We had a nice ride from Watch Hill, RI to Old Saybrook, CT. On the way we were contacted on the VFH radio by a boater sailing next to us who wanted to know if we were the people who wrote the Mid-Life Cruising Sabbatical web site (http://home.netcom.com/~jkb/mcls). When we said yes, the guy said he had read every word and loved it. He invited us to be his guests at his yacht club. Unfortunately, his yacht club is on the south side of Long Island and we've done that already. I guess he saw a Down Time from Cleveland and figured there just couldn't be that many, so he took a chance and called us. We know the web site gets read because we get emails every now and then from folks, but this is the first time we've been contacted by a reader.
Old Saybrook was a charming little town of approximately 10,000 people. Everything was on one of two main streets, easily walkable. The old houses ranged from 1670s through the 1920s. On my morning walk I passed a church that was founded in 1646 and now worships in a building built in 1820.
Since we were in Old Saybrook for the weekend we decided to rent a car 
and do a little road touring. Jim wanted to see the Submarine museum in Groton, CT. We also drove through the Coast Guard Academy, not quite as nice a campus as the Naval Academy. But the Coast Guard has one thing the Navy doesn't -- a tall ship. The Coast Guard has a training vessel, the barque Eagle, which was seized from the Germans as a war reparation in 1946. We heard her on the radio as we were going from Watch Hill to Old Saybrook. She returned that morning from a 3 1/2 month cruise through the Caribbean and north coast of South America. We asked at the Academy if she was open for tours, they said yes and directed us to where she was docked.
and do a little road touring. Jim wanted to see the Submarine museum in Groton, CT. We also drove through the Coast Guard Academy, not quite as nice a campus as the Naval Academy. But the Coast Guard has one thing the Navy doesn't -- a tall ship. The Coast Guard has a training vessel, the barque Eagle, which was seized from the Germans as a war reparation in 1946. We heard her on the radio as we were going from Watch Hill to Old Saybrook. She returned that morning from a 3 1/2 month cruise through the Caribbean and north coast of South America. We asked at the Academy if she was open for tours, they said yes and directed us to where she was docked.Only the permanent crew was aboard (about 50 people), the cadets (about 150 at any one time) all left the day before when she docked. We were the only folks touring. We had been told we could go anywhere topside, but we couldn't go below. We started talking with a crew member and he took us below to the officers' ward room and the Admiral's quarters. He showed us the pictures of the German crew bringing the boat to the U.S. in 1946 (there were no Americans who knew how to sail her), the place where Alex Haley wrote some of Roots during the summer he spent cruising with them after he retired from the Coast Guard, and the bed where Hitler slept when she was commissioned in the 1930s. Since we weren't even supposed to be below I didn't think it would be cool to whip out my camera, but she is a beautiful ship, and much more commodious than a submarine.
From Old Saybrook we went up the Connecticut River about five miles to Essex, CT. Essex is a town designed for tourists, all the shopping is tourist stuff. Its claim to fame is the Griswold Inn which has been providing food and shelter to travelers continuously since 1776.
This part of the trip is very short days, the distances between things we want to see are 10-15 miles. Anchored off the coast of Connecticut one night then went into Clinton, CT for a stay at a dock. We need a dock stay very couple of weeks to wash the boat. This marina had a shuttle that would take you anywhere in Clinton that you wanted to go. We went to Lenny and Joe's Fish Tale for lunch and had the best seafood meal we've had on Long Island Sound. It is blue fish season and blue fish is my all time favorite fish. I had a perfectly sauteed slab of blue fish and Jim had his favorite, clam strips. Heaven. I can't imagine why any of you would be in Clinton, CT looking for a meal, but if you are Lenny and Joe's is it. Short on ambiance, long on good food.
Another short day (2 hours) brought us to the Thimble Islands, rocky 
outcroppings off the Connecticut shore. The islands have houses on them and a water taxi that brings people out from Stoney Creek, CT to them. But the houses have no electricity or running water. Now you'd think under those conditions these would be pretty basic houses, but no. As you can see from the pictures, these are substantial homes. Some have solar panels. The tour 
boats that drive by (every 90 minutes all day long) say that most houses have generators that they don't use often because they are noisy and the gas has to be carried in by hand. Fresh water is either trapped from rain run-off or carried in. All in all it doesn't sound like an ideal vacation, but you certainly are away from it all, if you don't count the dozens of boats, jet-skis, tour boats, etc. in the anchorages surrounding your island.
outcroppings off the Connecticut shore. The islands have houses on them and a water taxi that brings people out from Stoney Creek, CT to them. But the houses have no electricity or running water. Now you'd think under those conditions these would be pretty basic houses, but no. As you can see from the pictures, these are substantial homes. Some have solar panels. The tour 
boats that drive by (every 90 minutes all day long) say that most houses have generators that they don't use often because they are noisy and the gas has to be carried in by hand. Fresh water is either trapped from rain run-off or carried in. All in all it doesn't sound like an ideal vacation, but you certainly are away from it all, if you don't count the dozens of boats, jet-skis, tour boats, etc. in the anchorages surrounding your island.
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