area where he was able to hoist the dinghy on the davits and we could proceed on our voyage for the day. Thank goodness, we executed those maneuvers successfully!  And even though the repair shop couldn’t get to the bottom of the problem, they made a few adjustments and didn’t charge us.  It appears that the outboard is working OK but still leaking a little oil.  We’ll get it overhauled when we’re back at our home port in Delaware City.

By now it was 1:30 and we didn’t have time to make it to New Haven so we decided to go as far as Old Saybrook where we could get fuel and hopefully a free town mooring.  We had smooth sailing after all the excitement and arrived in Old Saybrook at 4:30 after stopping to buy fuel.  

We caught a mooring very close to the town dock which is good since Jonny could easily row to it. But we stayed on board to relax and have a drink after our rather stressful day. Jonny eventually took Archie in to pee while I made dinner (meatloaf, mashed sweet potatoes and summer squash). We had a relaxing evening onboard and made an early night of it.  It was a stressful day but fortunately everything worked out in the end.

Niantic, CT return trip

We went up for a light breakfast to say our goodbyes to everyone on Wednesday July 16, the last day of the Rendezvous.  We had to move Zendo from the dock to a nearby anchorage because a large number of boats were expected to come to the marina that day.  We were delaying our departure from Mystic because we had plans to have lunch with our friends Susan and Ralph (Susan is another childhood friend of mine from Fairfield).

At 11:15 we rowed the dinghy into the Seaport dinghy dock and met Susan and Ralph who had come in from Westerly, RI where they had recently moved from Connecticut. They drove us to a waterfront restaurant called Red 34 where we had a delicious lunch and caught up with each other’s lives. We always enjoy seeing them and encouraged them to visit us in Philadelphia.

Returning to Zendo in time to catch the 1:40 bridge opening leaving Mystic and we were off.

 Our destination was an anchorage in Niantic where we have stayed in the past. It is close to the shop that is repairing our outboard. We were hoping to pick it up and continue our westward passage back to Delaware City.  We arrived at 4:00 and dropped the hook in a calm bay surrounded by attractive waterfront homes. We know a couple who have a dock that they graciously allow us to use to dock our dinghy while we’re there.

The next day and a half proved to be pretty frustrating especially for Jonny. The repair shop had not even started to repair our outboard with its pesky oil leak until that day even though they had it for over a week. Jonny was really upset especially when he learned that they were unable to determine the exact problem and would need more time. We need to continue moving and can’t afford to wait longer with no guarantees about when it will be operational. 

In the meantime, there was nothing we could do so we spent the day relaxing and reading.  Jonny was recovering from a stomach bug so this reprieve gave him time to get better.  Of course, Archie provided comfort in his time of need!

The next morning we awoke to dense fog.

Rain had been predicted but the days were actually quite nice and not too hot. We spent some time on the foredeck after dinner watching the sunset on a balmy evening.

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!