Waiting For Danny

Lou taking me on a "dingy" date in New London, Connecticut. It's great but we always get wet feet.

Waiting for the effects of "Danny" on a mooring in New London, CT.

8-26-09

Milford, Connecticut, is a very cute port. It has the longest village green (except for Boston) in New England with stores and restaurants on both sides. For lunch we found The Rainbow Gardens along the green which was quaint AND delicious.

We had a busy day in Milford. We have three modes of transportation: walking (yuk!), riding our bikes, and going by dingy.......and, we used them all. On the way to the laundromat with our clothes strapped on the back of Lou's bike and in both backpacks, Lou discovered that he had NO brakes on his bike. Fortunately, there was a bike shop "on the green", and he got his back brakes working. The front ones will require a bigger repair. Laundry, hair cuts, lunch and back to the marina. Off we went in the dingy to find the boat store and explore the Wepawaug River.

There are some very strange names in this part of the world. But, some familiar ones too. We were in a town and on a river named Saugatuck.

We carry a large supply of tools, nuts & bolts, and various other "necessary" items on board. This morning Lou needed the most useful one......the duck tape. For some reason the tip of the autohelm arm fell off. Without it to hold the tiller to the autohelm, Lou would have to "man the tiller," and that's pretty tiring. Or.......turn it over to me, and that's not good either. I can't steer a straight coarse to save my soul. When you look at the wake I leave, you would think that it was the path of a drunken sailor. I'm much better at reading or writing the blog or enjoying the sights. We have a following sea today which means that we're surfing down 3' to 4' waves. With me at the helm,, we'd probably broach (that's NOT good). Well, the duck tape seems to be working. It's not pretty, but it's working!

Recently we visited with a Canadian couple on the next boat. Rob got his Masters at U of M in Marine Engineering. That was in the 70s when boat building was going gangbusters. He has designed at C & C, Nunsuch, and Hunter. In fact, his name was published for his design of the Hunter 33. Now he's selling boat building supplies and living in NJ. It was fun hearing about some of his Hunter experiences.

I think the boating people in Connecticut are RICH. I can't believe the docking fees. Essex is more expensive than New York City. We barely traveled up the 400 mile Connecticut River, but it was beautiful with BEEEEE - u - tiful houses. (Must be all that NY money!)

8-29-09

Now we are waiting out our second hurricane or tropical depression (Danny) in New London, CT, on a mooring ball. Apparently the boats were banging around on the docks during the last "blow." One fellow snapped three new docking lines. Depending on how high the winds reach I thinking we'll be safer on the ball. Unfortunately, we can't get Internet on the boat, so it'll be a couple of days before we can give you an update. Live by my philosophy......no news is good news....and......take a nap when things get stressful.

Just let me say before anything goes wrong that this has been a fabulous experience. We met a couple who did the Great Loop in 34 months and loved it! I thought we were doing great at 3 months. We'll be wintering in Bristol, RI, so we only have a couple more weeks of living in 550 square feet with motor noise as our constant background "mood" music.